The O's Lab: A Story of Social Entrepreneurship (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9789577326096)

The O's Lab is a story that seeks to encourage people to live sustainably, by making the best use of existing and even old/used resources around us, including fabric materials, gadgets, bicycles and toys. The story focuses on Jackie, a creative girl who does not like the old-fashioned education system, and how she found her passion and talent in making things (the arts of craftsmanship). She ends up finding a partner and middle-aged women who are discriminated in the workplace or are retired but are still willing to remain active through meaningful work (the aging population trends and opportunities for the silver haired workforce), and how they launched an environmental social enterprise to help encourage citizens to enjoy and appreciate sustainable living.

The comic introduces the concepts such as bricolage (making do with what is at hand) as one among many principles in living sustainably, collaboration with other resource owners, voluntary simplicity concept, different legal vehicles for social enterprise registration (e.g., as non-profit entity, as Benefit Corporation, as private limited company), the logics of environmental social enterprise (e.g., a fusion of environmental logic, social welfare logic, and commercial logics), the concept of empowerment, profit lock and asset lock concepts in social enterprises, open innovation concept, community building, among others. We include reflection pages that summarize key points learned in different stages of the story - from the lens of the narrator.