The commitment to transition towards sustainable energy comes afore as the new year opened with Indonesia banning coal exports due to insufficient supply for its power plants. 

On January 1, the country enacted the ban as its coal miners failed to fulfill their Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) to provide state utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) with 25% of their annual production.

The country exports about three times the 130 million tons of coal annually to generate 60% of its 73 GW electric capacity.

GREEN DREAMS IN SEA AS HOLONIQ DEBUTS FIRST-EVER CLIMATE TECH 50 LIST

Aaron Raj | 29 October, 2021

“Why is exporting prohibited for everyone? We can’t help it, and it’s just temporary. If the prohibition is not implemented, over 20 power plants with a combined capacity of 10,850 megawatts will be shut down,” said Ridwan Jamaluddin, director-general of minerals and coal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, in a statement.

Indonesia raised its coal output target

Last year, Indonesia raised its coal output target by 14% to 625 million tons to capitalize on high coal prices. Likewise, the coal miners have a preference to sell abroad as the prices hit almost US$170 per ton as of January. 

That’s more than double the US$70 per ton fixed coal price the government placed under the DMO since 2018. At 600-rupiah (US$0.042) per kWh in 2020, coal power is the cheapest option, followed by geothermal at 1,100-rupiah (US$0.077) per kWh and gas at 1,600-rupiah (US$0.11) kWh. 

Clean coal energy is unmet even with a pledge to phase out coal power plans at COP26 

Indonesia unveiled its greenest Electricity Business Plan (RUPTL) to date for the 2021 to 2030 period and signed a pledge to phase out its coal power plants at the COP26 climate conference last year.

However, critics found its commitment to sustainable energy underwhelming. Its continuous investment in coal, albeit leaning towards clean coal energy, dampened its goal of a 23% increased use of renewable energy in its energy mix by 2025. 

Moreover, while Indonesia said it will stop building new coal power plants after 2023, it will allow the construction of 117 new plants, which started in 2015, to be completed as planned by 2023. 

Clean coal technology to propel economic growth

In November 2020, the ASEAN Centre for Energy (AEC) and the World Coal Association (WCA) signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen joint commitments to clean coal technology to propel economic growth.

“During the 37th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) [in 2019], the ministers acknowledged the outlook of rising power generation from coal in the region and highlighted the efforts of ASEAN in promoting clean coal technologies (CCT).

“Ministers were also encouraged to further accelerate the deployment of CCT in the ASEAN region,” said Dr. Nuki Agya Utama, executive director of ACE, in a statement announcing the MoU signing.

ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation 

“Under the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC), coal and clean coal technology is one of the program areas, which aims to address the growing energy demand and promote environmental sustainability. ASEAN is currently developing APAEC 2016-2025 Phase II:2021-2025, where CCT is expected to play a significant role to advance the region’s energy transition, resiliency, and sustainability,” Dr. Nuki added. 

“It is critical that the global community is educated by leading organizations such as ACE, who are in the regions which are impacted the most by the lack of access to energy and the advantages that affordable, abundant, and reliable energy delivers,” said Michelle Manook, chief executive of WCA in the announcement.

“Coal is a critical enabler in emerging economies for economic growth, particularly those across the ASEAN region, and many in our global community do not seek to understand this.”

Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest coal exporters and counts China, India, Japan, and South Korea as its biggest customers.

The question now is, will organizations and countries start moving away from coal energy? At the end of the day, if the demand for coal energy stops, the supply can too.

Emerging technologies in the energy field are enabling businesses to make the switch from coal and focus on greener energy. Only time will tell if coal-dependent organizations are really serious about sustainability and reducing their carbon emissions.

The post Indonesia’s coal export drama raises questions appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

Typhoon Odette in the Philippines had caused so much destruction and displacement that cities are still trying to clear the debris and cope with the hundreds of lives lost.

The 2021 flash floods of Malaysia have also displaced over 60,000 people and homes and disrupted supply chains and trade routes.

As I reflect on these events at the end of 2021, it pains me to know that life and financial losses could have been mitigated, or perhaps, even avoided, in these two natural disasters.

Climate change, COVID-19, and suffering

Rapid urbanization in a post-industrial world has accelerated demand for a litany of products, services, and amenities. All of which, over the decades, has increased in scope, depth, and resource use.

