SK Nexilis, as part of SK Group’s Electric Vehicle (EV) value chain, has announced a proposed investment of RM2.3 billion to set up its first overseas production base in Malaysia in January 2021.

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SK Nexilis is building a copper foil manufacturing facility base located at Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) in Sabah.

The commercial operations will kickstart by 2023, and the new facility will increase SK Nexilis’ copper foil production capacity by three times its current global capacity to about 100,000 tonnes.

SK Group subsidiary SoCar to set up an EV platform in Malaysia

This comes in line with the recent announcement that its Malaysian subsidiary SOCAR Malaysia Sdn Bhd (SOCAR) has closed a $55 million Series A round of investment. EastBridge Partners led the deal, a leading private equity firm focused on Asia and the Pacific region investments, joined by strategic investor Sime Darby Berhad.

The company is planning to set up an EV platform in the country to deploy hundreds of EVs in the next five years.

Socar and Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) have also recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to leverage shared demand data on EV usage in Malaysia as part of efforts to speed up the adoption of EVs.

The MoU outlines TNB’s plans to leverage Socar’s data on travel behavior and vehicle usage to identify locations along key travel routes to install charging infrastructure.

“TNB is set to take a leading role in driving EV adoption in Malaysia, especially among fleet management operators, and one of the key steps to achieving this is by establishing more EV charging zones that would be utilized optimally based on known travel routes,” said TNB chief retail officer Datuk Megat Jalaluddin Megat Hassan.

“This recent collaboration with Socar is more extensive, compared to our initial partnership back in December 2019 when TNB became the enabler for SoCar’s first two EV zones in Cyberjaya with the introduction of the first-ever EVs in their fleet”, he added.

Strategic investment into BigPay

In addition, the company made a strategic investment of up to $100m into BigPay, a leading regional fintech company based in Malaysia. The August 2021 investment into BigPay is SK Group’s first step in entering the fast-growing fintech sector outside Korea.

In a statement, SK Group said that the investment into BigPay was a testament to the ability of Malaysian fintech companies to grow not just domestically but also regionally and become a significant player in Southeast Asia. 

SK Group said it was also joining the AirAsia Group Bhd’s e-wallet unit BigPay to apply for Malaysia’s upcoming digital banking license.

“The company intends to expand its product sets and grow the model to new markets with the funds”, said BigPay co-founder and chief executive officer Salim Dhanani. 

Chief Representative of SK Malaysia, Jung Kyu Kim said, “We are confident that SK’s experience in financial tech services will contribute to successful digital bank ecosystem in Malaysia and further growth into the ASEAN region.” 

The post SK Group to invest US$700m in EVs, environment in Malaysia appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

This comes as the chief executive announced the tech giant’s long-term plan to quintuple GMV to US$100 billion across their Lazada e-Commerce platforms.

Complementing this ambition for industry growth and dominance, Alibaba is pledging to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations by 2030, the group said in a statement.

In their Alibaba Group Carbon Neutrality Report 2021, the organization has introduced a “Scope 3+” target, claiming it is a pioneering initiative aimed at facilitating 1.5 gigatons of decarbonization by 2035. 

“We aspire to be a force for positive, innovative change in society. Our ESG strategy is predicated on our mission to be a good company that will live for 102 years and it is a vital foundation for Alibaba’s future development,” said Daniel Zhang, Chairman, and CEO of Alibaba Group. 

On Alibaba’s Scope 3+ and carbon neutrality 

Developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), the Scope inventories are a set of tools and guidelines for organizations to develop action plans to lower carbon emissions. 

The inventories provide tools and practices to deal with different sources of emissions, which are categorized under Scope 1, 2, or 3.  

According to Alibaba, “Scope 3+,” refers to the emissions generated by a broader range of participants in the platform’s ecosystem, currently outside of Scopes 1, 2, and 3.  

Definition of Corporate GHG Emissions Scopes 1, 2, and 3, adapted from Greenhouse Gas Protocol: Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. (IMG/Alibaba Group)

Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse (GHG) emissions that occur from sources that are controlled or owned by an organization, whereas Scope 2 emissions are indirect GHG emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, steam, heat, or cooling.

Scope 3 emissions are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by the reporting organization, but where the organization indirectly impacts its value chain.

