Greenomy is a small group tak­ing steps towards big changes and they need your help.

“The act is simple – order the food and make the demand to have the it served on our own con­tain­ers.” Says pro­ject man­ager Cath­er­ine Chin | Image court­sey of Greenomy

Greenomy is a Malay­sian col­lect­ive encour­aging cre­at­ive envir­on­mental aware­ness and sus­tain­ab­il­ity in busi­ness. The group reaches audi­ences through flash-mob–inspired hap­pen­ings organ­ised via social media sites. We talk to Green Mob pro­ject man­ager Cath­er­ine Chin about their approach.

Can you tell us about the latest Green Mob, the McDonald’s project?

In this pro­ject, all par­ti­cipants were required to either bring their own cut­lery from home or 100% bio­de­grad­able con­tain­ers [into the McDon­alds]. The act is simple – order the food and make the demand to have the it served on our own con­tain­ers. The essence of the pro­ject is to cap­ture everyone’s reac­tions to our act. There are seven of us who par­ti­cip­ated in [this] Green Mob.

Is there a viable altern­at­ive to the types of pack­aging fast food out­lets cur­rently use?

We believe that McDon­ald, even though it is a fast food res­taur­ant, can still use reusable pack­aging, or mater­i­als that are 100% bio­de­grad­able, to serve food. A company’s con­cerns over the envir­on­ment and soci­ety at large deeply influ­ence con­sumers’ beha­viours. An image of the cor­por­a­tion is pos­it­ively cor­rel­ated with effort exer­ted in green ini­ti­at­ives. Con­sequently, cor­por­a­tions are indir­ectly being pushed to ini­ti­ate green activ­it­ies. They [com­pan­ies] under­stand the under­ly­ing effects that will sur­face if they do not do so.

Do you believe that your mes­sage trans­lates to people want­ing to inspire change in other East Asian countries?

Yes of course. We want to inspire more indi­vidu­als and organ­isa­tions to do the same as us and extend the effects to the world if pos­sible. What we did in Green Mob is just an expres­sion. If this expres­sion can go wider in its scope and move the soci­ety, we have reached our ulti­mate goal.

What’s next for Greenomy? How can people get involved?

We hope to do more environmental-based aware­ness activ­it­ies through cre­at­ing altern­at­ives to exist­ing beha­viours and we may be look­ing for­ward to have the second Green Mob really soon. Every­one is invited to par­ti­cip­ate in com­ing activities.

Check out Greenomy’s video of their McDonald’s inter­ven­tion (above — it’s worth click­ing just to see how the staff react to the Green Mob’s request to be served on metal and bio­de­grad­able plates) to see just how easy it is to start your own behaviour-changing flash mob. Could this work in your city?

What to know more? Fol­low Greenomy on Twit­ter and on Face­book to learn about upcom­ing events and to find out how you can get involved.