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…
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…
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…
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…
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.” …
With 25 megacities, with populations of at least ten million people, currently dotting the Earth, and an expected thirty more coming by 2025, the next few decades will see unprecedented movements of people into the city. Movements that are fueled by the hope for opportunities, but are themselves posing some of the greatest challenges as megacities commonly struggle with issues such as unsustain…
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…
While the topic of food waste has been a hot topic in the West, fueled in part by stories of 3,000 miles Caesar salads, in China the topic of food waste is only starting to become a topic of discussion. Unlike in the West though, where food waste is seen as a problem to be solved to avert future food crisis or is linked to larger problems like climate change, in China the problem has largely becom…
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…
