A young Malaysian entrepreneur finds herself and a way to give back to society in a most exciting way.
YOUNG Jamie Lim Wei-Li certainly has her head screwed on right. Instead of starting a business and waiting for it to take off before giving back to society, the 30-year-old decided to do so from Day One.
Lim, who lives in Massachusetts in the United States, launched her company, Kayu, last October in conjunction with World Sight Day. She designs and sells sunglasses for US$180 (RM632) a pair and her company donates US$50 (RM175) from every pair sold to fund sight-restoring surgery in the developing world.
Jamie Lim Wei-Li, the creater and founder of Kayu. “I always believed in having a company that built social responsibility into the very fabric of its business,” Lim says in an e-mail interview from Boston.
The middle child of three siblings was born in Houston. Her father, who worked as an engineer for an oil company, was transferred there for a few years and when Lim was two-years-old, her family moved back to Kuala Lumpur. When she was nine, the family moved to Hong Kong and she later returned to the US to complete her tertiary education.
Lim graduated with a BA in Economics from the University of Texas in Austin and then joined the corporate world as an IT consultant for several years.
“I envisioned working at a place where environmental and social responsibility were equally as important as the bottom-line, and business would be a force for positive change. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a place which lived up to my ideals, so I decided to create Kayu,” she explains.
Why Kayu (which means “wood’’ in Bahasa Malaysia)?
Well, Lim explains that she toyed with several names, including “pure” and “aman” (peace) for her range, but a good friend came up with the name “kayu” and she liked the fact that the name had an Asian feel and conveyed an affinity to nature.
Leaving a stable job and embarking on an unconventional business idea was not as easy as it initially seemed and Lim recalls that there were always people who felt her brainchild was crazy. But she chose to follow her heart and believe in herself.
Kayu frames are made from sustainable bamboo and for each pair sold, RM175 is donated to Unite For Sight to fund sight-restoring surgery in the developing world. She bounced ideas off her husband, Eric Tan, 32 – whom Lim credits as her biggest support and inspiration – and eventually took only about a year to plan, fund and start the company all on her own.
“The biggest challenge was finding the time to devote to doing that as I was working full-time, and also studying for my Masters of Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia,” she says.
“The toughest thing about starting and running the business is that I am responsible for everything, from sourcing materials to quality control, accounts, PR and marketing.”
Kayu currently sells just one product in one design – a pair of sunglasses handcrafted from bamboo – but Lim says she is working on several styles which she hopes to launch this year.
Lim has christened her first pair “Rawa” – after Pulau Rawa, a palm-fringed white beach island off the coast of Mersing in Johor – and chose to use bamboo for the frame because, “it grows twice as fast as a tree, and restores itself in just five years. It requires less energy to harvest and produce than most lumber products.
“Also, it can grow naturally without pesticide or fertiliser. Bamboo is sustainable because it can be used with minimal long-term effects on the environment,” Lim explains.
Her sunglasses are made of Maozhu bamboo, which is sourced from Wenzhou province in China, and her product is also manufactured there.
Lim’s certainly made an impression in more ways than one – her sustainable bamboo sunglasses have been featured in fashion magazines such as InStyle and Cosmopolitan, as well as The South China Morning Post.
Like all companies in the US, Lim’s is subject to audit by the Inland Revenue Services (IRS). So, every month, she sends a report and donation to Unite for Sight, which is a certified non-profit organization, and is also subject to audit by the government.
“I chose Unite for Sight because I wanted to donate to a cause that was directly related to my product. Eight percent of blindness is curable or preventable, yet 36 million people are needlessly blind due to a lack of funds. Unite for Sight has sponsored over 24,000 sight-restoring surgeries worldwide,” Lim says.
The sunglasses are available online and sold in various boutiques across the US, UK and Brazil.
“I have received some orders from Malaysians, and I hope that this will increase as the ‘green’ market in Asia matures,” she says.
Despite the common perception that living a “green” life requires much sacrifice, she believes that each person has the responsibility and ability to invoke a cultural shift.
On her blog, this avid greenie also shares information on her exciting discoveries, including Ecofont, a Netherlands-based company that has developed a print that uses less ink, and a boutique that sells stylish recycled polyester jackets which donates a percentage of its sales to an NGO.
“Even simple things like turning off your tap when brushing your teeth, sorting and recycling your rubbish, and moving from conspicuous consumption to conscious consumption can have a transformative effect on the earth,” she adds.
In her case, opting out of the rat race and choosing a better quality of life has certainly been inspiring.
“I don’t miss corporate life at all. I have complete control over how and where I spend my time. When it’s sunny, I don’t need to be indoors and instead I can take my laptop to an outdoor café, people watch and enjoy the sunshine.”
“The thing I most enjoy about the business is that I am doing something which aligns to my core values and ethics, and I am happy to be living the life I was meant to be.”
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