How Will AI Shape Modern Business and Society?

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has been hailed by some as a technological revolution set to eclipse the invention of the wheel, steam engine, automobile, or even the internet in terms disrupting economy and society. Optimists believe that AI will allow humans to accelerate productivity, squash inefficiencies, and create a world free from want. Pessimists see the accelerating pa…

Read More

“Ice Boy” and China’s Left-Behind Children

Every so often, breaking news brings China’s left-behind children to the forefront of public attention. Recent reports of left-behind child orphans being adopted and trained by martial arts clubs led to public debate over the fate of rural children growing up alone, as well as the shocking finding from a survey late last year in which 11.9% of left-behind children said that their parents working a…

Read More

Event Report: Shanghai eWaste Factory Visit

Last week, to understand more about the eWaste issue in China, we have organized a tour to TES-AMM, a eWaste factory in Jiading, Shanghai. 15 guests with an interest in sustainability area from Shanghai and Suzhou joined us for the tour. Opened in 2005, TES- AMM (Total Environmental Solutions Asset Material Management ) has established an Integrated WEEE Management Solutions for recycling e – w…

Read More

AI and Cities

With 25 megacities, with populations of at least ten million people, currently dotting the Earth, and an expected thirty more coming by 2025, the next few decades will see unprecedented movements of people into the city. Movements that are fueled by the hope for opportunities, but are themselves posing some of the greatest challenges as megacities commonly struggle with issues such as unsustain…

Read More

E-Waste: Does the Informal System Do It Better?

In our extensive research into the informal waste systems of Shanghai over the last year, we have recently begun to explore the inner workings of a specific branch of this system: the e-waste stream. As the fastest growing waste stream, with over 16Mt generated in Asia, e-waste is hazardous, complex and costly to treat. It is also incredibly valuable with a thriving economy set up around it. Du…

Read More

Do Migrants Still Want an Urban Hukou?

The past 40 years of China’s economic transformation has drastically changed the relationship between its rural and urban populations, and through this process, more than 277 million rural migrants have moved to the cities to find work. Migrants who do not lack access to social services like healthcare, housing and education because they hold a rural Hukou, and thus are not considered urban reside…

Read More

Food-Water-Energy Nexus in China: Challenges and Opportunities

Moving towards an ever increasing urban world and the pressure and strains that richer more expectant consumers place on the worlds resources put our ecosystem and ability to provide for the populations at risk. The food-water-energy nexus is at the centre of this considered development. The three areas are intrinsically linked and underpin almost all areas of human consumption and activity. Th…

Read More

Ant & Rat Tribes: China Lacks Affordable Housing

When 400 migrant workers were discovered living below an upscale apartment complex in Beijing last week, it was another sign of just how high housing costs have become in China's largest cities, and the lengths that some are driven to in finding a place called home. Known as shuzu or “rat tribes” by the locals, the discovery represents an estimated 1 million people living in a warren of Cold-Wa…

Read More

Beijing Workshop: Closing the Loop on Waste

Last Thursday, Collective Responsibility hosted it’s Beijing session on “Closing the Loop on Waste” to look at how China is managing its growing supply of waste, the implications for business, and to share some best practices for how firms in the retail and manufacturing sector are closing the loop in China. Joining the session, we had Libo Ma, Director in Corporate Culture, Employee Engagement…

Read More

New Report: Informal Waste Management in China

Most people can make money from waste … They start work at five in the morning and get off at 10 at night; they never rest and don’t spend much money. In one year, about 72,000 RMB. After a little over a year, you can really make that much money. 10 years down the road, you can save quite a lot.” – Owner, Large Collection Centre The latest addition to our publications series “Informal Waste…

Read More

Looking for a Change of Scene | Hope & Opportunity

A family incident brought her to Shanghai, and she hopes to find a change of scene and some distraction that can help her out of the sadness. Back at home, she owned a small convenience store, but now in Shanghai, she’s one of the millions of migrant workers bringing prosperity to the city. It is a change of scene that did not come easy, and may not have brought the better life she had hoped fo…

Read More

Bike Sharing: The Business Case for Sustainable Mobility

  As millions of China’s growing middle class have become new car owners, China’s private car market has propelled it into being one of the most attractive car markets in the world. For automakers, this has been a boom as ownership oversharing was the norm, but the challenges of car ownership in the form of traffic and air pollution have also grown. To tackle the problems, China has…

Read More

Informal Waste Collection in China: A People-Powered Economy

China's waste collection and management system has recently captured public attention. Much of that attention has focused on negative incidents – such as dumping scandals in Shanghai and Wuxi – or uncertainty about the future of waste treatment, with expected landfill closures in Shanghai for 2017. But how much do you really know about waste beyond the headlines? Collective's work on waste i…

Read More

China’s Airpocalypse: Why London’s Playbook Won’t Work

“Beijing’s pollution is bad, but they'll clean their air just like London did …” In 1952, the five-day Great Smog of London killed more than 12,000 people and made over 150,000 people ill. It was an environmental disaster that many people today consider both a cautionary tale and an instructive example of how to address and overcome an air crisis for areas in similar situations – in part because…

Read More

Real Estate Hackathon | Education Challenge in Urban China

We are really excited to announce our next hackathon, held on May 5th and 6th in Chengdu, where student teams will work with real estate and education executives to create an Education Hub business plan. For many Chinese families, it is believed that a good education is the best path for social mobility. It is closely related to one’s well-being, through higher income and social status, both of…

Read More