The Sustainability Leadership Youth A-List 2025: A display of resilience and leadership in times of uncertainty

The Sustainability Leadership
Youth A-List 2025:
A display of resilience and leadership
in times of uncertainty

From tackling the fast fashion crisis to powerful storytelling, this year’s list recognises the work of young innovators and trailblazers pioneering sustainable solutions for long-lasting impact.

By Mark Rao
30 May 2025

Young climate activists and business leaders are finding themselves confronted by an unstable and rapidly evolving world. Globally, the overwhelming impacts of a cost of living crisis have been pulling youths away from the climate movement. Yet in Asia, despite shifting commitments, there remains a group of youth leaders who continue to stay the fight – driving change, inspiring action and redefining what resilient leadership looks like.

From converting plastic waste into sustainable building materials to empowering migrant workers to support the promotion of eco-conscious practices, these young changemakers are guided by the unwavering belief that a sustainable future is within reach – no matter who you are or how trying the times.

Now in its sixth edition, the Youth A-List recognises exceptional practitioners and leaders aged 30 and below who have delivered real-world impact across public policy, business and civil society in Asia Pacific. Nominated through a rigorous judging and selection process, these individuals prove that long-lasting, measurable impact is possible – even in the face of adversity.

"Be it creating new sustainable materials to pivoting their family business towards sustainability, it’s really inspiring to know we have young people in the region who care enough to do something practical and purposeful,” said Martin Tan, chief executive officer for The Majurity Trust and this year's Sustainability Leadership Youth A-List judge.

"In a world full of noise and ideas, it’s really heartening and inspiring to see young people not only talk about what they want to do but actually dedicating their time and resources in making things happen."
Martin Tan, chief executive officer, The Majurity Trust

Over 60 per cent of the world’s youth live in Asia Pacific. These young leaders are seen as pivotal in advancing the global goal of sustainable development – a pressing need as climate change, environmental challenges and social inequities continue to worsen.

This year’s Youth A-List winners work across the corporate and civil society spheres to push the envelope on sustainability.

The Youth A-List 2025 includes:

Cynthia Handriar Wijaya, chief corporate officer, Daya Selaras Group

Cynthia Handriar Wijaya's strong belief in the need for zero waste solutions has seen her make serious strides in tackling Indonesia's waste problem.

After graduating as valedictorian from Macquarie University, the accounting student traded spreadsheets for sustainability, transforming her family’s 30-year-old paper business into a circular economy pioneer in her home country of Indonesia.

Under her leadership, Daur Ulang Selaras, a subsidiary of corrugated carton manufacturer Daya Selaras Group (DSG), recycled 67,000 tonnes of paper waste in 2024 – saving the equivalent of 1.1 million trees and offsetting 16.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to numbers reported by the company. She also spearheaded RE-DUS – a business-to-business (B2B) application that allows users in the Jabodetabek, Cikarang, Karawang and Bandung regions to trade their waste for money to support their livelihoods.

Cynthia said RE-DUS allows various stakeholders – from individuals to small and medium-sized enterprises – to earn additional income while contributing to circular waste solutions.

"RE-DUS first started around two years ago when we decided to share our closed loop system with the larger ecosystem outside of DSG. This has allowed more people to be on board with the (idea of) waste paper circularity," she told Eco-Business.

Indonesia also generates approximately 6.8 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, and the majority of it is not collected or disposed safely. Now processing plastics alongside paper, RE-DUS collaborates with over 300 partners, from e-commerce players to recycling start-ups and non-governmental organisations such as the Indonesia Packaging Recovery Organisation, in a bid to scale its "waste-to-wealth" platform.

Cynthia Handriar Wijaya's work focuses on creating a circular value chain in Indonesia's industrial paper sector.

Gladys Llanes channels the power of narrative to uplift and empower marginalised and overlooked groups.

Gladys Llanes, co-founder and head of media, Diinsider

Gladys Llanes grew up on the fringes of Mindanao's conflict zones and witnessed the struggles of marginalised communities in the Philippines. These early experiences ignited her passion to harness the power of storytelling for sustainable change.

At just 20, she co-founded Diinsider – a media and communications platform focusing on stories with real-world impact. Eight years on, Diinsider has earned recognition as a partner for global organisations like the United Nations and the Gates Foundation – helping them amplify grassroots voices while driving measurable outcomes.

Llanes emphasised the importance of staying attuned to global developments in uncertain times.

"We are shifting our mindset and thinking about solutions. How can we make better stories that are aligned with what's happening to the world?," she said.

According to Llanes, Diinsider helped its partners save US$1.5 million when delivering social outcomes through its in-house social accounting tools, ensuring the economic sustainability of these social initiatives.

Today, Diinsider operates with an annual revenue averaging between US$700,000 to $1 million, providing over 50 full- and part-time jobs and leading 50 impactful projects every year.

