This article is in continuation of our previous blog post on the state of e-waste management in China. In our previous article, we highlighted a disconnect between China’s formal and informal recycling channels, as well as areas of potential growth for both e-waste innovators and Chinese officials: If the Chinese government wants to encourage a more dominant formal recycling system, it will…
"As China’s 'graying population' grows exponentially, the elderly population will be a major economic target for growing markets and services. While both the public and private sectors have made efforts in addressing this issue, current policies and services have been insufficient in addressing elderly demands, and many economic, social, and political challenges facing these systems still persist.…
On August 26, Collective Responsibility released a blog post about innovative e-waste processors. We highlighted the Japanese Olympic Committee and its use of old cell-phones and tech to create Olympic medals, as well as TES-AMM Shanghai, which accepts and processes e-waste. On a larger scale, a few industry leaders have gone the extra mile to improve East Asia’s formal recycling processes. Hua…
Technology is central to daily life across China and, in recent years, the smartphone has become the king amongst the tech savvy across the country and smartphone connections in China are predicted to reach one billion by 2020. Mobile technology and smartphones are not only becoming vital to personal communication, but are becoming integral in producer and consumer engagement. Individuals perform…
China’s healthcare industry has reached a crossroads. In Tier-1 cities, public hospitals are overcrowded. Patients wait in long lines and receive at best 6-7 minute consults. The elderly and patients with chronic illness travel long distances for treatment and are often turned away because of doctor shortages. In terms of health insurance, the picture is no better, as a majority of Chinese citizen…
Globally the future of work is changing. Millennial workers are entering the office, with widely differing expectations than the previous generations, more automated systems are cannibalizing jobs, and the shear nature of work spaces are changing with the proliferation of co-working and a far greater focus on collaboration. At Collective, our most recent Beyond Business As Usual Forum focus…
iPad to Gold? ThinkPad to Silver? Huawei to Bronze? That is the hope of the Japanese Olympic committee, taking waste electronics and transforming them into one of sports ultimate prizes. The country has long been a leader in the area of material recovery with advanced extended producer responsibility policies and an early focus on engaging consumers in collection schemes. As an island with l…
Dormant - People who do not possess a smartphone or smartphone-like technology (e.g. iPad) and have no interest and/or ability to acquire. There are many reasons why elderly do not adopt new technologies, or in other words, are "dormant." However, the voices of the elderly in China often go unheard on the topic of technology. With this in mind, over the last few weeks, Collective has bee…
Last week, the ILO released an ASEAN-wide report into the future of labor. At Collective Responsibility, we are proud to have been a significant contributor to the report series, specifically the focused research on the textile and electronics sectors in China and ASEAN. The future of labor is assessed throughout the report series, with major focus placed on the impact of automation on the…
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…
While the world debates what the impact of a 4 (perhaps 6) degree change to the climate will mean, who is ultimately responsible for acting, and what the price of carbon will be, an opportunity for firms and entrepreneurs alike exists to break away from the conversation and understand the role of technology as a medium for bring the scalability of solutions needed to address the growing challenges…
The world’s most populous country continues to develop at a breakneck pace, and even the recent economic slowdown hasn’t hampered the expansion of its extensive transportation infrastructure. Transportation, like much of China, has been completely changed over the past century, especially as China's urban population has exploded. With China's 1st and 2nd tier cities already congested, plagued by e…
On average, every 6 minutes China's 190 million smart phone users will log on to check in. It is a population that has grown exponentially over the last 5 years, and with the speed by which this crowd moves, it is bringing about on of the greatest disruptions in how firms interact with stakeholders. Gone are the day where firms push content through static channels (billboards, press releases,…
Over the last few years, as I have spent more time studying the impact of social enterprises and looked to understand how to maximize the impact of entrepreneurs who hold an issue of society, environment, or economy at their core, I have begun to understand that the future of social entrepreneurialism is VERY different today than what it will be in 5 years from now. At present, if you take a…
