Information REVEALED (Naming Sponsor)

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 7:19 PM

Finally!

We attended the naming sponsor’s 30th anniversary dinner where we were presented with a $100,000 cheque for our ECO House: EcOasis Project.


Here are the pictures. And I am sure you can tell who was the kind corporate partner who has sponsored us as part of their 30th Anniversary.



Just a few days back, we rushed to make a plaque with Peter Kiong (AKA Uncle Kiong) to present a token of appreciation to our Naming Sponsor for the ECO House.

And we concluded that this looked the BEST!:
The cheque was presented by the Managing Director of Mitsubishi Electric Pte Ltd, Mr. Takashi Fujii, and he too received the plaque that we specially made for them.

I must say the spirit of this company was very clear. They are a very humble and sincere. This is truly reflected by the MD himself when he took the lead to walk down the aisle. They appreciate every one of their clients that has helped them grow all these years.

Here is another other picture of the dinner:

A close up on ANOTHER eco effort that Mitsubishi Electric Pte Ltd embarked on. Check this out:


With this, we've finally confirmed our naming sponsor commitment.

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BCA Pitching in... deeper

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 8:50 PM

The meeting with BCA went great. They confirmed their support to the ECO House , agreed to put in some funding and expedite our application process to build the structure. So we will expect the building to go up by end of the year.

The targeted launch date will be during Clean and Green Week. And by then, the ECO House would be fully functional.


BCA is also looking at ECO Singapore's ECO House to promote green living.However, in my opinion, the component that is lacking is the outreach.

We will be following up with BCA closely on the further funding support and look forward to have a combined press release soon. And we do look forward to have the press pick this little project up and feature it.

A great push and support here.

Moving on, we need to find funding to support a full time staff to oversee the maintenance and running of the programs at the ECO House and garden.

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Continuing the sail in new troubled waters.....

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Monday, June 18, 2007 at 11:39 AM

During the Ecofriend Award on Thursday, the Singapore Science Centre’s (SSC) number 2, Mr Clarence Sirisena, had agreed to allow us to build the ECO House on their land. Though we were already in the midst of discussions, this helps to affirm the commitment of the SSC.

We had a very fruitful meeting on Saturday. Everyone in the team was hyped up over the new source of "support" we are getting from various avenues. And to top that, we will be working to have a company that recycled chipped wood to sponsor our flooring and walls!

And Wee Chang has managed to have his wine company fully sponsor their wine crates for us to build the interior of the ECO House. Well done!

The meeting went great and we delegated tasks accordingly. And all is set to go once we get the money in on Friday! The next thing I had to settle was the EXACT location of in the ECO House within the SSC grounds. The team preferred it to be in the ECO Garden with the grass instead of on a concrete floor, so that it will have a greener feel when we grow the green walls and roofs. Good idea! Let's cross fingers we get it from SSC.

The next thing we had to settle was to have a presentable plaque to present to our CONFIRMED Jap Sponsor Co This would be ECO’s very first plaque ever presented to a corporate. But it is good! We should do something really presentable to appreciate their support in this initiative. And so we had to have something that looks really good. We want them to feel we sincerely appreciate their contribution.

So went shopping around...And finally! After 3 days of hunting and searching at various shops and looking at different designs, we (or at least I) finally found one that looked really presentable. Once it is done, will post a picture of it here. :)

When all seemed smooth sailing, a new piece of news fell on our lap. The cost of steel had gone up and so did concrete. What we had factored on as 60K for the basic structure is now up to at least 75K. And we needed to rework the specifications a little to have it at that price.

So our sums were initially:
1. 20k for the PV installation.
2. 60k for basic structure.
3. 10K for the green roofings
4. 10k for the retrofitting of the Green walls, Rainwater harvesting system

So the 100K at least allowed us to cover the basic building costs.

Now with the basic structure up to 75k, we have a major problem. We need more funding.

I was thinking about sharing with the CONFIRMED Jap. Co about our situation, but was advised that they might think we are pulling a fast one. So I guess an alternative here now is to find more money.

New troubled waters it is...but we sail on, sail forward. Let's get the building going, the main structure up and we can work the rest out along the way.

Meeting up with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) tomorrow, hopefully we can get some level of support from there. Or at least some advice.