The buzzword half a decade ago was “smart cities”, and a couple of decades prior, “globalization”. 

Globalization was touted to be the bearer of prosperity for Asia, and it was, and still is. Almost two decades later, greater Asia has significantly caught up to the West — particularly North America and Europe.

Tech superpowers in Asia are locking heads with the US on future technologies such as quantum computing and 6G, even.

Worryingly, this is amid a backdrop of a pandemic-ravaged, economically wrecked world that’s still struggling to recover from the devastation of COVID-19 lockdowns that have affected trade and supply chains globally, on top of the mental stresses of attempting to protect ourselves from being infected.

As if that’s not enough, the entire globe has been grappling with the increasingly vicious effects of climate change such as flash floods, droughts, typhoons, tsunamis, and the like. 

Over in the developed, metropolitan capital city of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Hybrid’s relatively privileged office contends with fear and concern over dark clouds and heavy rain that loom on the other side of our windowpanes, never knowing if we’d have to leave immediately or face the prospect of being stuck with flooding.

We are at the mercy of the whims of mercurial weathers that require care to navigate and understand — not unlike the kind you’d need being around emotionally fickle persons who make you feel like you’re treading on eggshells.

Smart, but also sustainable cities are key

These are dire times we live in. 

We may not be having many physical wars amongst nations, but the trickle-down effects of foreign policies, quests for world domination, and digital espionage, coupled with climate change and COVID-19 will and do severely affect the lives of the people down the chain. 

People such as you and I, and businesses, and economies.

Climate change is the most pressing issue that the world needs to contend with, because not only is it affecting us now, but it will affect us 10, 20, 30 years down the road. 

Lives will be lost, children will be growing up in a fractured globe with limited natural resources — survivability will be in hard mode for the future generation. 

Again, the buzzword then was ‘smart cities’. But it is not enough that cities chase ‘smartness’. 

For cities of the future to be liveable, they should also be designed according to principles of sustainability. 

This is especially true for regions or areas that are particularly susceptible to natural disasters and where there are marginalized or at-risk communities such as those with limited access to basic needs such as water, sanitation, or food. 

Their displacement will have a far greater negative impact on their lives, as opposed to those with access to better facilities.

For example, the December 2021 flash floods in Malaysia weren’t unavoidable. There were clear recommendations made to authorities in terms of city and infrastructure amendments and designs that would facilitate drainage. 

Members of Parliament for certain constituencies had brought up critical infrastructural faults that required immediate rectification in anticipation of increased rainfall at the end of the year.

Unfortunately,  these were not addressed in a thorough, timely, and effective manner. As a result, over 60,000 people were displaced, lives were lost, and properties and possessions were ruined beyond repair.

It is a week after the devastating floods and victims are literally still slowly picking up bits and pieces of their lives. In other states, the flooding has continued, and the prognosis is similarly not great for them either.

It is showing that it is exceedingly important that if cities want to be “smart”, sustainability should be embedded in the core of their design.

Defining “smart sustainable cities”

The UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) defines a smart sustainable city as “an innovative city that uses ICTs and other means to improve quality of life, the efficiency of urban operation and services, and competitiveness while ensuring that it meets the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social, environmental as well as cultural aspects.” 

Whilst that was not exactly the epitome of clarity nor accuracy, it does give us some insight into the philosophy behind what smart, sustainable cities ought to be like. 

To that effect, the UNECE (and the UN) do have a set of standards and key performance indicators (KPIs) for smart sustainable cities, which were developed by both UNECE and ITU.

Briefly, the KPIs gauging standards of smart sustainable cities are grouped across three dimensions: Economy; Environment, and Society, and Culture. 

Smart cities ultimately aim to improve the lives of their inhabitants and push the nation’s economy to greater heights of development and liveability. 

It is clear that global policymakers understand and acknowledge the complex intertwining of People and the Environment.

We cannot expect that electric vehicles, renewable energy, smart streetlights, drones, or IoT toilets will alone solve the complexities of climate change and improve the liveability of cities. 

Sure, they have their uses, but their roles are arguably smaller in the grander scheme of things.

Sustainable cities, therefore, are now a crucial component of developing better cities.

And more importantly, the presence of capitalization in these sectors has to be tempered with education, policy reforms, and control of corporations.

