Fun-filled food festival near MBS has booth that makes you rethink lifestyle choices & plantable papers that grow into wildflowers

Get inspired as you feast.

| Zhangxin Zheng | Sponsored | June 24, 2022, 06:37 PM

Have you tried to convince someone to become more environmentally conscious, but, for the longest time, failed to grab their interest?

Perhaps a food festival will do the trick in helping them better appreciate the topic of sustainability.

More specifically, it may appeal to those who have yet to jump on the sustainability bandwagon.

Learning about sustainability at GastroBeats

GastroBeats, which takes place right next to Marina Bay Sands at Bayfront, is a lifestyle festival for those who are looking for good local food, good vibes and good music.

But if you think that’s all they offer, you’re wrong.

The festival also has elements and booths that encourage festival goers to spare a thought for the Earth as they enjoy themselves at one of the largest outdoor festivals since the start of the pandemic.

At the festival, you can enjoy iced drinks or chilled acai bowls made with fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown away simply because they do not look good enough to be displayed on the shelves.

For example, here are some interesting, sustainability-focused enterprises that you can find at GastroBeats.

A booth that reveals the carbon footprint of our everyday choices

One unique booth at the festival is an interactive art installation by DBS.

Titled “A Brighter World”, this is a booth that you definitely shouldn’t miss out on.

The installation informs festival goers about the estimated carbon emissions of various lifestyle choices and has a wall full of tabs that resemble post-it notes.

Each tab contains a fun not-so-fun fact such as the carbon emissions produced from six cups of bubble tea, which would take a year for a tree to remove.

To put this into context, some of the bubble tea addicts among us may take just a week or less to gulp down six cups of bubble tea.

Besides bubble tea, you can also learn about the estimated carbon footprint of other common everyday choices such as eating fast food, buying clothes and going on a holiday.

A majority of us make these choices without much thought, not because we don’t care, but perhaps because we don’t know how to take intangible carbon emissions into account.

The information on these tabs are useful for helping us visualise the environmental impact of these decisions.

Await the wildflowers to grow

After all the tabs are peeled off from the wall, a mural will be unveiled.

Don’t throw away the tab that you’ve just removed though, because these tabs are plantable.

Yup, you’ve read right – just soak the tab, plant it in a pot of soil and you will get a surprise souvenir weeks later, as the seeds within the paper grow into beautiful wildflowers.

Live Better by thinking more for the environment

As part of DBS’ LiveBetter initiative, this installation hopes to raise awareness of the carbon emissions that we unwittingly contribute to in our daily lives and encourage people to make more environmentally-friendly choices.

According to a Consumer Sustainability Survey conducted by the bank in July 2021 with 1,025 respondents, 73 per cent of Singaporeans are willing to adopt a green lifestyle, but many have yet to find the right channels to do so.

To address this gap, the bank has created DBS LiveBetter, a one-stop digital platform on the DBS digibank app.

Beyond raising awareness about sustainability issues in our midst, LiveBetter also aims to make it easy, convenient and intuitive for users to take action and make a difference.

Whether you’re looking to invest, drive or renovate a house, there are suggestions on the platform about how you can do so more sustainably.

You can also access eco-friendly living tips and insights, or contribute to social or environmental causes that you care about.

Most recently, two new features were added to the platform – Track Better and Offset Better.

Track Better auto-calculates your estimated carbon footprint each month based on your DBS/POSB debit and credit card spend.

For those who wish to take things a step further, you can even neutralise your estimated carbon emissions by contributing to projects that reduce carbon emissions or increase carbon storage, such as tree planting and renewable energy projects, through the Offset Better feature.

If you are visiting GastroBeats this weekend, do remember to drop by the “A Brighter World” installation, get hold of your plantable tab, and scan the QR code to find out more about how you can play a part in creating a better world via DBS LiveBetter.

The writer of this sponsored article is waiting for her wildflowers to blossom.

All images via Mothership