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…
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…
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…
When building up networks of sustainability leaders and innovators, it often takes the progressive action of a single individual to catalyze real change. These individuals are Sustainability Ambassadors, and they have the capacity and the drive to inspire change at any level of an organization – from the new talent to the visionary executive. One excellent example of such an executive sustainab…
Following a two-week period of desk and field research, the Target Design an APP for left-behind children hackathon was held in Shanghai last weekend. Six student teams brainstormed for 24-hours straight to design an innovative APP that transforms the way migrant worker parents communicate with their children left behind in rural China. The outputs at the end of the 24-hour deadline were some h…
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…
Following on from our Beijing session last week, on May 23rd we hosted 25 communications, PR, and sustainability professionals in Shanghai to a workshop titled Telling Your Sustainability Story to help them better understand and anticipate how to better build social capital with their stakeholders. The session was led by presentations from PT Black, Senior Director of Brand Experience and Plannin…
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…
Last Saturday, we kicked off the first phase of our upcoming Target hackathon this June 2-3 where five student teams from leading Chinese, and one from the US, will spend 24 hours working to design an APP that will help migrant worker parents to stay better connected to their left-behind children. These training sessions act to engage the students in the challenge and to get them thinking more…
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…
At Collective Responsibility, we believe it is our mission to help organizations and leaders move from a position of awareness of challenges to building organizations that are in the best market position to deliver solutions. It is a process that we requires education, and authentic engagement, but more than that for the movement from inspiration to action happen, we know that our platform needs…
SUSTAINABILITY: THEORY VS. REALITY When discussing sustainable business, ideas that make "big-picture" environmental sense on paper may or may not translate well into day-to-day practice. What may seem more efficient in the long-term is not always conducive to the main focus of business, the bottom line – particularly when talking about supply chain actors and retailers. This is why it's so…
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 004 below, check out the full playlist here, and stay tuned for Episode 005 coming soon. (To stay in the loop on what’s new at Collective, you’ll definitely want to subscribe to our channel and follow us on social media.) #As…
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 003 below, check out the full playlist here, and stay tuned for Episode 004 coming soon. (To stay in the loop on what’s new at Collective, you’ll definitely want to subscribe to our channel and follow us on social media.) #As…
