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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Last Thursday, Collective Responsibility hosted it’s Beijing session on “Closing the Loop on Waste” to look at how China is managing its growing supply of waste, the implications for business, and to share some best practices for how firms in the retail and manufacturing sector are closing the loop in China. Joining the session, we had Libo Ma, Director in Corporate Culture, Employee Engagement…
This week, we hosted a workshop on “Closing the loop on Waste in China” for 20 sustainability professionals from various industries, to help them understand the waste management system in China and how they can engage their stakeholders in the circular economy. Focusing on the circular economy of waste, and how businesses hold the power to address the waste issue in China and the potential for…
As parents crowd outside the door, a classroom is full of excited six-year-olds ready to go home. The teacher passes out homework books for the students to practice their characters and mathematics. When the students leave, the teacher doesn’t have much time but to remind the parents and students to bring back the homework books the next morning. It is a scene that plays out every day at thi…
As the gaokao has come to pass, let’s talk about promoting the education of all children in China. The National Higher Education Entrance Exam, or the gaokao, is a prerequisite for almost all higher education undergraduate institutions. Students take the gaokao to access the next step of their educational careers. However, one group of students is systematically prevented from taking the exam that…
As the largest city in China, Shanghai has an important role in innovating and contributing to a global solution to the problem of food packaging waste. With over 24 million people living in Shanghai, materials sustainability, particularly that of plastics, is a significant issue. Waimai or food delivery, which is extremely common in Shanghai, creates large amounts of waste due to the plastic c…
When speaking to firms about starting to develop their sustainability strategy, we push firms to start with having a much deeper understanding of the challenges that their customer, communities, and wider stakeholders face. The recent Starbucks announcement launching the “Starbucks China Parent Care Program,” which will provide insurance for the elder parents up to 10,000 employees, for us is a…
In this episode of AskTheCollective, we answered a question about the role of SME in China's circular economy, how they can play a part in the circular economy and the opportunities that present to them. As always, we hope you find these questions and answers useful, possibly gain some new insights, and feel compelled or inspired to ask questions of your own! Enjoy Episode 011 below, check out…
While firms are successfully developing sustainability initiatives in China, the "telling of their sustainability story", which is the communication of these initiatives – whether internally or externally – is often overlooked. And yet these stories can lead to a culture of volunteerism, encourage innovation, build a brand, and drive market share. The purpose of the May 18th executive workshop…
Last Saturday, Vincci Group and Collective Responsibility jointly held a training session in Chengdu for the upcoming real estate hackathon, where students design “The Educational Hub of Tomorrow”. Together with their mentors, six student teams from Sichuan University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Southwest Jiaotong University, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu…
