Title: Disrupting Ocean Conservation with innovative solutions. Mathilda Dsilva, Founder Ocean Purpose Project
What is Ocean Purpose Project:
The Ocean Purpose Project (OPP) is a Singaporean social enterprise driving ocean conservation and plastic pollution prevention via disruptive and creative projects with mass scale impact. OPP’s unique selling point is to use innovative technology that is yet to enter the Singapore market, such as “plastic to fuel” and bioplastics. The organisation also holds frequent offline and online events to educate Singaporeans on its sustainability efforts. When COVID-19 hit this year, OPP was unable to carry out its usual projects as the beaches were closed. This, however, did not deter the organisation from contributing to social causes in Singapore. Its projects that aimed to help the migrant worker community saw it win the silver award in the Marketing Excellence Awards 2020, for the category “Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility”. Its efforts were also recognised in the category of Excellence in Mobile Marketing as a finalist.
Who is Mathilda Dsilva?:
Although she is now a professional environmentalist, the 38-year-old wears many hats and has seemingly boundless energy. In her career and personal life, she has been a singer, actress, TV producer, radio DJ, social media manager, athlete and now, she’s a full-time social entrepreneur.
Mathilda Dsilva is known in Singapore as a Singapore Idol contestant and TV Producer with Mediacorp and Radio DJ. She moved into social media in 2014, becoming the Head of Community for Mediacorp, and the Head of Community and Customer Advocacy for StarHub. Today Mathilda is the Founder and CEO of the Ocean Purpose Project and uses her talents in the following ways:
Sustainability & Social Media Strategy
Plastic Pyrolysis (Plastic to Fuel) Advocacy
Community Management Coaching
Mathilda is also an avid paddling enthusiast who dragonboated competitively for 7 years till tragedy struck. She lives by the beach and still loves the ocean, trying to save it through her company.
Her life changed when a fateful dragonboat race in the idyllic yet polluted waters of Boracay, Philippines set her life on a journey of finding purpose through sickness. She aims to right the wrongs of water pollution by creating multiple purpose projects focused on ocean conservation and reducing water pollution.
Mathilda can speak on a wide range of topics, namely on how social entrepreneurship needs to work in partnership more than ever and disrupt itself with the latest technology. Since founding Ocean Purpose Project she is a highly sought after keynote speaker and panel hostin English and Bahasa at COP27, G20, UN Ocean Conference, Duke Blue Economy Summit, AIS Forum among others.
Keywords: Plastic to Fuel, Seaweed and Seashell Bioplastics, Coral and Seagrass Reforestation
Quotes from Mathilda:
“Everyone said I was crazy to leave a dream job as a social media strategist at DBS bank in November 2019 to focus on my social enterprise, Ocean Purpose Project. We incorporated the company on 3rd March 2020, then COVID19 hit. Within 2 weeks we lost 200 clients. I felt I was being pulled under wave after wave of uncertainty, unable to step onto the sands of the beach during lockdown. Despite the tsunami of challenges, I thought to myself- let’s use the resources at hand for us to address the immediate need of the community. That’s what led our hundreds of volunteers to step forward and send 220,000 meals and 5000 sets of shampoo, shavers and soaps to migrant workers in lockdown. I will never forget the kindness of one migrant worker who messaged me to take care of my health, saying ‘I’m proud of you’ and ‘Long Life’ as we scrambled to send them supplies. I’ll be honest, those words of kindness from those most in need helped me to weather the storm”
“There are thousands of things happening at any one time in my life. You can accuse me of a lot of things, but you can never accuse me of being lazy or, like, just wanting to nua (slack) all the time,”
“Whatever I wanted to do, I just go out and do it. Sitting and waiting for someone to deem me worthy for a chance isn’t my style.”- https://eugephemisms.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/paddles-microphones-qa-mathilda-dsilva-speaks-to-eugephemisms/
“Sustainability as we know it needs to be disrupted. It’s not just the domain of tree-huggers or corporates trying to make themselves look good on the ESG spreadsheet. It’s about creating a Blue Ocean of possibility, rewriting what “Business As Usual” is all about. Ocean Purpose Project’s goal is to bring about disruptive change in the way we manage the problems of marine pollution.”
“ I want to go to work in shorts and slippers. Be by or on the water everyday. Working for a purpose with driven individuals with a high sense of integrity. That’s the life I crafted for myself- yes it comes at a price, no sparkling pay packet like before. But freedom to work, live and play the way I define it? That’s priceless”
Mathilda’s Milestones:
2021
Facebook Community Manager Certified
WSQ Advanced Certificate in Learning and Performance (ACLP)
2020
Winner Global Brands Magazine (Gold) & Marketing Excellence Award (Silver)
Accredited EIT( European Institute of Innovation and Technology), a body of the European Union, Climate KIC Climate Coach.
GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) Sustainability Certification
Host of A Whole New World, weekly sustainability Livestream show- People’s Association
Leading Pasir Ris GRC Sustainability Action Work Group
Spearheaded CSR send 220,000 meals and 5000 toiletries packs to migrant workers during lockdown
Launched Ocean Purpose Project-self funded
2019 DBS Sustainability & Social Media Strategy
PromaxBDA Judge India- Integrated Marketing & Social Media
Launched MarZel, Social Enterprise Business Enabler & Media StartUp
2018 Head of StarHub Community. Built & launched StarHub's 1st Social Media Advocacy program in 6 months- HubSquad
2016 Speaker BroadcastAsia 7th Annual Creative Content Production Conference
First batch of AsiaPac Squared Online Digital Marketing course by Google.
2015 - 2016 National: GE2015, NDP 2015, SEAGAMES2015, RIO Olympics 2016, PARALYMPICS 2016
Voted #2 of Mumbrella's 10 most engaged marketers on LinkedIn
