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…
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…
Automation has the potential to dramatically increase human productivity and enrich lives. But at the same time, this potential benefit is also one of the greatest stumbling blocks to be navigated by society. If AI and automation are not implemented with careful and thoughtful oversight these technologies have the potential to perpetuate inequality; low-class jobs will be automated and an innovati…
In 2009, the Chinese government introduced a healthcare reform plan aimed at providing affordable medical care for its entire population by 2020. This ¥850 billion reform called attention to inequalities within the country’s public healthcare system, notably the urban-rural healthcare disparity. Reforms have focused primarily on strengthening primary care in lower-tier and remote areas, which will…
“Food waste is a HUGE issue and hard to tackle, but (for us) we see it as a resource and opportunity.” - Earthworm Farm Manager With China’s population explosion, the ever-growing food waste has become an increasing pressure for cities. One innovative solution is earthworm cultivation. During our research on food waste, we visited one earthworm farm in Shanghai, who officially help dispos…
This past Tuesday Collective Responsibility hosted “The Future of Productivity” forum to discuss the approach companies and individuals should take to business and their careers in a world increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence. Collective Responsibility’s own Charlie Mathews, Director of Corporate Advisory, opened the event by describing a global labor market that is in flux as AI be…
The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in society 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 human society. Optimists believe that AI will allow humans to accelerate productivity, squash inefficiencies and create a world free from want. Pessimists see the ac…
With the rapid growth of China, citizens become more affluent and waste has been generated at an unprecedented rate, many of China’s first and second-tier cities have been forced to rethink waste management. Particularly, the informal waste management systems that have, to date, efficiently closed the loop on a lot of waste streams. In Shanghai, with two of its largest landfills in the process…
