Beijing “Telling Your Sustainability Story” Workshop Recap

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…

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Sustainability | #AskTheCollective 010

In this episode, we answer questions about the point at which people will start to care about sustainability, and what are the lessons that Africa can take from China to tackle the environmental impact of international investments. As always, we hope you find these questions and answers useful, gain some new insights, and possibly help catalyze you to take your next step! If you enjoyed it,…

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Collective Responsibility Executive Luncheon Series (Re)Launches This Month!

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…

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Globalization, Sustainability and Making Progress in China | #AskTheCollective 009

Welcome back this week's episode of #AskTheCollective, where we answered two questions. The first on the impact of the globalization and free trade on sustainability, and whether it has exacerbated the environmental, economic, and social challenges faced, and the second question focused on the progress that we have seen in China. As always, we hope you find these questions and answers useful, g…

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From China to India: Scaling Sustainable Solutions

Early this year, I took a flight from Mumbai to Shanghai - which included a five-hour, pollution-related delay in Delhi. During the whole time in the air, it was only over the Himalayas that I saw the Asian continent getting a respite from the consequences of industrial activity, localized burning, and energy consumption. India: The Next "China" India is now well-documented to follow in Chin…

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衣食住行 – New Innovation in China’s Basic Needs

Globally, China is often portrayed as the bad guy when it comes to environmental degradation and harm. While this is not without substance, and in many areas China is lacking far behind the world leaders, a growing public consciousness and the identification of opportunity is leading innovators to tackle the problems with business solutions. In this post, we outline areas of development and innova…

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Understanding Stakeholders in China’s Aquaculture Value Chain

This month, Collective Responsibility was appointed by a global food and nutrition client to speak to their executives about the sustainability risks affecting their industries in China, with a focus on aquaculture, and the market opportunities available through strategic innovation and positioning. Urbanisation continues to add pressure to the environmental and social systems of the food indus…

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Sustainable Tech: Food and Agriculture

Tech is becoming a part of all aspects of life and sustainability is no exception to this. In this piece, in the run-up to our Beyond Business As Usual Forum, we present the future of food in China and how tech can be leveraged to help provide for a growing, more expectant urban population. Over the past 30 years, China has experienced rapid levels of urbanization and increased individual a…

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Tangible Definitions of Sustainability Increase Engagement

To understand the importance of sustainability, you only have to spend a short period of time in one of China’s major cities where you see firsthand the challenges faced in developing urban systems where balance in economic development, society, and the environment is required. These systems are growing at speeds never seen before, and are unlikely to abate anytime in the next 35 years as we mo…

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Sustainability and the Five Year Plan

Given the recent commitments to curb coal consumption, and the signature of carbon agreements in Paris, it should come as no surprise that the recently announced 5th-year plan would heavily emphasize sustainability and the continued need to address China’s mounting environmental and social challenges. Within the recent plan, which you can access here, there are a lot of measures for corpora…

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Responsible Leadership and Sourcing

With greater awareness and transparency in supply chains, companies are feeling pressured to become more responsible to meet their customers’ expectations. This could be through making large donations, hosting charity galas, and flying their staff to the other side of the country to plant trees. There are numerous ways to demonstrate corporate responsibility, yet the question comes down to how do…

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Food and Sustainability in China

In February, Richard Brubaker, Founder and Managing Director of Collective Responsibility gave two presentations to DOW Agriculture leadership and sustainability teams on the sustainability and the future of food in China. As one of the largest firms in the food & agricultural sector and one whose products extend throughout the food & agricultural value chain, Rich covered a wide ra…

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Sustainable Urbanization in China

While COP21 delegates are still on their way home from Paris, the work to develop China's practice of sustainable urbanization continues. In this interview we speak with LendLease China's Managing Director David Nieh to learn more about the need for sustainable cities in China, the challenges they face, and the lessons they can teach others. We hope you enjoy his insights, and feel free…

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5 Lessons For Engaging Suppliers on Sustainability

This month, Collective Responsibility was invited to take part in a supplier CSR forum with Groupe Rocher, the French cosmetics firm.  An event where our founder, Rich Brubaker, spoke about CSR trends in China, and where Charlie Mathews, Director of Corporate Advisory, moderated a workshop. Suppliers from across China and South Korea attended, with a diverse range of knowledge and application of s…

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Sustainable Design for the Future

The world that surrounds us – the signs that direct us, the smartphone pages we flick through, the way we use buildings, how we move around cities – is consciously or unconsciously designed. This design has a great impact on the use and sustainable credentials of our products and systems. In fact, 80% of the environmental impacts of the products we use daily are determined in the very early stag…

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