Electric vehicles, for starters, still have negative environmental impacts on the production line. Blockchain requires high amounts of electricity to function. 

The time has come to do away with self-aggrandizing, ego-stroking “technological achievements” in smart city development when these do not have sustainability embedded in their design.

We need effective, progressive, and decisive policies and policy changes. We need better implementation, monitoring, and enforcement from the authorities.

We need city planners, architects and engineers of the future to design and build with sustainability in mind.

We need to foster collaboration between the public and private sectors to ensure that cities abide by sustainability standards and that the interests of the people and environment trump the greed of corporations. 

We need governments across the world to ratify and work on their pledges in the Paris Agreement to bring global temperatures back down to pre-industrial levels.

We need to stop thinking that it will be business as usual today, tomorrow and later.

We can no longer work in silos — this affects us all. 

Will you be part of a force of change?

Or will business go on as usual?

The post Stop killing people: Smart cities must be sustainable cities appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

HOW TWITTER HASHTAGS CAN HELP UNDERSTAND CLIMATE CHANGE

Aaron Raj | 28 September, 2021

Global impact intelligence platform, HolonIQ, collaborated with regional ecosystem leader New Energy Nexus to vet over 500 tech startups and companies headquartered in ASEAN, before selecting the top 50 most promising ones for the inaugural Southeast Asia Climate Tech 50 list. To determine who makes the cut, the scoring process will include market, product, team (including diversity), capital, and momentum.

The Southeast Asia Climate Tech 50 identifies the region’s young, fast-growing, and innovative climate-focused companies. Only companies less than ten years old, with few exceptions to that circumstance, were considered. A quarter (25%) of the cohort was first established in 2015, and 68% started between 2010 and 2014.

The 50 companies were categorized by their primary focus on the emerging taxonomy for climate tech. HolonIQ has built up an open-source taxonomy with experts from around the world. The Global Climate Technology Landscape 1.0 classifies 50 key categories, providing a standard structure and language for identifying, tracking and making sense of the breadth and depth of innovation happening in climate innovation globally.

The ASEAN list is represented in eight categories this year. The categories are Agri+Food, Environment, Industry, Mobility, Networks, Renewables, Resources, and Storage. Nearly a third (32%) of the companies are in Agri+Food, including smart or vertical farming, plant-based, and cell-cultured food, environment, and renewables.

In addition, there is a strong presence in the Environment, with 16% of startups nvolved in providing nature-based solutions, sustainable materials, and a circular economy. Finally, the Renewables category drills down on wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass energy sources, at 12%.

Most companies (58%) rely on physical forms of technology and innovation, with only 17% being software or digital-based. The remaining quarter provides climate-focused services. Some of the companies named in the 2021 Southeast Asia Climate Tech 50 are clean energy companies.

This comprises of :

• Ingine Pacific and Okra Solar in Vietnam and Cambodia.
• Blockchain-based seafood traceability and data ecosystem Fishcoin Project in Singapore.
• Waste management platform RecyGlo in Myanmar.
• Energy management solution Leastric in Indonesia.
• Sustainable plant-based meat alternatives producer WTH Foods in the Philippines.
• Turnkey provider of sustainable engineering solutions ihandal Energy Solutions in Malaysia.
• Clean energy electric vehicles developer ETRAN in Thailand.

The ASEAN list is part of the ten regional lists making up HolonIQ’s inaugural Climate Tech 1000. The selection was made from more than 20,000 startups and companies who applied or are covered by HolonIQ’s Intelligence Platform. The regional lists ensured a diverse and genuinely global representation, while highlighting the inspiring innovations happening worldwide.

The list showcased the most promising 1,000 making a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation or adaption by applying new technology or scientific knowledge. HolonIQ develops open-source taxonomies and proprietary intelligence to provide impact market intelligence so that better decisions can be made with contextualized data, disciplined analysis, and a global perspective across education, healthcare, and sustainability.

The Global Climate Technology Landscape 1.0 will be formally launched at the 26^th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) that is set to take place from 31^st October to 12^th November 2021, in Scotland.

The post Green dreams in SEA as HolonIQ debuts first-ever Climate Tech 50 list appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

For example, almost all the big tech companies are advocating sustainable environment programs and reducing their carbon emissions. This includes reducing the use of environmentally harmful materials for their products and recycling old products. A few mobile phone companies have also decided to not include phone chargers when selling their products so that users can use their older ones.