Alibaba Group’s green roadmap 

The group is committed to carbon neutrality for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and has set a 50% carbon intensity reduction target for Scope 3 by 2030 using 2020 levels as a baseline. 

Alibaba Cloud will bear responsibility for a higher Scope 3 target and aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 in all three scopes.

Greenhouse Gas emissions by Alibaba in 2020 (IMG/Alibaba Group)

Alibaba Group has also committed to joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and has aligned its decarbonization measures and strategy with the “Business Ambition for 1.5°C” pledge, a critical target to ameliorate the catastrophic impacts of climate change as outlined by the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The company will adopt a “systematic and science-based approach” to plan and manage decarbonization initiatives. 

These include leveraging energy-saving and efficiency-improving technologies to reduce emissions; actively transforming the energy structure with progressive use of renewables; and exploration of carbon removal initiatives. 

“We believe the use of digital platforms can play a significant role in empowering a low carbon circular economic model that can lead to achieving the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement.

“The concept of ‘Scope 3+’ is based on the potential of leveraging our digital platforms to influence and advocate for low carbon products, services, and behavior among a wider group of stakeholders in our ecosystem. 

Highlights of Alibaba’s Decarbonization efforts (IMG/Alibaba Group)

“This is in addition to sharing our energy-efficient technologies and innovative business tools with customers and business partners to reduce the carbon footprint together,” said Dr. Chen Long, Vice President of Alibaba Group and Chair of Alibaba’s Sustainability Steering Committee.

As a general principle, the company prioritizes carbon reduction over removal, and removal over offset.

Alibaba will continue to improve its carbon reduction measurement and metrics in Scope 3+ by working and partnering with leading expert organizations globally. 

Dedicated ESG Governance Body

The group also announced a new three-tier ESG governance framework to oversee, enable and support the achievement of its carbon neutrality targets and broader ESG goals. 

Chaired by independent director Jerry Yang, the board-level Sustainability Steering Committee will be responsible for strategic planning, goal setting, and management of Alibaba’s carbon neutrality efforts. 

An ESG cross-business action group comprising representatives from each business unit at the working level will be responsible for coordination and execution.

BANKS IN ASIA ARE GOING GREEN TO REDUCE THEIR CARBON FOOTPRINT

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Meanwhile, Alibaba aims to continue to improve its information and data disclosure and reporting mechanism. 

Starting 2022, the firm “aims to release its ESG report annually”, in which concrete and specific annual progress will be included. 

All reports will adhere to the most reputable metrics laid out in domestic and international standards and will be verified by accredited auditors, said the statement.

Alibaba fintech arm pledged carbon neutrality too

In March this year, Ant Group, the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group first detailed a roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

The fintech giant aims to neutralize direct and indirect emissions associated with the purchase of electricity from this year and seeks to fully cancel out carbon emissions generated from external sources it does not own or control by 2030. 

APAC BANKS NOW PRIORITIZING CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT FOR RISK MANAGEMENT

Jamilah Lim | 10 September, 2021

This includes emissions within its supply chain and business travel. It also set up a carbon neutrality fund to support the research and development of renewable energy and other green technologies, as well as work with industry partners to promote green finance. 

The Asia-Pacific, comprising 60% of the world’s population, consumes half the world’s power supply. China is Asia’s leader in the production, procurement, and utilization of sustainable and renewable energy. 

However, nearly 60% of the Chinese economy is powered by coal, which has spurred President Xi to pledge carbon neutrality by 2060.

The post Alibaba Group pledges carbon neutrality by 2030 appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

According to a Moody’s report, water management risks related to supply and quality issues, as well as climate risks, pose credit challenges across multiple sectors in Asia. The report stated that South and Southeast Asia face more risks as water scarcity and mismanagement are prevalent.

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“Asia is generally more vulnerable to water risks than other regions. Across sectors, issuers are facing water management issues such as inadequate access to clean or purified water supply, and reputational and regulatory risks related to the downstream effect of water use, including supply, pollution, and sanitation,” says Nishad Majmudar, a Moody’s Assistant Vice President and Analyst.

In Malaysia, water management continues to be a major problem in some states. For example, the state of Selangor has areas that experience water cuts almost every month. While some of these water cuts are short-term, they can still have serious implications on businesses that rely on water supply.

CTI Resources, a Malaysian company has partnered with Schneider Electric, AVEVA, and Stratus to leverage each other’s expertise in the development of Water 4.0 technologies as well as solutions to resolve water management constraints.

