Banpu Public Company Limited, a leading integrated energy solutions company, in collaboration with ChangeFusion reveals the list of 8 social enterprises selected from a total of 61 SEs as finalists to join ‘incubation program’ at the 12^th “Banpu Champions for Change” project. All teams will receive intensive entrepreneurial potential development with an initial funding of 80,000 baht per team to start business development and test business operations in real market. The project aims at cultivating and elevating the potential of social enterprises to become ‘leaders of sustainable change’ in order to build a strong economic and social foundation for our country.

Mr. Rattapon Sukhunthee, Head of Corporate Communications, Banpu Public Company Limited, said “This year, there are many interesting early-stage ventures with different strengths and selling points working on various issues that can respond to current problems. In the process of selecting the finalists, the committees have considered various factors from their business concept and business details to monetization model and how they can make a positive impact on society as well as the strength of the team. The 8 finalists will undergo intensive incubation and potential fulfillment program starting with the development of a market test plan, followed by entrepreneur potential development and business expansion plan development. After that, the committees will select three finalists to receive a fund of 250,000 baht. We hope that the incubation process throughout the course of this project will help each SE to create sustainable change in their communities. This is in line with Banpu’s determination and a celebration of our 40^th anniversary to create a better quality of life for people.”

Here is the list of 8 finalists that will join the incubation program at the 12^th Banpu Champions for Change.

• Profession and community development
  • Khirifarm: a community marketplace – a marketplace that creates opportunities and improves the quality of life for youth in Kalasin who are at risk of dropping out of the education system because they live in poverty, allowing them to have a career and income by growing mushrooms from rice straw, teaching them to learn how to add value to agricultural products, and building a strong network of farmers in Kalasin.
  • SoMush: ‘mushroom farm’ platform for Thai farmers – a comprehensive platform that provides consultation on mushroom cultivation and harvesting techniques, and also provides necessary knowledge to successfully navigate the trail period and generate a revenue of 7,000 – 10,000 baht within the initial investment period of three months. Once the milestone is achieved, the farmers can independently grow their businesses, while the platform continues to facilitate product distribution through its network.

• Environment
  • Termnaam: cleaning powder innovation – a business that develops and distributes cleaning powders to reduce plastic waste from utensil cleaner packaging and also lessen energy consumption in the transportation and distribution process.
  • M2Care: a handcrafted business that revitalizes leftover fabric from textile industry – a business focuses on producing and distributing fabric bags as well as other products using leftover fabric scraps as components to create new items. The primary goal is to reduce waste from the textile industry while generating income for unemployed skilled workers within the community.

• Health
  • OYU Natural: creative tourism for senior citizens – the development of community tourist attractions to improve quality of life of the elderly citizens in Sri Prachan Old Market Community, Suphan Buri, allowing them to spend their free time doing activities together in the community and reduce loneliness and risky behaviors that affect physical and mental health.
  • Sex-O-Phone: sexual health hotline for youth by medical personnel – A safe space that allows teenagers to ask questions or ask for advice about their sexual health and raises awareness and provides solutions to sexual problems in various aspects.
  • Glowup: creative therapist service to heal and rehabilitate working-age adults through self-development activities – a service that provides activities including art therapy, flower arrangement, sand tray therapy. People at this age are at risk of having mental health issue due to stress from professional and personal lives. Creative activities, at the very least, can help them to discover themselves, open up, and be able to manage their emotions.

• Society
  • Kensent: ‘Bai Sri’ comprehensive sourcing platform – a platform that will source all components for Thai blessing ceremony. It will generate revenue by collecting booking fees while also setting standard of accuracy for Bai Sri in order to preserve the true wisdom of this old tradition.

For progress on the 8 finalists and more information about the 12^th Banpu Champions for Change, please log on to www.facebook.com/banpuchampions.

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About Banpu

Banpu Public Company Limited is a leading integrated energy solutions company with 3 core groups of businesses: energy resource, energy generation and energy technology in Thailand, Indonesia, China, Australia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Japan, the United States of America and Vietnam.

“The power of knowledge is the power of change and development”

Banpu believes that “learning” is an important foundation for the development of “people”, which will drive communities and society towards sustainable development in long term. Banpu’s CSR projects in all countries, therefore, focus on supporting and promoting continuous learning among young generations and communities in various forms, allowing them to learn from real experiences as much as from their daily lives inside and outside classrooms. They are encouraged to practice and develop their potential as well as life skills while always being curious to research, learn and discover knowledge on their own as much as with others.