In the coming years, China is facing significant challenges in the healthcare sphere and one of the most formidable will be public perception. A particularly pervasive and damaging perception in China is the distrust of physicians. Without well-established patient-physician trust, the mission of delivering quality healthcare is significantly set back. DOCTORS ARE NEEDED, BUT NOT TRUSTED Being a…
With an exploding urban population and a rising middle-class, China is rapidly increasing material use and consumption. Alongside its burgeoning economy is a proliferation of consumer waste. While most debates are around the wastage of food or packaging materials like plastic and paper, little attention is paid to the old clothes that people clean out of their wardrobes. Chinese dump roughly 26…
A significant trend in the current and future trajectory of Chinese healthcare is the increasing privatization of medical hospitals and clinics. This development is driven by both consumer desires for a more patient-centered experience and government initiatives that aim to distribute the burden of care from public hospitals. Despite the rapid expansion of private options, several barriers prevent…
Yesterday, we were excited to host our second Shanghai Sustainable Ambassador Appreciation Reception. An event to celebrate the work of sustainability professionals and business leaders who are looking to drive sustainability through their business, participants had a chance to network and share ideas over relaxed drinks and delicious hors-d’œuvres. The guests were a group of passionate and…
The unprecedented speed at which science and technology are advancing has resulted on the development of numerous household chemicals that have slowly become indispensable to people. On the long term, the unsafe use, storage, and disposal of these chemicals may pose a threat to human and animal health. In fact, places like China have seen a rising number of hospitalizations of thousands of chil…
With big corporations including Tencent and Alibaba already investing heavily in the healthcare industry, there is a lot of speculation as to what the future of healthcare will look like, and also how corporations, startup companies, investors, physicians, and hospitals will collaborate in this space. Some Context China has undergone concerted development over the last two decades to improve hea…
China’s recent waste import ban has led to increased conversations globally on the topic of waste management. In China, one conversation that comes up in particular, among the general public and Chinese government alike, is the need to have a better system of household waste categorization for the millions of residents that live in Shanghai. The call is for a sorting system that is more aligned to…
Last week, as part of a continued process to address the growing waste problem that China’s urban waste systems are facing, the Shanghai government announced a new food packaging guidelines focused on reducing food packaging waste. A problem that has grown with changes in urban lifestyles, which are often convenience focused, the soaring food delivery industry brings huge amounts of plastic pac…
While many western cities and firms are scrambling to find solutions and workarounds for the mountains of waste plastic, unsorted paper, textile, and slag that can no longer be sent to China, the Chinese government just doubled down on January's waste ban with an announcement that over the next 18 months there will be an additional three stages to the existing ban. It is an announcement that ha…
The amount of retired EV (electric vehicle) batteries will grow at an unprecedented rate in China. Recycling them will bring twofold benefits – reducing the consumption of raw materials for producing new batteries and minimizing potential environmental and health hazards caused by the mismanagement of battery waste. – Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (中国工业和信息化部专家) With hundred…
Be it a physical or intellectual challenge, China today is home to more than 80 million individuals living with a disability, many of whom do not have the right to work and have a job. The exclusion of such a large number of people from traditional work is a challenge that the government has already taken up through the development of a quota system and tax breaks for employers who hire more inclu…
With more than 85,000,000 people living with some form of a disability in China, only 9,000,000 of these individuals are “working.” Therefore, we decided to focus this month’s evening forum on the opportunities to build a socially minded business to create solutions to problems related to the challenges and stigmas that this segment of the population faces. Believing in the power of entrepreneu…
Although International Women’s Day 2018 (Mar 8) has already passed, we believe it’s never too late to celebrate women’s achievements and examine the push forward of gender equality in the context of China’s sustainable development. With the theme for 2018’s International Women’s Day being #PressForProgress, we wondered if #IWS has lost its meaning in China as there seems to still exist such a low…
Background on the Issue As China took the lead in manufacturing, the reliance on raw materials opened the door to a new business: the waste trade. For many years, the system made sense; China exported inexpensive consumer goods to places like Europe, USA, and Japan. Shipping containers from these nations made their way back into China filled with recyclables. Chinese manufacturers could turn t…
Public awareness on the need to address the plight of China’s left-behind children was reignited earlier this year following the high-profile story of Ice-Boy, one of 62 million children left-behind children living in rural China, and attending rural schools, without parental care. Among those who spoke out on the need for targeted support for rural children was Jack Ma, founder of China’s tech…