Some of the biggest problems with water management include visibility, aging infrastructure, and financial constraints. At the same time, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought a unique set of challenges for the water and wastewater industries as well.  This is on top of existing challenges such as aging infrastructures, financial limitations, and lack of knowledge transfer within the workforce as well.

“The pandemic has not changed the real priorities of utilities, instead, it has created new and emerging challenges. With the acceleration of digital transformation, it is now time for industry leaders and key players to take on this challenge by considering the adoption of digital technologies,” said Shanmugavel Subramaniam, Schneider Electric’s Water & Wastewater Segment Leader.

He added that Schneider Electric is committed to tackling these challenges by moving towards a ‘remote everything’ concept. This includes a good investment in digital technologies that enable operators to lower implementation costs as it will help address challenges quickly, avoiding potential costly issues.

Water providers should also look to implementing a simple IT/OT convergence-based solution as it will also empower the next generation of workers to easily adapt, saving on training time and reducing operational risks.

“In the long run, we foresee that going digital will improve operational sustainability, with reduced water leakage and loss through better decision making and processes,” he added.

A unified tool for water management

To address emerging challenges in the industry, Schneider Electric, CTI Resources, AVEVA, and Stratus introduced the Unified Operations Center (UOC) for water management. The UOC is a real-time operational performance management center that utilizes Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and big data analytics with a centralized view that supports water and wastewater organizations to make informed decisions in a short time. The tool will be a crucial consideration when facing highly disruptive issues.

The UOC leverages Water 4.0 technologies to digitally transform the water and wastewater management industry for improved sustainability, efficiency, and resilience.

Key benefits of the UOC include:

• Transparency and collaboration as the UOC will provide full visibility of data to streamline processes and avoid operational silos.
• Seamless integration enabling integration of the UOC with all operational systems to deliver faster, better, more efficient decision-making.
• Being agile and highly receptive for faster and more informed decisions especially for crises response to maximize performance.
• Being predictive and not passive-active risk management by spotting problems before they occur through predictive analytics.
• High compatibility for adaptation to current systems with vendor-agnostic technology.

As water crisis and shortages are expected to continue for some time, water management tools like the UOC may just allow water companies and businesses to have better visibility and management capabilities in handling their resources and solving problems.

The post Solving water management woes with a unified operations center appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

This is according to the 11th EY and Institute of International Finance (IIF) bank risk management survey titled “Resilient banking: Capturing opportunities and managing risks over the long term.”

“Climate change has climbed to the top of Asia-Pacific banks’ short- and long-term risk agendas for the first time since we began this survey over a decade ago. The greater immediacy that Asia-Pacific banks’ CROs are placing on climate change risk over the next year, compared to the global average, reflects the urgency that regulators across the Asia-Pacific region have placed on climate risk management capabilities, as well as a heightened focus by investors and shareholders on disclosures,” said EY Asia-Pacific Financial Services Risk Management Leader David Scott.

However, while APAC bank CROs have caught on to the emerging risk that is climate change in looking at risk management, the survey also found that, in practice, only 20% of the polled respondents have indicated a “somewhat complete understanding”.

This, according to the survey, is indicative of how, in practice, APAC banks are still maturing in their ability to assess physical and transitional risk exposures, and that sourcing and managing climate risk-related data continue to be a challenge.

“Similarly in Malaysia, climate change risk continues to be a key area of focus of CROs. Driven by increased regulatory focus and expectations, many financial institutions have begun to integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles into their strategy and risk management practices.”

“The issuance of the Climate Change and Principle-based Taxonomy by Bank Negara Malaysia earlier this year has provided a common framework for the classification of climate risk-related exposures,” said Joazral Yusof, Partner of Ernst & Young Consulting Sdn Bhd.

Joazral added that, the more recent update of the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance by the Securities Commission had proposed that boards and senior management be evaluated on how well they manage sustainability risks and opportunities.

“As such, it is critical for financial institutions to keep pace and continue to build the right capabilities and capacity required to successfully implement ESG strategies and risk management,” Joazral said.

As it stands, climate change as a major issue is nothing new for big tech companies, many of which have already taken the lead in sustainable development in APAC, such as Amazon’s forays into renewable energy in the region, and Australia’s advances into technology to lower its national carbon footprint.