CAN E-WASTE MANAGEMENT ENSURE A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT?

Aaron Raj | 7 September, 2021

In Asia, Allinfra, a Hong-Kong based company is answering the call to action against rising CO2 emissions through climate tech solutions. Allinfra’s product Allinfra Climate focuses on using technology to revolutionize the way climate-relevant data is collected, stored, used, and monetized by institutions, corporates, and governments.

Allinfra is helping organizations to calculate their carbon footprint to offset and meet their net-zero goals and use technology to create the most advanced, provenanced, and trusted digital environmental financial products such as renewable energy certificates and emission reductions.

Allinfra’s climate data tools are being integrated to allow for ongoing verification of assets under green financing, allowing issuers, lenders, investors, and rating agencies to have a highly provenanced and common understanding of how assets are tracking concerning environmental goals.

Tech Wire Asia caught up with Bill Kentrup, the co-founder and head of origination of Allinfra to understand how organizations are approaching the goal of reducing their carbon emissions and creating a sustainable environment with modern technology.

Are organizations really sincere in their approach to reducing carbon emissions or are they doing it because they are forced to by environmental regulations?

We see corporations setting decarbonization goals and taking action with an increasing degree of buy-in that the average temperature of Earth is increasing, which is driving notable shifts in climate patterns that are large, dangerous, and hard to manage or adjust for, and indeed that this represents a real risk to corporations and humanity at large. That’s not to say the buy-in is universal, but I would say this view is so much more widely shared than it was 20 years ago, or even 2 years ago.

Whilst the above is more of an “existential” view, what tends to drive corporate strategies and action is the management of “carbon risk” and unlocking “carbon opportunity”. So I would say there’s a fair degree of sincerity as to the need to decarbonize, though, in the short term, the action certainly tends to factor in financial and other business health metrics.

How technology is playing a role in allowing for more cost-effective and reliable data to underpin environmental finance (equity, debt, or hybrid), financial services (e.g. ratings, accounting), and environmental financial products such as renewable energy certificates or emission reductions?

(Photo by NELSON ALMEIDA / AFP)

Whether for climate-related finance or products or reporting and ratings, the market is inherently data-driven, ie. achieving, evidencing, and being rewarded for emission reductions is very different from delivering and being paid for a cargo of soybean, just for example.

You might say that carbon-related data together with methodologies that convert data into impact, is akin to the fiber, protein, and other nutrients of that soybean. Hence, climate policy and markets cannot function without systems in place to track and report data. In fact, one of the few legally binding aspects of the Paris Agreements is the periodic reporting on carbon from each signatory of the Agreements.

Historically, the process for collecting that data and relating it to environmental products and services was quite manual. However, with technology currently available, this market can function with greater efficiency, reduced risk, and greater optionality.

For example, our end-to-end environmental solutions platform, Allinfra Climate, helps institutions achieve their sustainability goals in many different ways—from carbon accounting to verifying data for green bonds to creating, trading, or retiring digital renewable energy certificates and emissions reductions.

But the most essential feature of our technology is the ability to capture verifiable, auditable data directly from assets. Without that accurate underlying data, organizations will struggle to track, verify, articulate, and ultimately benefit from their decarbonization achievements.

Why technology can and is helping to accelerate our climate goals?

Following on from above, the historic process of gathering data that relates to environmental products and services was very expensive and with lengthy and unpredictable timelines. Because many compliance carbon markets and also corporate reporting takes place in annual cycles, this often sets the stage for many governments and corporates needing to “settle their carbon books” around the same time of year, and this has often led to very painful bottlenecks in getting carbon audits or verifications done, sometimes with penalties or liquidated damages on the other side of a delayed verification.

Put another way, what would often take 6 months and cost many tens of thousands of US dollars can now be achieved almost instantaneously at significantly lower cost with greater certainty and unprecedented optionality (ie. the final product is not just a static report and a single product issuance, but rather a live and growing pool of data that is networked into financial markets & professional services).

Any time you take a meaningful component of a financial market and make it cheaper, with reduced risk and more versatility, you tend to accelerate that market. When you accelerate the carbon market, you accelerate positive climate impact. Also, any time a transition toward environmental improvement gets “imposed” on the industry, the more manageable and predictable that transition is, the less the industrial push-back tends to be.  This has played out over the past 30 or so years across many emissions-related markets (not just carbon).

