Career Confessions: The founder of Pass It On® wants to help you make sustainable urban living a reality

Do you like your job? Or wonder what it would be like if you’d gone against your parents’ advice and pursued your dream career? Her World’s Career Confessions column spotlights the professional journeys of its subjects and reveals how each individual’s career path and the choices they have made can have an impact on their personal finances, psychological health, and interpersonal relationships.

The Covid-19 pandemic saw many taking steps out of their comfort zone and exploring different career paths, such as home-based baking or cooking, especially during the lockdown period. For one woman, the pandemic was a time for her to reflect and become more intentional with what she was doing to promote sustainability. Michelle Chow, the founder of Pass It On® & Pass It On Studio, first started her sustainability journey after a trip to Lady Elliot Island. Upon admiring the magnificent corals and making a plan to bring her niece to see them one day, she realised that due to climate change, corals are being bleached and her niece may not be able to see the same view in the future. This gave her the motivation to spread awareness and do her part in protecting our world from further devastation.

For her, what came out of the Covid-19 lockdown was the decision to sell plantable candles. While many often decide to throw the candle holders away after using the candle, Michelle wanted to take a step further and repurpose them instead. Furthermore, she was also in the midst of (and is still) raising funds for the Eden Reforestation project. As such, she decided to create plantable candles and start Pass It On®, Singapore’s first and only plantable candle brand. Since then, Michelle has also started Pass It On Studio and GREEN-HOUSE. Through her brand and initiatives, she aims to bridge the gap between curious consumers and sustainable brands – helping people realise that it is possible to build a sustainable lifestyle, even in an urban city like Singapore. 

Below, Michelle shares more about her career journey, and her hopes to inspire and educate others on sustainability.

Name: Michelle Chow
Highest level of education: Bachelor’s Degree
Current job title and industry: Founder, Pass It On® & Pass It On Studio
Years of experience: 14 years+

1. What do you do, and how would you describe your career? Would you describe it as a job, a career, or a calling that you’re extremely passionate about?

“I’m the founder of Pass It On Studio, Pass It On®, and GREEN-HOUSE. The first entity is a multi-disciplinary creative studio that advocates sustainability through customising circularly designed products & experiences for corporate partners. Pass It On®, is a consumer-facing home and lifestyle brand that provides sustainable alternatives through responsibly crafted products designed to inspire and empower consumers. One of our core products is the Pass It On® Plantable Candle, a first in Singapore that allows consumers to turn the candle holder into a plant pot after the candle has finished burning. Lastly, I am also the founder of GREEN-HOUSE, Singapore’s first and largest experiential retail festival focused on bringing a sustainable urban home to life. We debuted our “shop-the-home” concept in 2022 and will launch our 2024 edition on 13-14 July at New Bahru.

I would describe my career now as an entrepreneur to be all-encompassing: it’s a career, a calling and a passion. My goal is to inspire sustainable urban living and present it as a desirable way to live. I’m excited that Pass It On®, Pass It On Studio and GREEN-HOUSE have collectively helped to spark conversations amongst mass consumers, private corporations and the public sector. I’m always challenging myself and my team to consider how we can effectively inspire and educate on the topic of living more sustainably. We try to communicate in simple terms, to encourage the perspective of sustainable living as a journey and not an end goal. We want to foster community building to stimulate creativity as much as possible around this topic.”

2. You mentioned a trip to Lady Elliot Island inspiring your sustainable journey. Can you elaborate on that experience and how it led to the creation of Pass It On? 

“I was in Shanghai when I found myself exhausted from a non-stop hustle, this was when I decided to take a step back from the fashion world and to take a sabbatical to Australia to recenter myself. I kind of wanted to be away from civilisation for a bit; during this trip, I decided on a whim to visit Lady Elliot Island – I basically looked at the map and tried to find a spot that was as close to deserted as possible; while there, I was blown away by how gorgeous the coral reefs were. I was just thinking that I wanted to bring my niece here when she’s a little older, when it suddenly occurred to me how sad it is that the coral reefs are being bleached, and that she might not actually be able to see them if the devastation of the coral reefs continued.”

“This started my journey into sustainability. In trying to understand how I could contribute to preventing and preserving the coral reefs, I found myself becoming more aware of how we can change and how we can all contribute to preserving our world and preventing further negative impact.”

