Over the last month, we brought in eight industry experts to five leading Chinese universities across Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, where they shared their experiences and had discussions with over 160 students on a variety of sustainability-related topics. At East China Normal University thirty Bachelor, Master and Ph.D. students majoring in environmental engineering joined a discussion with s…
The impact from the sheer level of food waste in China is felt economically, environmentally, and politically: Economically, because farmers and consumers in effect pay for the waste as middlemen, processors, brands, and retailers are able to protect their margins more effectively. Environmentally, as, for every unit of food wasted, China’s precious water resources are wasted while at the…
The importance of design to sustainable products cannot be understated. It is the front end of development and the point at which environmental harm can be best mitigated. The achievement of good design involves challenging designers to think "outside the box," communicate the vision and to provide them with an in-depth understanding of the product's lifecycle, from production to end of life recov…
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…
This Thursday, we hosted another talk on “Ethics versus Business Goals” at Donghua University as we continued with the Sustainability Speech Series. Two speakers were invited to give a presentation: Richard Brubaker, Founder of Collective Responsibility and an Adjunct Professor of Sustainability at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS); and Amy Sommers, Chief Representative of…
In November, Bloomberg New Energy Finance held its first APAC Summit on the future of energy, covering three main themes: trade, technology, and the transition to a lower-carbon energy system. It was attended by industry, finance and policy thought-leaders, with Collective Responsibility having the opportunity to participate. Here are some of the insights from the first day: China’s new normal:…
In this post, we continue our insight into the areas of the consumer waste framework in China. Last week we addressed the packaging industry and here we focus on the developing e-waste stream. By 2020, about 60% of the population in China will live in cities, with 300 million additional residents expected to move into China’s urban centers by 2030. With this population shift comes a dramatic c…
With the recent news that China’s domestic coal consumption was understated by up to 17%, a renewed debate has begun about China’s data quality and ability to keep its commitments to reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). A debate that is only intensified by the fact that China has been trying to proactively position itself as a leader at the World Climate Summit in Paris. For us though,…
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 t…
On Monday, we addressed the rise of China’s consumer waste industry. One stream outlined was packaging, an area of waste that is facing challenges along its supply chain. Here we delve deeper into the topic outlining the challenges and opportunities. Synonymous with consumer goods, packaging represents a particular waste stream that, given greater affluence and purchasing power, will grow. Pack…
High material use and consumption is synonymous with the development of an economy, particularly an evolving one such as China, which over the last 20 years has focused heavily on the primary and secondary industries to drive growth. However, China’s economy is now changing from one of heavy industry to one that is looking to meet the wants of its ever-increasing domestic consumers. But what ha…
SwitchMed is a current UNEP & UNIDO initiative that supports and connects stakeholders to scale up eco and social innovations in the Mediterranean (Southern Europe, Middle East, and N.Africa). As part of this initiative, SwitchMed Connect 2015 was the first annual gathering of these stakeholders, including leading start-ups and entrepreneurs, industry agents, policy and financial institutions,…
This Wednesday, Richard Brubaker, Founder of Collective Responsibility, was invited to give a presentation to students at Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC), where he addressed the importance of sustainability, leadership, and innovation Kicking off his presentation with an explanation of how he understands sustainability, and why sustainability is never really about “saving the polar bears”, he spen…
This Monday, we continued our Sustainability Speech Series by hosting an event on the topic of “Developing Cities with Low Footprints” at East China Normal University. To help students to gain a better understanding about the topic, we invited Fabien Pfaender，Associate Professor at Université de Technologie de Compiègne; Tom Ford, Practice Area Leader, Planning & Urban Design at Genlser, to…
This Thursday, we continued our Sustainability Speech Series by hosting a talk on the topic of “Foreign enterprises: Building Sustainability Strategies in China” at Shanghai University. To help students gain a better understanding about the topic, we invited Charis Yang，General Manager of Vendor Compliance & Sustainability at Li & Fung; Super Wang, Supply Chain Sustainability Manager fo…
