China didn’t need COP21 to act

Hailed as one of the greatest diplomatic efforts of the past 30 years, on Saturday 196 countries came to an agreement to take steps to reduce the risk of global temperature rising beyond 2 degrees. An effort that once again went down to the wire, the agreement represents the start of a long road towards climate change mitigation. A road that many are already calling unrealistic, but for others it…

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Weekly Round Up: The airpocalypse, the value of sustainabilty-orientated innovation, & Patagonia’s anti-growth strategy

With so much going on in the realm of sustainability, leadership, and innovation, and only a limited amount of bandwidth for professionals in this space, we have created this weekly post to highlight articles that we feel are (1) important, (2) relevant, and (3) interesting in the areas of business sustainability. If you have an article that you feel needs to be mentioned, please do so in the comm…

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5 Lessons For Engaging Suppliers on Sustainability

This month, Collective Responsibility was invited to take part in a supplier CSR forum with Groupe Rocher, the French cosmetics firm.  An event where our founder, Rich Brubaker, spoke about CSR trends in China, and where Charlie Mathews, Director of Corporate Advisory, moderated a workshop. Suppliers from across China and South Korea attended, with a diverse range of knowledge and application of s…

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Sustainable Design for the Future

The world that surrounds us – the signs that direct us, the smartphone pages we flick through, the way we use buildings, how we move around cities – is consciously or unconsciously designed. This design has a great impact on the use and sustainable credentials of our products and systems. In fact, 80% of the environmental impacts of the products we use daily are determined in the very early stag…

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Developments and Changes in CSR Reporting

As the modern consumer and regulator place greater emphasis on good sustainable practice, corporate social responsibility is no longer just a philanthropic exercise for companies. It is now an area of intensive scrutiny and reporting from a wide range of actors and stakeholders, and an ever-growing area of business opportunity. In recognition of this, companies striving to be top of the game in…

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Weekly Round Up: COP21, stemming the plastic waste problem and Uruguay’s renewable shift

With so much going on in the realm of sustainability, leadership, and innovation, and only a limited amount of bandwidth for professionals in this space, we have created this weekly post to highlight articles that we feel are (1) important, (2) relevant, and (3) interesting in the areas of business sustainability. If you have an article that you feel needs to be mentioned, please do so in the comm…

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Bringing Sustainability to the Board

This Tuesday, we continued our Beyond Business as Usual luncheon series by hosting a discussion focusing on the challenges and methods to engage executives on sustainability. Leadership commitment is widely considered the most important factor for the success of sustainability and CSR programs. Whilst many leaders agree and verbally support sustainability, often their actions speak otherwise, and…

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China’s Priority is Smog, Not Carbon

For many living in China’s major cities, the start of the COP21 talks was a day of severe air pollution. Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang reached 611, 237 and 274 AQI respectively, prompting the issuing of the highest air quality alert of the year so far in the capital. In light of the climate talks, activists and deniers alike have voiced their opinions on the subject and fierce debate will…

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Leadership in the Shared Economy

The presence of a visionary leader is vital to the embedding sustainability throughout an organization, from political leaders at COP21 to CEOs of multinationals. Without the "tone from the top," there is little chance of a company embracing and succeeding in the area of sustainability. Leadership is the key. Dr. Philip Cochran, from Indiana University, has vast experience in the sphere of…

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Solving Community Problems Through Innovation

  Last Friday, we continued our Sustainability Speech Series by hosting a talk on “Solving Community Problems with Innovation” at Tongji University. Three speakers presented at the event: Leonard Milford, Associate Director and Chief Architect at Arup Associates; Kevin Chen, Co-founder of italki.com; and Nitin Dani, Director at Green Initiatives. Chuli Duan from Collective Responsibili…

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Weekly Round Up: The move away from meat, an atmospheric milestone, and dwindling labour

With so much going on in the realm of sustainability, leadership, and innovation, and only a limited amount of bandwidth for professionals in this space, we have created this weekly post to highlight articles that we feel are (1) important, (2) relevant, and (3) interesting in the areas of business sustainability. If you have an article that you feel needs to be mentioned, please do so in the comm…

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Communicating Sustainability in China

This Thursday we continued our Sustainability Speech Series at Shanghai University’s College of International Business and Economics. Focusing on “Communicating Sustainability in China”, we invited two industry experts to the talk: Brian Liu, Senior Sustainability Manager of Walmart Global Sourcing, and Helen Zhu, Senior Corporate Communications Manager of Unilever China. Shanghai University’s Pro…

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Plastic Waste In China

In continuation of our consumer waste series, we examine the challenges faced in the area of plastic waste production and management.  China has a big history with plastic. Throughout its rise to economic prominence, China has manufactured and exported a huge amount of plastic products to eventually become the world’s largest plastic producer in 2013. More recently, China's domestic consumption…

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COP21 – The Role of China

On November 30th the UN will kick off the 21st Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris. The goal of the summit is for 196 countries to meet and sign a new climate change agreement that will limit temperature rises to less than 2℃ above pre-industrial levels over the century. It is considered by many to be the “last chance”…

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Weekly Round Up: Is the language of sustainability dead, China’s electric cars and migration’s environmental impacts

With so much going on in the realm of sustainability, leadership, and innovation, and only a limited amount of bandwidth for professionals in this space, we have created this weekly post to highlight articles that we feel are (1) important, (2) relevant, and (3) interesting in the areas of business sustainability. If you have an article that you feel needs to be mentioned, please do so in the c…

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