America’s 1st Sustainable Mayor | Barbara Buffaloe

In this episode of the Sustainable Ambassador Podcast, we have the honor of speaking with the Mayor of Columbia, Missouri, Barbara Buffaloe. Through our conversation, we speak about how as Mayor sustainability is embedded into her work, the importance of engaging her constituents, the challenges/opportunities that are unique to a small(er) Midwestern town, and the resources/ inspirations she g…

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Teaching Sustainability & ESG | Roger Levermore & Alison Greig

In this episode of the Sustainability Ambassadors Podcast, we speak with Roger Levermore, Dean of Management at Asia Institute of Technology , and Alison Greig, Director of Education for Sustainability at Anglia Ruskin University, about their work as educators to educate the next generation of leaders in sustainability and ESG. Timestamps: 00:25 - Welcome to Sustainable Ambassador Podcast 01:…

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Tackling Climate Denialism on Social Media | Imran Ahmed

In this episode, I speak to Imran Ahmed, Founder and CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), about his recent research showing how the patterns around climate denialism on social media have changed, and from there, the the work he is doing to catalyze stakeholders to solve the problem. CCDH Report: The New Climate Denial - https://counterhate.com/research/new-climate-denial/ AB…

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DELIVERING SUSTAINABILITY in China: Forum Highlights

Following our previous events in June and July, where we focused on the development of China’s circular economy, explored the opportunities and challenges to “sell sustainability” in China, through this event we explored the opportunities for brands, entrepreneurs, and innovators to “Deliver sustainability” in the areas of product design, material innovation, and platform sustainability. To hel…

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Selling Sustainability in China: Forum Highlights

Following our June event, focused on the development of China’s circular economy, through this event we explored the opportunities, and challenges, of “selling sustainability” in China. A topic that has grown increasingly important as reports of North American heat waves, and severe flooding in China and Germany, have catalyzed conversations about the impacts of climate change. To help provi…

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Circular Economies in China Forum | Event Wrapup

Following our previous events in April and May, where we spoke about China's  ambitious carbon goals, this month we launched our first of three events on product and process level sustainability. Themed as the Circular Economy forum, we invited distinguished Professor Zhu Dajian from Tongji University, Anders Lennartsson, Country Sustainability Manager from IKEA China, William Yao ​from Alufun…

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Powering Sustainability Forum | Event Wrapup

Following our event in April, China’s Race to Zero, on May 19th, 2021, we invited Andy Klump, Founder of Clean Energy Associates (“CEA”), Peter Cheng, General Manager of Xebec Adsorption, and Yana Hryshko, Senior Sales Manager at JA Solar, to share their insights and experiences in the areas of clean energy with The Collective at our Powering Sustainability Forum. An event focused on the realit…

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China’s Race To Carbon Neutrality: Forum Highlights

To help participants understand China’s Path to 2060 Carbon Neutrality, on April 21st, 2021 we invited Jia Li, Associate Professor at the China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tong Fun and Peter Chen from CBRE, and Sunny Wang from Interface to speak to The Collective about their vision for the path forward. Neutrality will take a Collective Effort: With over 15 year…

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Sustainability Ambassador & Innovator Drinks March 2021

As a sign of our appreciation for the work that the community of Sustainability Ambassadors and Innovators has been engaged over the last years, we were excited to host our first 2021 Sustainable Ambassador & Innovator Drinks in Shanghai last week.. Something we did regularly prior to COVID, the gathering has a single goal: bring together the community of sustainability professionals, entrepr…

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NGO Profile: Shanghai Make-A-Wish Foundation

Make-A-Wish Foundation Shanghai is a locally registered NGO that is committed to grant wishes for children and youth (age from 3 to 18) with life-threatening illness across China. With limited number of full-time staff, and the focus on serving minor beneficiaries, this 3-years old organization established a strong, and passionate volunteer base to support its causes. To date, Make-A-Wish Found…

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Why CSR Professionals Should Engage Their Legal, Finance, and Tax Teams Early!

While the process of developing, and executing CSR strategy is often focused on identifying the right partners, ensuring employee engagement, and measuring impact, through this post we would like to discuss the importance of engaging your legal, finance, and tax teams as a critical part of this process. Involving legal, finance, and tax teams in the process may be seen as time consuming or even…

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NGOs in China Grow Through Crisis.

As the work of NGOs in China has developed over the last 15 years, especially in the years following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the role of social media platforms critical to support public engagement in charitable activities. Like many areas of the wider economy where digital platforms disrupted traditional forms of engagement, while there were many upsides to the transitions, there were al…

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NGO Profile: Shining Star Foundation

Established by four fresh university graduates in Guangzhou, Shining Star was established in 2017 to help children and teenagers in gaining confidence and staying positive. An extension of a project they were working on as university students, over the course of the last three years they have built a grant program that supported 654 underprivileged students to finish their high-school education…

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Alibaba Foundation Goes Global and Climbs a Steep Learning Curve

Following up from our previous post, "Leading Corporate Responses During COVID-19 Outbreak", we will  look more deeply at Alibaba’s global program to provide a deeper analysis of their program, donations to date, and provide a few takeaways for readers. As a global leader in e-commerce, and one of China’s most prominent brands, the Alibaba Group announced that it would support other countries i…

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The Challenges of Bringing Factory Labor Back in Post-COVID China

For Chinese factories, particularly small to medium sized operators, this has been a very difficult time. Many have struggled with the loss of orders, cash flow shortages, and being straddled with ongoing operation and inventory costs that have led to the government announcing a series of relief measures early on. While preventing and controlling the COVID-19 outbreak has been the priority,…

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