3. With a background in branding and advertising, particularly in fashion and lifestyle categories, did you face any challenges when switching paths to start your own sustainability-focused business? 

“I think having a background in fashion, branding and advertising was definitely helpful, because it allowed me insight into production and waste. Those 10 years actually drove my conviction to start a business of my own, one that allows me autonomy to attempt to move the needle on the topic of sustainability.”

4. Could you tell us what initially drew you to Plantable Candles as a sustainable product, and how it compares to other sustainable options you considered? Following the launch of the 0.02 Refillable Hand Wash, does it signal a further expansion of your sustainable product line?

“During the pandemic, I was looking around my home for a project to start as a kickstarter to raise funds for the Eden Reforestation project. While the world was shut down, it gave me a blank canvas to think about what could be done, and was a very inspiring and reflective period as I started to see how we might not have easy access to a lot of things that we originally took for granted. I used this thinking to become even more intentional about what I was trying to do and what I wanted to build, and I decided on candles because I had a lot of candles around my home, many of which were near empty or already empty. I realised that I couldn’t bear to throw out many of the holders because they were really well made, but I hadn’t yet found a way to repurpose the containers meaningfully. The idea for plantable candles was driven by the questions of “what to do with the holder”, and “why I was even fund-raising”; it only made sense to create a plantable candle since I was doing a kickstarter for reforestation.”

“Pass It On® has always been about making sustainable urban living a reality, and the way we approached this was to look at things within the home that didn’t necessarily need to be replaced, but were because it’s just the way we’ve always done it - things like single-use tissues, or diapers. With 0.02 Refillable Hand Wash, it was more of “why do we always have to buy a new container”? That’s why we created the perpetual container, and instead of having a liquid-filled plastic bag as a replenishment, we wanted to remove that additional process, which is why we offer powder packs - this means that less carbon is emitted in transport during delivery because not only is the weight reduced, but the space it takes up is also reduced. We chose to use a botanical powder to incorporate nature back into everyday living, and to still carry the reforestation conversation on by calling focus back to it.”

5. What inspired you to organise GREEN-HOUSE and what role does it play in your mission towards sustainability?

“I was inspired to create GREEN-HOUSE because so many of my friends and family would ask me where I got this item, or that, whenever they would visit my home. This led me to see that there was a gap in the market between interested consumers and sustainable alternatives for home and lifestyle products; I wanted to bridge this gap by creating an experience where curious consumers could explorer and engage with ethical brands, and to showcase how attainable it is to build a truly sustainable lifestyle within an urban space.”

“With GREEN-HOUSE, the original idea was to link curious consumers with local options for shopping sustainably through immersive experiences that allowed them to test out a sustainable lifestyle by hosting it in places such as Figment Shophouse for our first edition, and through home-usage concepts at Castlery last year. This year, we’ve expanded GREEN-HOUSE into a festival line-up to reflect the upcycled spaces within our venue partner, New Bahru; with the additional access to a lawn space, we’ve been able to deploy even more creative concepts to expand on the scenarios where we can spark conversations on how to be more sustainable, and to inspire more real-life opportunities with a larger audience by offering pet adoption drives and movie screenings.

We’re hopeful that this new expanded line-up will offer seeds of change to grow even within those who aren’t driven by being eco-friendly or sustainable, in order to drive a shift in mainstream mindset and awareness and to negate the idea that living sustainably is hard, or unachievable.”

6. At GREEN-HOUSE, we see a focus on collaboration for a more sustainable future. Could you elaborate on how you’ve leveraged “glocal” partnerships to bridge the gap between international corporations like Mercedes-Benz and Nespresso and Singapore’s homegrown brands? What impact do you envision these partnerships having on driving public awareness and fostering a global sustainability movement?

“We’ve been lucky to draw the attention of larger corporations like Mercedes-Benz, Samsonite and even Nespresso, as the first sustainability-led retail festival in Singapore. This means that we’ve been extra conscious of our decisions to appoint partners, and what we’re looking for is the synergy and energy in partnership; we want to work with brands who are intentionally trying to understand their green impact, and who want to think outside of branding and marketing buzzwords. We specifically curated local brands that we felt could match that same energy or bring a new level to create thought-provoking exhibits for GREEN-HOUSE, but beyond that, it was an exercise in showcasing how attainable sustainable partnerships can be, and what they can look like. Our goal has always been to make sustainable urban living a reality, and we tried to be very intentional when bridging local brands with international companies, by considering what type of impact we could make, and whether these partnerships were actively aiding the conversation, or if it would just add to the noise. 