Cloudflare’s target of a zero-emissions internet stands as a more global example of how tech companies have already identified climate change as a significant factor moving forward.

Covid-19 and risk management

Other than climate change, APAC bank CROs also listed resilience factors, amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic, as leading items on the risk management agenda, followed by cybersecurity, and credit risk linked to economic uncertainty.

However, global results differed, with 98% of global CROs seeing credit risk as the top concern for banks over the next 12 months, as the world continues to recover from the pandemic, with cybersecurity following at 80%.

“While cybersecurity has long been the leading immediate concern for CROs, the Covid-19 pandemic changed the game. The breadth and depth of the pandemic’s shock to the global economy have brought credit concerns to the forefront for banks over the next 12 months,” said IIF Regulatory Affairs Managing Director Andrés Portilla.

It was also noted that the pandemic had proven to be an unprecedented and unexpected test of risk management for banks, one that most of the banking sector had passed through building greater and higher-quality capital and liquidity. Another positive is that, with banks accelerating their digital moves due to the pandemic, greater technological resilience was also built.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown just how quickly things can change, but it’s also shown us the agility of the banking sector in times of crisis. It’s clear that banks, both regionally and globally, may have to contend with persistent and dynamic disruption not just today, but tomorrow and into the future, and it’s vital they remain resilient to all forms of risk – existing, new and emerging,” said EY APAC Banking and Capital Markets Consulting Leader Douglas Nixon.

Nixon added that, over the next decade, APAC banks would very well survive new challenges and continue to thrive through the combination of talent, data, and technology.

Digital transformation and tech disruption

The survey had also identified that five of the top ten emerging risks according to APAC bank CROs relate to technology and data, including disruption to the industry due to new technologies, the pace and breadth of change from digitization, and model risk related to machine learning or AI.

However, the same CROs also expect banks to further accelerate digitalization through automating processes, modernizing core technology, and delivering enhanced insights to customers.

80% of APAC bank CROs also expect to see the introduction of new or additional regulatory requirements on operational resilience, with 70% expecting the same for financial resilience, based on the lessons learned during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Still, the majority of APAC banks still see rising control costs, mainly attributed to building greater resilience and effecting digital transformation agendas. However, 10% of those banks believe they can manage down control costs over the next three years through the use of data and technology to improve risk management.

Key takeaways

Climate change as a risk in coming years is being increasingly accepted across more and more industries, with efforts being stepped up to address the issue in ways that are sustainable to the environment in accordance with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

This presents opportunities for companies that can bridge the gap between traditional industries and sustainable efforts, that can aid in the transformation of companies towards sustainable development.

However, this also marks the sector as a crowded competition zone, as more of such companies pop up in the market. The importance of a USP in this regard would serve a company well in standing head and shoulders above the competition.

With consumers also aiming towards greener, more sustainable products, to the point where three-quarters of global consumers are willing to change consumption habits, it stands to reason that this trend can only continue to provide opportunities for growth, providing an organization can stand out from the crowd.

The post APAC banks now prioritizing climate change impact for risk management appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Australia’s expenditures

Energy consumption is by far the largest source of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for producing 73% of greenhouse gases worldwide. Within the energy sector, the generation of heat and electricity is responsible for most emissions.

After major oil-producing countries, Australia is one of the world’s largest carbon emitters on a per capita basis, producing 17 tonnes of CO2 emissions yearly. To put that into perspective, the global average stood at 4.8 tonnes in 2017. 

In 2015, Australia’s energy sector made up 79% of emissions. Of this, electricity made up 35%. However, direct combustion from factories and transportation contributed 18% each. 

From (Department of Environment and Energy, 2016). Direct combustion includes emissions from burning coal and gas for industrial and building
heat, steam, and pressure as well as emissions from combustion of fuel for mobile equipment in mining, manufacturing, construction, agriculture, forestry, and fishing. Fugitive emissions include GHG released during coal mining, and oil and gas production and transport. The split of electricity between buildings and industry is approximated from electricity consumption of commercial and residential as a percentage of total thermal electricity in 2014-15 from 2016 Australian Energy Statistics (Office of the Chief Economist, Table F).  Split for direct combustion calculated from (Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, 2016)

Govt’s initiatives to lower carbon emissions

Most of the world has, by now, enacted some forms of legislation to rein in their carbon footprint expenditure, especially viz their Paris Agreement commitments. On 10 November 2016, Australia ratified the Paris Agreement, committing to achieving a 26-28% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions below 2005 levels by 2030. 