What is the limitation surrounding corporate sustainability strategies, why they need to be improved, and what role digitization and technology can play?

(Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP)

Given that there’s been a recent and concerted wave of corporations articulating broad decarbonization goals, a major challenge for management, staff and other stakeholders of those corporations is to work out — what exactly do those goals mean, ie. where should we start, what can we do internally, where do we need external help, and how are we doing relative to their peers.

More specifically, how can we set up a system that measures carbon, identifies areas where we can achieve immediate and/or scalable reductions, map out longer-term carbon transition strategies, and incentivize operational business units to identify and achieve targets that are aligned with the group’s decarbonization goals. Complex stuff.

How do we measure, price, and incentivize carbon reductions?

Technology can’t necessarily determine the measures that should be taken in light of the full range of considerations a corporation must make, but technology can certainly help them:

• Measure what’s happening across assets
• Track the carbon impact realized through various changes in operations or deployment of new technology
• Create legally transferable instruments that carry with them rights to current and future emission reductions
• Package carbon-relevant data for select parties that can help improve the cost of funding, eg. for ratings agencies and financiers.

Having confidence and capability around the above helps as corporations weigh a range of factors and ultimately take action.

Are local organizations taking sustainability less seriously in Asia compared to large international MNCs?

Historically, the answer to this is yes, but there’s been a rapid growth in Asia of corporates taking the sustainable environment  topic very seriously. Perhaps with countries like Japan and Korea taking early action and China moving at scale and pace, corporates with exposure to these markets have had the lights switch-on in a big way – highly cognisant of very real and very consequential risk and opportunity. Most countries in Asia have accelerated domestic policies relating to decarbonization. It’s getting quite “real” and fewer and fewer corporates are taking it casually.

How Allinfra is supporting other companies in Asia to create trusted and verifiable sustainability data?

We have several clients where we’re helping them put their best foot forward concerning carbon-relevant data who have assets in the power sector, commercial and industrial properties, transport, and agriculture. As an example of an interesting use case, we have a renewable energy client with operating assets and where their financiers have contractual rights to the “environmental benefits” (eg. carbon credits, renewable certificates, or other sustainable environment products) from those assets.

Whilst those rights have been commercially agreed upon, they require a system in place to quantify the magnitude of that environmental benefit and record the transfer of that benefit from operators to lenders. Allinfra Climate, which is our solution for environmental data and products, is designed precisely to allow for low cost, high frequency, and permanent digital matching of renewable power production with consumption — or, in this case, quantifying and transferring environmental benefits from an asset to a financier.

The post Advocating a sustainable environment with modern technologies appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

CHINESE DRIVE ABROAD (IN COMPACT SUV)

Tech Wire Asia | 25 January, 2018

Waze Carpool aims to transform the commuting process into something much more greener, affordable, and social.

The app was especially valuable to those who were hit by Hurricane Harvey in the US states of Texas and Louisiana last year. Drivers with spare seats then had the chance to assist a fellow Waze Carpool users heading in the same direction.

What makes Waze Carpool unique compared to rivals Uber or Lyft is that the drivers are everyday Waze users who are heading in the same direction as others. Commuters can use the app to find a matching driver.

Source: www.waze.com

But in order to allow riders to pay the driver for things such as like gas and wear and tear, Waze have now announced a partnership with financial services company, Payoneer, to facilitate payments through the app.

Waze Carpool head Josh Fried told The Next Web that the partnership seeks to aid the drivers, “so they have one less thing to worry about, and they get reimbursed on time, every time”.

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Tech Wire Asia | 26 January, 2018

For Waze, ensuring that the payment experience is seamless and pain-free was an important factor. This included finding a payment provider capable of meeting their ambitious requirements of creating a smooth user experience, as well as the ability for quick withdrawals from a local bank account in the driver’s local currency.

But the biggest priority for the ride-sharing app was the protection of users’ data and compliance with all legal and fiscal regulations.

HOW SMART CITIES CAN CREATE SMARTER SOCIETIES

Joe Green | 10 January, 2018

“When selecting a payment provider, we need to ensure that they are tightly regulated and that their data protection protocols meet Google’s strictest standards. At the same time, it’s crucial that the payment process is convenient, highly localized, and 100 percent mobile,” Fried said.