We decided to partner Mercedes-Benz with Knock Knock Studio following a successful “Circling Zero” showcase at GREEN-HOUSE 2023. That was the first time Mercedes-Benz had done a showcase outside of their cars globally, and we appreciated the confidence and trust they had in us to make an impactful statement. Combining these factors led us to want to do the same with more brands, such as with Samsonite - we carefully considered the initiatives they already had in place to plan a live-art exhibition with Natalia Tan (NataliaWeaves) to highlight their recycling programme, and with Nespresso, who are already doing a lot with their pods recycling, we wanted to connect their end-users with the reality of what can actually be done through a workshop with Ferticlay and The Freestyle Farmer, to amplify the real-world applications.”

7. What are your thoughts on the future of sustainable living, and how do you see Pass It On® contributing to that future?

“I believe that sustainable urban living is already a reality as mindful consumerism continues to gain momentum among mass consumers. It’s important that we keep having conversations as our understanding of sustainability shifts. As we keep expanding from “what can we do” to “how can we improve”, we’ve also launched Pass It On Studio, where we’re starting to incorporate home and living elements through the introduction of our biocomposite material, which is created from food-waste foraged from landfills combined with resin; these materials can be turned into housewares like plates and bowls, which guests can experience at the Mercedes-Benz Kantine experience at GREEN-HOUSE, and can also be incorporated in renovation as an alternative-material countertop or even used in building furniture. We’ve created a real-world application exhibition for guests to explore through our “Renewed and Reimagined” exhibition in collaboration with Castlery, where we upcycled used homeroom furniture.”

8. What advice would you give to individuals who want to live more sustainably and potentially create a positive impact like Pass It On®?

“Being mindful and intentional is very important to living sustainably; a key aspect of sustainable living is not only about purchasing products from producers or brands that are sustainable or ethical but also being acutely aware of the ripple effects from actions in your daily life.

I truly believe that every little action matters, and what this means is to be actively aware of how our tiniest decisions have a ripple effect, and can make a positive impact. Sustainability is not an overnight overhaul, but taking small steps to ensure that those changes will last longer, to really ensure that we’re being sustainable in the long run.”

9. What are some of your personal favourite Pass It On products and why?

“I actually use all our products at home! From our Pass It On 0.02 Hand Wash Set to our Plantable Candles, and I even use our bio-composite material dishware like plates and cups designed by Pass It On Studio. As an entrepreneur in the sustainability space, I’ve had the chance to meet and work with some other wonderful local brands, and there are some that I actively use in my day-to-day life. 

In my fridge, you’ll find Oatbedient oat milk, a local oat and plant-based product brand that is constantly exploring new ways to bring nature’s gift of goodness to consumers. I really appreciate their clean-labelling approach. In all my wardrobes, you’ll find Slurpy Bear dehumidifiers; Slurpy Bear is a local brand that was launched in 2021 that offers eco-friendly alternatives for daily household products that can generate a lot of waste. I really like their eco-friendly dehumidifier refills that can be used with single-use moisture absorber boxes; so it allows for adaptive reuse! Also in my closet are socks from Talking Toes, which takes the humble sock one step further by transforming it into a symbol of positive change. House of Holly, which offers a unique collection of sustainable premium bamboo essentials from linens to pillows and bolsters, actually has pride of place on my bed; I like that their super-soft material is hypo-allergenic, and their prints and designs are also really pretty. 

I use Suu Balm for my eczema; Suu Balm is actually formulated by Singapore’s own National Skin Center, and whenever I get any bug bites, I reach for my Boo Boo Balm by A for Apothecary, which offers a clean, ethical skincare range that’s suitable for all ages, from babies to adults. Like our 0.02 Hand Wash set which uses powder sachets, I actually also use The Powder Shampoo, which offers vegan, cruelty-free powder-to-foam shower swaps, and in my bathroom, you’ll also find Freedom Cups’ menstrual cup, which is a project that aims to get feminine hygiene goods to women in less privileged countries. 

We’ve curated a really exciting line-up for GREEN-HOUSE 2024, and I’m excited for people to discover some of my favourite brands and more for themselves across 13 & 14 July at New Bahru.”