The Paris Agreement also requires signatories to strengthen their abatement efforts over time with the overarching goal of limiting the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.

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In 2020, the government announced a total funding package of A$1.6 billion (US$1.2 billion) for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Implementing the Technology Roadmap) Regulations 2021 including guaranteed baseline funding of A$1.43 billion (US$1.1 billion) over the next 10 years. 

ARENA was given A$192.5 million (US$141.8 million) this year to deliver programs. These include supporting microgrids in regional Australia, reducing barriers to the use of electric vehicles or vehicles powered by biofuels or clean hydrogen, and investigating energy efficiency and emissions reduction in energy-intensive industries, according to a statement by ARENA.

In July this year, the Australian government launched new rules aimed at supporting the next generation of low emission energy technologies (LETs).

Under the new rules, ARENA will be able to support priority technologies identified in the first Low Emissions Technology Statement, including green hydrogen, energy storage, low emission aluminum and steel, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and soil carbon.

Addressing challenges

According to the government, Australia’s natural renewable energy and mineral resources, vast landmass, suitable geology, and close proximity to emerging markets will continue to be the foundation of their low emissions efforts.

However, a key challenge revolves around supplying affordable, renewable energy, as well as the transformation of energy-intensive industries. 

Affordable, clean, and reliable energy is the cornerstone of improved productivity, competitiveness, and lower emissions from industries. Lower energy costs will reduce pressure on household budgets and improve quality of life. 

Low-cost and reliable energy will encourage more onshore energy-intensive manufacturing, and improved productivity and reduced emissions intensity will help capture new opportunities in a global low emissions economy.

Reducing carbon emissions with new technologies

Priority low emissions technologies (LETs) are those expected to have a significant impact on Australia’s big technological challenges and opportunities. These technologies have the highest abatement and economic potential in areas of comparative advantage for Australia. 

They are priorities where government investments can make a difference in reducing prices and improving technology readiness.

The Roadmap identified five priority new and emerging technologies:

• Clean hydrogen; 
• Long duration energy storage; 
• Low carbon materials, including aluminum and steel; 
• Carbon capture and storage; and 
• New measurement technologies for healthier soils

These priority low emissions technologies will offer emissions reduction opportunities across Australia’s economic sectors, with sequestration technologies also providing additional decarbonization pathways for key industries, while protecting and preserving jobs.

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Economic stretch goals are ambitious but realistic goals to bring priority low emissions technologies to economic parity with existing mature technologies. Stretch goals have been set for each priority technology. 

The Australian government will target international partnerships that support these economic stretch goals, including access to global markets and more competitive supply chains. They will also prioritize partnerships that focus on critical research, development, and deployment challenges for economically important, hard-to-abate sectors.

The post Australia’s lowering carbon emissions with new technology appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

With mountains of waste and other refuse not being managed properly across the continent, Asia has a substantial environmental hazard on its hands. Recycling robots might be able to lend a mechanical hand, and we should take the opportunity before the problem reaches truly critical levels.

The World Bank says that 2.01 billion tons of municipal solid waste is generated globally every year, and more than half of that (1.19 billion) is generated in the regions of South Asia, Europe, and Central Asia, as well as East Asia and the Pacific.

Generally more high-income regions, such as Europe, will have better waste collection infrastructure, up to 96% in some areas. But in lower-income nations such as many in Asia, only 39-51% gets collected for proper recycling.

Issues with garbage collection is a major reason for poor waste management, since many Asian regions of high population density contain vast spaces of urban sprawl with poor urban planning and overstretched civic amenities, like in China and India.

Garbage collection is difficult in many urban areas, such as parts of Mumbai. Source: Shutterstock

In efforts to tackle the problem, there are a growing variety of autonomous robotic thrash collectors in the works. Volvo’s ROAR prototype is exploring how the work can be made more efficient with the use of a drone and robotic collector while, in India, an autonomous robot is being developed that will aim to help the country’s “mammoth task of garbage collection and segregation.”

In addition, the existing poor collection methods in Asia results in recyclable materials such as plastic, glass, paper, and others all being collected mixed together, causing extra costs to separate them and recycle them. It is often just cheaper to dump all of this rather than invest in improving waste collection and separation of materials at the source of collection.