It seems that Payoneer is the perfect fit to accompany the Waze app. Waze’s mission to connect local communities through a global network coincides nicely with Payoneer’s aim of connecting the digital economy.

Waze Carpool is the latest expansion service from driving app Waze, which was acquired by Google in 2013. It’s now running in Texas, California, and Israel, and it has plans to expand soon.

The post How these two tech companies are empowering carpoolers appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

“It is not that difficult now to [help clients visualize the importance of sustainability,” said Tommy Leong, the president of Schneider Electric’s East Asia and Japan division. “With big corporations, you don’t have to sell it to them, they know it already. Every big company nowadays has their own chief sustainability officer and chief technology officer who spend time talking to each other to search for solutions.”

ENERGY EFFICIENCY COMES WITH COSTS – BUT ITS BENEFITS COULD BOOST YOUR BUSINESS

Samantha Cheh | 2 November, 2017

Leong spoke to Tech Wire Asia at the recent Sustainability Summit by The Economist about how sustainability has already become a commonplace concern among the big corporations of today, and how they are leveraging on technology to make those gains.

“We are probably at the first time in history when it is possible to use technology to address climate change because in the past we used to think about sustainability as additional cost,” Leong reflected.

“Technology is at the stage today where it can help you achieve sustainability and at the same time lower your costs.”

The rise of renewable energy has been driven by two major factors: the political clout of landmark decisions such as the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) which gave rise to the Paris Agreement; and the falling costs of renewable energy sources.

Tommy Leong. Source: Schneider Electric

The first had the effect of bringing issues of sustainability to the upper echelons of power; more executives and even political leaders began to sit up and ask questions about the feasibility of focusing on renewable energy technologies. Leong said that it was really important to engage C-suite level executives in conversations about sustainability, because they had to lead those on the ground who might not see the bigger picture.

Despite the departure of the United States from the Paris Treaty, more and more governments and executives have been looking into how their businesses can commit to sustainable policies.  

The second effect is the dramatic drop in the cost of solar and renewable energy sources — Leong said that the cost of using either option has lowered to the point of achieving parity with traditional energy sources.

“When you get to these sorts of equations, you don’t have to tell people [about how good they are],” said Leong. “Most good businessmen can calculate the value for themselves.”

He pointed to the tangible gains that could be seen in something as simple as adopting Schneider Electric’s own green, energy-saving technology in their Paris headquarters. Eight years after that project was underway, Leong said that the building had cut down three-fourths of their energy consumption costs.

It’s been so effective that Schneider has a commitment to move all their global sites to 100 percent renewable energy source “not just because of it’s a social responsibility statement, but because it makes economic sense.”

“The consumption part is extremely important. We spend a lot of energy, debate and discussion on the production and power generation side of things,” he said.

INDIA’S FIRST SOLAR SATELLITE TELEVISION SERVICE BRINGS ‘MAGIC’ TO VILLAGES

Reuters | 9 June, 2017

“But you have to remember that when you produce three units of power, by the time it gets to the consumption level it becomes only one unit of electricity.

“A lot of it gets lost as heat, leakage and transmission, so when you save one unit of electricity, you actually save three units of energy at the source.”

Leong said that the potential savings from implementing the right hardware, software, and control systems could dramatically boost the energy efficiency of a business. According to him, there is a lot of potential for savings, with as much as 80 percent worth of opportunities available across the world.

Schneider Electric’s Paris headquarters, The Hive, where the company implemented its efficient energy systems. Source: Schneider Electric

“If you look at industries, because of automation over the last several decades it’s become much easier to be sustainable,” he said.

“Imagine the cement industry where 60 percent of the cost input is energy. If you’re able to reduce your energy input, which helps sustainability, you lower your costs as well. If you look at manufacturing or paper, 40 percent of the costs is energy.”

According to Leong, the easiest path to sustainability is simply for companies to adopt more efficient technologies that can help them not reduce energy spent, which has a direct correlation with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The production of CO2 — which is the main contributor to the greenhouse heating effect on our planet and the source of today’s climate change issues — can be easily solved by reducing the amount of energy we use. The less energy we consume, the less we contribute to the carbonization of our environment.