Llanes also spearheads Diinsider Life, now a platform with a reach of over 200,000 readers. It publishes stories amplifying the importance of sustainability, green careers and community voices. As a filmmaker, she has produced documentaries. Her 2023 film, Bantay Bukid or Forest Guards, exposed the dangers faced by Philippines forest rangers and led to the government looking into increasing funding to better protect these forest guardians.

Joshua Christopher Chandra, co-founder, Plastic For Nature

As co-founder of Plastic For Nature (Plana), Joshua Christopher Chandra pioneered PlanaWood – an alternative to natural wood crafted from plastic and husk waste. His vision? To turn Indonesia’s pollution crisis into an opportunity – one plank at a time.

Locally, PlanaWood has been used in large-scale projects such as the Summarecon Bandung project – a major township development away from the Greater Jakarta region, proving the alternative building material's viability.

Chandra's ambition stretches far beyond borders. Plana's work took centre stage at the COP29 climate summit in Baku last year. At the ongoing World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, PlanaWood is being used for the main stage of the Indonesia Pavilion.

Plana's biggest challenge is market perception as sustainable products are still seen as overpriced, lacking quality and of lower performance than conventional products, Chandra told Eco-Business.

"To address this, we focus on facts and functionality. We back our claims with technical data sheets that demonstrate PlanaWood's superior resistance to weather, termites and moisture – issues that natural wood typically struggles with," he said, adding that Plana also leverages its growing and diverse project portfolio to prove real-world applicability.

"By showcasing successful application in diverse climates and demanding use cases, we help decision-makers understand that PlanaWood doesn't just offer sustainability, it delivers proven durability and technical excellence."

Chandra's mission tackles a major global issue – 91 per cent of plastic waste around the world is not recycled. This waste is seeping into and damaging natural ecosystems while accelerating climate change in the process.

Joshua Christopher Chandra's Plastic for Nature repurposes plastic waste into a sustainable substitute for natural wood.

Matthew Vincent Tabilog advocates for mangrove protection to build climate resilience and secure coastal livelihoods.

Matthew Vincent Tabilog, founder, Mangrove Matters PH

Matthew Vincent Tabilog did not just study marine conservation – he built an entire youth movement around it.

In 2020, the marine biologist from Negros Occidental founded Mangrove Matters PH, turning his scientific expertise into action. The organisation has become a driving force in Philippine marine protection, from hosting the country’s first National Mangrove Youth Summit to successfully campaigning for 10 Protected Area Bills in the Philippine Senate – directly establishing 11 new protected zones as a result.

The stakes could not be higher. The Philippines has lost over 50 per cent of its mangroves since 1918, despite their ability to store four times more carbon than terrestrial forests. Across Southeast Asia, where 30 per cent of the world’s mangroves once thrived, coastal development and climate change threaten these biodiversity hubs. Tabilog's work tackles this crisis head-on.

"Not only do mangroves sequester atmospheric carbon to mitigate or ameliorate the climate crisis, they also serve as buffer zones to protect our coastal communities and our fisherfolk against storm surges and strong waves brought on by typhoons and cyclones," Tabilog told Eco-Business.

"Mangroves are also nursery grounds for commercially important fishes, crustaceans, shellfishes and other marine products, so it's also a source of livelihood and food for our communities," said the campaigner who is now working on advocacy initiatives under the Oceans and Climate programme at the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development.

Tabilog was recently appointed chair of a youth task force under the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP) to work on safeguarding migratory waterbird habitats across 22 countries.

Nuryanee Anisah, CEO and co-Founder, Commenhers

While still a student at Singapore Polytechnic, Nuryanee 'Yanee' Anisah saw a problem – and stitched together a solution. Fast fashion wasn’t just flooding closets; it was choking entire landfills.

In her second year, she co-founded Commenhers – a social enterprise turning fabric waste into stylish, affordable slow fashion. But for Yanee, sustainability wasn’t just about materials – it was about people. Rejecting the exploitative practices of fast fashion, she built her supply chain around local homemakers, single mothers and retired tailors, ensuring fair wages while simultaneously giving discarded textiles new life.

Under her leadership, Commenhers reports that it has upcycled over 7,500kg of fabric waste and empowered 90 beneficiary makers across Singapore. Partnering with global brands like sporting goods retailer Decathlon and financial institution HSBC, Yanee strived to make circular fashion scalable and socially impactful. With four community sewing spaces established locally, she is now setting her sights beyond Singapore, planning expansions into Vietnam and Indonesia to replicate this innovative model overseas.

Beyond these milestones, Yanee said it is the deeper connection she feels with these makers that guides Commenhers' mission.

"Understanding the life experiences and the adversity has given us such a renewed sense of purpose. It helps shape Commenhers not just as a business but as a safe space and supportive ecosystem that continues to grow in impact," she told Eco-Business.

The urgency of Yanee's mission is clear. In Singapore alone, over 189,000 tonnes of textile waste are generated yearly, but only four per cent are recycled. Across Southeast Asia, the fast fashion boom has turned landfills into literal mountains of unsold and discarded clothing. Yanee’s work disrupts this cycle, showing that ethical fashion isn’t a luxury – it is a necessity.