In China and India for example, the problem is so bad that over 90 percent of waste is sent to landfills with, at most, limited attempts to treat or cover the landfills.

To help address this, AI-driven robots can help sift through unsorted thrash, using sensors and computerized systems to detect recyclable items like plastic containers, glass, or aluminum cans that can account for as much as 75-80% of a collected load. These detected recyclables can then be removed via robotic arm in a fully automated process, leaving just 20-25% of unrecyclable waste to be composted or disposed of.

Such AI-guided robotic systems are currently being installed at Florida’s Single Stream Recyclers (“SSR”) 100,000 sqft. municipal waste management facility. SSR operates high-speed precision robots from AMP Robotics that sort, pick, and process materials on a number of different lines throughout the facility including plastics, cartons, paper, cardboard, metals, and other materials.

AMP’s Neuron AI platform guides the AMP Cortex robots, using advanced computer vision and machine learning to continuously train itself by processing millions of material images within an ever-expanding neural network that adapts from experience to changes in a facility’s materials processing stream.

“Robots are the future of the recycling industry. Our investment with AMP is vital to our goal of creating the most efficient recycling operation possible, while producing the highest value commodities for resale,” commented John Hansen co-owner of SSR.

Added fellow co-owner of SSR Eric Konik, “AMP’s robots are highly reliable and can consistently pick 70-80 items a minute as needed, twice as fast as humanly possible and with greater accuracy. This will help us lower cost, remove contamination, increase the purity of our commodity bales, divert waste from the landfill, and increase overall recycling rates.”

Trade body Food Industry Asia also found in its study that improving Southeast Asia’s waste collection systems – rather than banning or taxing plastic consumption which had proven to be ineffective in the region – to be the most effective way to prevent plastic waste from leaking into the ocean, a major issue facing ocean conservation in this part of the world.

But what of plastic waste already in the oceans and rivers? There are several autonomous projects already literally in the water, such as WasteShark that collects ocean waste by swimming through the ocean, able to collect up to 200 liters before needing to be emptied.

A ‘Jellyfishbot’ collects floating waste in the harbour of Cassis. Source: AFP

Hector The Collector is a remote-controlled bot from the Rozalia Project that uses sonar to map deposits of plastic and other waste deep on the ocean floor, and Hector can dive down to collect this rubbish without impacting the surrounding marine life.

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And Dutch NGO The Ocean Cleanup has released a robot that intends to clean up 80% of the world’s rivers within five years. The Ocean Cleanup founder Boyan Slat believes 1,000 rivers worldwide are responsible for some 80% of plastic pouring into oceans, so its robot is a solar-powered device that scoops up waste from river surfaces, positioning the garbage unto conveyor belts and into a bin headed for recycling.

One of its first robots is being used to pluck 30 tons of garbage out of Malaysia’s Klang River, every day.

The post Can robots help tackle Asia’s recycling crisis? appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

The Guide to Greener Electronics, released by Greenpeace US, assessed 17 of the top global tech companies in various areas including use of recyclable materials in their products, to the sustainability of the infrastructures that support these businesses.

The report said that many of these companies had not committed fully to relying on renewable energy, an issue which would pose huge environmental issues further down the line.

“There is no question that smartphones, PCs, and other computing devices have changed the world and our day-to-day lives in incredible ways,” the report said.

“But behind this innovative 21st-century technology lie supply chain and manufacturing processes still reliant on 19th-century sources of energy, dangerous mining practices, hazardous chemicals, and poorly designed products that drive consumption of the Earth’s resources.”

Out of 17 companies, Amazon, Vivo, Oppo and Samsung has some of the poorest grades. Source: Greenpeace USA

The report is damning in its indictment of the complicity of tech firms in the slow degradation of the environment. Greepeace said that despite the environmentally conscious, progressive images many companies are quick to disguise themselves in, smartphone makers from Oppo and Vivo, to gadget giant Lenovo and Microsoft, are merely projecting themselves as guardians of the environment.

In the top 17 companies, only Dutch Fairphone and American Apple were performed relatively well, while Asian entrants lagged far behind. This is likely because Fairphone and Apple produce relatively expensive products, unlike Oppo, Vivo and Samsung whose gadgets rely on cheaper components to run.