Towards new fronts! Staying focused to make sure this gets going forward! :)

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And after the long wait...

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Thursday, June 14, 2007 at 2:50 AM

We waited and waited. I wanted to drop them an email to check with them for the results. After submission of the proposal, one of their staff still called us a couple of time to clarify a few facts. Then there was silence. I was so tempted to bug them but I thought, let's wait till over the weekend.

And on Tuesday morning, we received the email....

Date: 12th June 2007
From: Director of Potential Jap Co.
To: ECO
***In Generic Points only***
-----------------

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Intensive FIGHT....

By Wilson Ang a.k.a ShamU on Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 2:36 AM

Ok...after the site recce, we went to check with SSC if they'd allow us to use the shed to covert it to an eco house. Upfront they mentioned they use it quite often. Out of what we assumed. Went down the following week and saw them using it....seeing the seems dilapidated shed is actually in ACTION!!!!

So back to the drawing board.

So we resubmitted the working drawings based on the Jap company's intention to have it as permanent. But we were struck with some level of "bad" news which dismayed us a little. Here is the email we got back from them:

Date: 28th May 2007
From: Senior Ex of the potential Jap Co Sponsor
To: ECO
***In Generic Points only***
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Dear Wilson,

- Just discussed with his Director

- Proposed amount of >S$200K is way above target

-Difficult to come up with such a large sum at one go as well as to justify this amount.

- Refocus on objective and contributions to the Eco-house.

- Propose an amount of S$80K to be donated to ECO for the Eco-house.

- This amount will included the PV system and structure. I am planning for a 3kW PV system that will cost S$36K. Thus, an additional amount of S$44K will be available for the Eco-house.

- Looking at the possibility to start at a smaller scale according to the original plan which is based on the short term, interim structure.

- If after a year everything is smooth and depending on the response of the Eco-house, we will decide whether to make it permanent.

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Oh my word!!!!! It means we have to go back to work on a temp structure. We definately understand it is a little risky and they are concern since this is the first time we are working with them. So we replied to say we'd work back based on the initial proposal of a 3M x 9M temp structure (at least for a year) and will get back to them ASAP.

The following are the correspondence. The names have been MASKED to protect the innocent.

Date: 29th MAY 2007
From: ECO
To: Senior Ex of the potential Jap Co Sponsor
--------------
Dear W******,

Thank you for taking the the time to discuss it further and email us an update. We do share the same sentiments. Moving forward, we will based on your request and come up with another proposal and send to all of you ASAP. And we'd also do our best to include a time line of what your end can expect for the completion of this initiative. And where possible, a visual.

With Warm Regards,
Wil

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DATE: Same day just only 3hours after i dropped the earlier email.
From: Director of the Potential Jap Co.
To: ECO
***In Generic Points only***
--------------

Dear Wilson ,

- Thanks for your prompt reply.

- Need proposal by this friday for approval

--------------

And so we called for a meeting to further discuss about the new TEMP structure this time and work out a budget. As advice from our contractor..it is IMPOSSIBLE at ALL to have only 44K left to build the temp structure.

Some pictures of discussion:




Hence we rework out finances and allocated the funds again and re-proposed. Here is the email sent to them:

Date: 4th June 2007
From: ECO
To: Everyone in the loop from the potential Jap Co. Sponsor
-----------------
Dear F******* and All,

Apologies for the delay. Had some problems on our end with the server. Or at least my email was not very accessible.

Attached are the required documents:
1. Revised proposal
2. Project Timeline

We understand the concerns on your end but would also like to highlight that on our end here, what we hope to build up is an ECO House where the youth can come forth to use the place and learn how they can not only save energy but also various sustainable habits they can learn when they leave. Hence, the EcOasis would need to have other components built into it. After contacting various contractors for a revised price within such a short time, this is the lowest that we've managed to find in the market to build a temporary structure.

As spoken with W******, we would hope to look at a lower costs PV system and lighting to be built into it. The current one is way too expensive. And with 44K, we are not even able to even build up the basic structure. Least say the other components we hope to build in it. Our initial costing based on the first structure is only 10K.

Thank you for your time and patience.

With Warm Regards,
Wil
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Now....let's just cross our fingers and hope they would buy into it.

*GOD BLESS*

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