Nuryanee Anisah is reimaging the fast fashion industry by turning discarded fabrics into "slow" fashion and empowering local communities in the process.

Tan Yin Ling is closing the loop on Singapore's wasteful fashion industry by scaling up recycling efforts and clothing swaps while channelling profits to social causes.

Tan Yin Ling, co-founder, Cloop

A self-confessed former shopaholic, Tan Yin Ling’s wake-up call came during a zero waste bootcamp at school. Confronted with fashion’s environmental toll, she traded fast fashion fixes for a radical solution: Cloop – a circular fashion initiative in Singapore.

Cloop, started in 2020, tackles waste through clothing swaps, thrift stores and educational campaigns. The aim is to keep garments in circulation – now 20,253 items and counting – with the profits earned from swaps and sales channelled to local charities in Singapore.

In the past year, Cloop also launched its first textile sorting facility with social service agency APSN, a centre that provides vocational training to adults with special needs, pairing environmental good with positive social outcomes.

Tan knew recycling was key to systemic change. Partnering with Malaysia’s Life Line Clothing, Cloop installed its first textile recycling bin in Singapore in 2022. Today, over 450 bins populate the island, diverting tonnes of fabric from landfills and inching Cloop closer to its goal of doubling the nation's textile recycling rate.

Cloop also plans to open up a warehouse later this year that can become a go-to resource hub for sustainable fashion in Singapore, enabling used textiles from its recycling bins to be circulated locally before needing to be exported.

Fashion generates 10 per cent of the world's carbon emissions – more than aviation and shipping combined. In Singapore, textile waste piles up at 200,000 tonnes annually, a large portion of which ends up incinerated.

"There's been so much consumption of textiles that even in the second-hand market there is an overwhelming amount of textiles available. Instead of depending on our textile recycler, we are trying to bring the work back into Singapore by building more demand for second-hand clothing in Singapore," Tan told Eco-Business.

Leong Man Wei, founder, SayurStory

SayurStory began as a "lockdown project" when the pandemic confined Singaporeans to their homes. The initiative launched by Leong Man Wei, then an art, design and media student at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, later blossomed into something far bigger – a grassroots movement using food and nature to bridge divides.

In Singapore, domestic helpers, who make up a fifth of the foreign workforce, often live invisible lives with their struggles overlooked. SayurStory flips this script, as it tries to empower these individuals to tell their own stories and become SayurStory's guides and co-creators.

Ethnobotany tours organised by SayurStory, for example, are co-designed with domestic helpers, and on these tours, participants discover Southeast Asian plants as they hear the intimate personal narratives shared by their guides. SayurStory also organised a workshop on traditional plants and healing at a local library where its programme co-curators from different parts of Indonesia shared traditional home remedies known to improve women's health.

"Through that programme, we reached out to members of the public and age groups that were beyond our typical circles and age range. It was significant because it was one of the few events that participants had not showed up specifically with the interest to engage migrant domestic workers, but they had gathered with a show of curiosity about the themes we were exploring, which is around traditional plants and healing," Leong told Eco-Business.

Today, SayurStory is running Suka-Suka Kitchen which hosts open kitchen gatherings where migrant and local communities reimagine ways of organising around food while exploring identities beyond the "other" or "domestic worker".

Leong Man Wei's work focuses on Singapore's migrant domestic workers.

Max Han Kai Ding wants to amplify more local and marginalised voices through the youth movement that he leads.

Max Han Kai Ding, co-founder, Youths United For Earth

At just 19, Max Han saw a gap in Malaysia's climate movement: where were the youth voices?

In 2020, he co-founded Youths United For Earth (YUFE) – a leading platform for young environmental leaders in Malaysia. What began as a student initiative has now grown to host the country's largest sustainability mentorship programme, empowering Indigenous and marginalised youth while connecting them with global changemakers.

Under Han's leadership, YUFE has become a force for change, organising over 70 youth-led campaigns and reaching over 30,000 Malaysians, while advising everyone from UN agencies to Asean policymakers. Han is also involved in co-drafting Southeast Asia's first Environmental Human Rights Framework to ensure climate justice becomes institutionalised across the region.

Han told Eco-Business that in times of geopolitical uncertainty, building up regional solidarity – including among civil society groups – is important. For the research work and negotiations that YUFE is involved in, the organisation has also gotten support from lawyers and experts. "This is really important for advocacy work," he said.

As a Malaysian witnessing how Southeast Asia is disproportionately impacted by climate change, Han champions "decolonised environmentalism" which is focused on solutions rooted in local knowledge rather than Western templates. He aspires to amplify voices from the Global South.

"We as Southeast Asians have this sacred tie to our land and we need to continue upholding that as environmental stewards. This reaffirms my belief that we can collectively build a just and regenerative world through climate and environmental justice today," he said.

This story is published to celebrate the winners of the Eco-Business Youth A List 2025. It is part of Eco-Business’ series on leadership in sustainability. The Eco-Business Youth A-List is supported by City Developments Limited.