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Samsung Electronics in particular was graded as a D-performer in its use of renewable energy, which the report said accounted for only 1 percent of its operations unlike Apple’s 96 percent. Samsung is by far the world’s largest smartphone maker, and has been burning through resources as it ups its production in the face of stiffer competition from Oppo and Vivo, which dominate China’s massive market.

Samsung was previously lauded for its efforts to refurbish their explosive Galaxy Note 7 devices, most of which had been recalled.

Greenpeace has been pushing for firmer commitments from technology firms to transition not just their production but their data centers that run software and research to more sustainable, environmentally-friendly power sources. Their work recently has centered on urging industry players to consider energy issues in both manufacturing and supply chains.

“In the next three to five years, the use of renewable energy and how well the companies cope with climate change will determine their core competitiveness,” said Lee Insung, a Greenpeace campaigner, according to the Associated Press.

The post Tech companies aren’t as environmentally friendly as they look, says Greenpeace appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

To help balance this growing demand with supply shortages, an innovative Indian start-up called Ecolibrium Energy has developed an energy analytics platform called SmartSense that uses demand-side-response to reduce the energy consumption of industry and provide much-needed relief to the grid.

Through the platform Coca Cola and Tata, as well as 750 other commercial and industrial consumers and utilities in South Asia, have saved up to 15 percent of their energy and asset maintenance costs.

The company’s SmartSense energy analytics platform has been honoured by the UK-based Ashden sustainable energy awards, where, on the 14th of June, it won International Ashden Award for Powering Business.

Powering India

Coming from a small town in India where access to electricity was a big issue, Founder and Director Harit Soni and his brother Chintan Soni decided they wanted to use technology to fix inefficiencies in the network.

The brothers soon realised the best place to start was with large companies that account for around 50 percent of India’s energy consumption.

Harit Soni, one half of the founding team of Ecolibrium Energy. Pic: Ashden

“The reason blackouts happen is because peak demand is not met and most times that demand comes from industry and not houses,” said Harit, speaking to Tech Wire Asia at the Ashden International Conference.

“We knew that if we could reduce these inefficiencies, we could provide better power to the rest of the country,” he added.

Ecolibrium’s SmartSense platform provides a detailed view of energy consumption across a company’s facility. It will identify trends, find energy hotspots, spot leaks, measure consumption and perform predictive machine learning intelligence so that companies can improve energy efficiency.

“Monitoring is becoming a commodity these days; the data and what you can do with it to bring actionable intelligence Is key and where we have found our edge,” said Harit.

SEE ALSO: Singapore: Renewable energy firm Equis to sell entire India portfolio

Competitive edge

Currently, Ecolibrium is monitoring roughly 2GW of power in India which is the equivalent to ten Indian cities’ core consumption, he adds.

Although digital demand side response is a relatively new concept in India, it is not in the US and Europe.

But Harit says Ecolibrium has an edge over most other comparable companies because it can integrate with almost all sensors across a factory.

Chintan Soni, other founder and CEO of Equilibrium Energy. Pic: Ashden

“In the UK, companies like Demand Logic integrate the building management system and then take all the data, whereas we can integrate with existing sensors that are already deployed, so our ability to collect data is much higher,” explains Harit.

“The second benefit we have is very specific domain knowledge and algorithms for assets like HVAC systems, motors and transformers, which is now patented and can be deployed very cheaply.”

The conventional way to do motor condition monitoring is to put in a vibration sensor and a temperature sensor to examine the health of the machine.

Ecolibrium, however, can achieve the same functionality with the same accuracy by just tracking electricity data from an energy meter, which drastically reduces costs of analytics and performing predictive maintenance.

SEE ALSO: Rapper Akon plans IPO for Chinese-backed solar energy business in Africa

Changing mind-sets

However, Harit and his team faced challenges introducing the new concept to Indian-based businesses. It was hard to convince them the SmartSense platform was better than doing scheduled, paper-based maintenance.

“Another challenge we had was getting the right skill sets of people to come together, because the real value of SmartSense comes from deep domain and data scientists coming together,” explained Harit.

The company, which was incubated at CIIE, IIM-Ahmedabad in Ahmedabad and has been supported by IFC and Infuse Ventures, has now achieved scale in India and is looking to expand outside the country.

