This week, Collective Responsibility’s evening forum on AI, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability brought together young professionals and entrepreneurs who are interested in knowing more about the opportunities and challenges they face as China enters industry 4.0. Richard Brubaker, Founder and Managing Director of Collective Responsibility (CR), opened the evening by sharing the results of a su…
At an unprecedented rate, Chinese factories have begun making their initial investments into replacing, or augmenting, traditional labor with robotics in order to increase production and reduce the cost of labor, thus paving the way for China to become the AI global leader by 2030. Despite challenges related to installing and maintaining automated lines and the concerns over job losses by local go…
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…
Effective 1 January 2018, the Environmental Protection Tax Law of PRC (hereinafter the law) ushers in a new tax regime to fight the dreadful pollution in China. The tax burdens are unevenly shared out, but all business will risk being overwhelmed if it fails to take actions immediately. Collective Responsibility has been closely tracking the development and implementation of the law. Last month…
This week, we were excited to host our first Shanghai Sustainable Ambassador Appreciation Reception. An event meant to celebrate the work of sustainability professionals and business leaders who are looking to drive sustainability trough their business, participants had a chance to network and share ideas over relaxed drinks and delicious hors-d'œuvres. A group of individuals, that we began…
Yesterday, in collaboration with the Shanghai European Chamber of Commerce, Collective Responsibility hosted a Lunch and Learn event to help increase awareness about waste and waste management in China. An interactive session, that ended with practical tips for individuals and companies to take to reduce their waste footprint, Rich Brubaker started the session provide insights from our research…
Over the past four years, most sustainability professionals I know have been looking forward to Larry Fink’s letter to S&P 500 CEOs at the beginning of each year. The anticipation surrounding these annual letters from BlackRock’s CEO is due to the fact that we have the world’s largest asset owner voicing what sustainability practitioners have long been advocating of businesses. Fink, a leader…
In China, while the pressure of economic growth on the environment has been well documented, over the last few years, there have been a number of pilot and campaigns (nationally and provincially) to identify and reduce pollution at the local level. Since Chinese Premier declared “a war on pollution” in 2014, China has set up plans and targets for cleaning up its air, water, and soil. Last year,…
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…
Supply chains are the backbone of our global economy; they deliver the goods and services we use around the world, spanning geographic, industry and cultural boundaries. As these interconnected webs of supply and demand become more complex, how they are managed has major implications for the well-being of the workers that produce those goods, as well as society and the environment at large. Con…
As the world’s largest waste importer, China received more than 7.35 million tons of plastic scraps and 28.5 million tons of mixed paper in 2016, about half of the globe’s total. Coming mainly from Europe, Japan, and the United States through direct or indirect trade via Hong Kong, for decades the products were flushed in China, a country that was willing to take these products, process them, and…
“I work in a clothing factory in Guangdong. This year after returning home to spend Chinese New Year with my 5 year old son, I found work in Nanchong, the closest city to my home village in Sichuan. But after 2 months, I had to go back to the factory. The salary here is 700RMB lower per month. I can't afford to live closer to home.” …
Last week, Collective Responsibility held two training sessions, in Shanghai and Shenzhen, to help packaging manufacturers in China incorporate sustainability into their products through innovations in design, materials and the production process. 60 participants from paper, plastic, and wood packaging suppliers joined the sessions to find out more about the business case for sustainability, an…
From supporting marriage equality to climate change, corporations are taking an increasingly prominent public stand on political and societal issues. While the risk of doing so is enough to keep some companies out of the ring, those who decide to take a stand are becoming stronger from the inside out. Decades of academic and market research show that consumer and employee trust, identification,…
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…