An insight into how #Smartsense is helping businesses use big data and #energyanalytics and converting data into dollars! #everywattcounts https://t.co/9myYzg0UH5

— Ecolibrium Energy (@ecolibriume) June 21, 2017

It is on the verge of announcing a new international investment and partnership agreement that is hopes will help take the company global.

“That is the edge we are hoping will help us when we go international,” says Harit. “It is a very exciting time for us.”

The post Indian startup Ecolibrium Energy is beating blackouts with smart energy analytics appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Nobuyoshi Yamasaki has said his innovation, made from an “almost inexhaustible” resource, could revolutionize paper-manufacturing and circumvent future paper shortages. According to Yamasaki, in an interview with Bloomberg, global demand for paper is expected to double by 2030, despite the fact the world is still rapidly shedding many of its forest resources.

“Paper is cheap and hard to sell,” Yasuhiro Nakada, an analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co., tells Bloomberg. “Making paper from wood chips involves planting trees, which can be carbon-neutral, so I’m not sure how much appeal this will have from an environmental perspective.”

His company, TBM Co., has developed a product called Limex paper, which does not require water for production, unlike regular paper which consumes 100 tonnes of water for every tonne produced. A tonne of limestone paper also uses less than a tonne of limestone and 200kg of polyolefin, a kind of plastic —compared to the 20 trees that would be required to make a comparable amount.

A tonne of Limex is made from less than a tonne of limestone and around 200kg of polyolefin. Source: TBM

“I want to end my life as an entrepreneur by creating a company that will last for hundreds of years,” Yamasaki tells Bloomberg.

“Our material will play an active role in many places as the world faces population growth and water shortage.”

TMB appears to be getting some solid feedback from interested parties, as the company has recently raised JPY1 billion (US$9.1 million) from an existing backer and a potential listing is in the books. For now though, TBM earns most of its profits by making business cards, which is more durable than the average type, and its water-resistant nature means it can be written on underwater.

SEE ALSO: China’s renewable energy program is slowing due to lack of upgrades

Yamasaki has signed on Sushiro Global Holdings Ltd. and will be producing menus for 400 restaurants across Japan.

He was inspired while in Taiwan, where a stationeries shop was peddling stone-based paper. He decided to produce his own spin on it. The many disasters that struck Japan in the last decade cut his factories’ production off at the knees, but the almost miraculous nature of his product turned heads everywhere.  

Ultimately, his goal is to have his product proliferate enough to generate JPY1 trillion in revenue in the next 15 or so years. His company is looking to open factories in the limestone-rich locations of the world, including Morocco and California. That might be a stretch for a relatively young company, but for the short term, he’s looking forward to opening a Japanese plant by 2020.

The post Japanese startup makes limestone-based paper to save our future appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Malaysia’s Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Maximus Johnity Ongkili and Kazakhstan’s Vice Energy Minister Gani Sadibekov signed the agreement at the Malaysia Energy Forum held in conjunction with the ongoing Expo 2017, reported The New Straits Times.

SEE ALSO: Singapore: Renewable energy firm Equis to sell entire India portfolio

“The cooperation will serve our common interests and contribute to the enhancement of the economic and social development of the people of both countries,” Maximus said.

“Malaysia has a lot of experience in the green technology field, which can contribute to Kazakhstan realizing its goal for renewable energy to contribute to half of its energy needs by 2050.”

Maximus said Malaysia’s relationship with Kazakhstan had been fruitful, with 99 percent of the trade volume between the two nations involving Kazakhstan importing products from Malaysia, such as wood, marble, electronic chips and palm oil.

However, trade between the two countries dropped slightly last year to RM360.7 million (US$84 million) from RM429.5 million (US$100 million) in 2015 due to foreign exchange fluctuations.

Malaysia, Kazakhstan ink MoU to foster cooperation in green technology, energy https://t.co/KYTTiwvgtX pic.twitter.com/SBv7tfwrKA

— theSun (@theSundaily) June 12, 2017

The bilateral agreement will contribute to the RM1 billion in trade and investments the Malaysian government wants to secure at Expo 2017.

The Malaysia Energy Forum, themed “Tapping the Potential of the Asean Energy Market”, is organised by Malaysia during Expo 2017 to showcase the nation’s emerging market leadership in Green Growth.

The post Malaysia and Kazakhstan team up in boosting green technology appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.