THE ECONOMIST SUMMIT DISCUSSES HOW BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT CAN STRIVE TOGETHER

Tech Wire Asia | 2 November, 2017

The emergence of what he called the “industrial Internet of Things” has enabled us to “create possibilities that we never dreamed of before”. The latest innovations driven by cloud computing, mobility, the proliferation of sensors, and artificial intelligence has created a digitization movement that has improved our ability to maximize on our data.

The right information can eventually trickle down into more layers of controls that allow businesses to look for where efficiency can be boosted and costs can be cut.

“Because of digitization, you’re able to get the right data, the right information and do the right analytics to make the right decisions, augmented by the tools of technology to use the right technology,” he said.

The post Technology makes being sustainable not just about ethics, but also economics appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

“What is the role that business can play in addressing [issues of sustainability]?” asked Simon Baptist, the global chief economist and managing director of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Asia division. Baptist moderated a panel on the role of business in powering sustainability work at the recent Economist Sustainability Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

THE ECONOMIST SUMMIT DISCUSSES HOW BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT CAN STRIVE TOGETHER

Tech Wire Asia | 2 November, 2017

Sergio Kato, the corporate vice-president and general manager of sustainability management division and market development for Ricoh Company, said that embedding sustainable development goals (SDGs) into his company’s mission statement helped them to envision how their business models could be retrofitted for the future.

When the company began looking at SDGs in business in earnest, Kato said they conducted many studies into what the term meant and what were the real issues inherent in implementing SDGs. The studies helped onboard many board directors and executives who committed to the challenge of making their business more sustainable.  

Baptist said that Asia’s steps on climate change will be the lead that many other countries will follow, mostly due to factors of economies of scale. However, many companies see efforts to decarbonize — that is to move away from processes that produce high levels of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas — as opposed to growth, according to Kato.  

Ricoh’s Singapore office is the first branch to make a distinct effort to move the company to use 100 percent clean energy. Source: Shutterstock

“I don’t believe that,” he said. “Ricoh Group believes that these decarbonization activities or challenges and economic growth can be achieved simultaneously.”

He gave the example of the design of production processes that are shorter and more efficient is beneficial in that it achieves cost reductions, as well as reducing the amount of wasted resources and efforts.

“We always consider any effort of decarbonization or climate change challenges as being made with four economic benefits,” he explained.

The first is that businesses are able to achieve more growth, lower management risks and costs, and boost the trust in the company. The rise of energy efficiency plays a huge role in this regard, as Asia still has a lot of fat to trim in this regard, but also Japan is a global leader in the industry.

BLUEZELLE BRINGS BLOCKCHAIN TO MANAGE YOUR APPS’ DATA

Taylor Bragg | 27 October, 2017

Energy efficiency could be achieved in a number of ways, whether it’s through streamlining processes or introducing transformative technologies that cut down on labor costs. The Japanese economy was said by Baptist to gain twice the amount of GDP per unit of energy spent, as compared to the Chinese economy, reflecting a stark measure of difference in gains that can be had thanks to high energy efficient processes.

Kato said that a major hurdle in this regard was making the leap over mentality, especially those focused on what is perceived as additional, unnecessary infrastructure, instruments and investments. He said Ricoh is not necessarily focused on those costs, but on the potential gains to be had with more efficient services and products.

“In any kind of industry, we can foresee the contribution of energy of efficiency, but what is really important is to not view only seller-buyer types of relationships,” he said. “We should have collaboration and partnerships that will help us see where it is possible to gain energy efficiency.”

The post Energy efficiency comes with costs – but its benefits could boost your business appeared first on Tech Wire Asia.

“Planetary changes are becoming increasingly rapid,” said Miranda Johnson, the Southeast Asia correspondent for The Economist and one of the moderators of the events. “Asia faces [their] wet places getting wetter, and their dry places getting drier. The costs of inaction are getting higher.”

IS ADIDAS’ TECH VENTURE A LEADING SIGNAL FOR THE FUTURE OF SUSTAINABLE FAST FASHION?

Samantha Cheh | 22 March, 2017

She explained that despite contrarian views on the issue of climate change, the insurance industry is already offering reports that indicate the mounting costs of weather-related events. The successive storms that have plagued various corners of the world — from Hurricane Maria and Harvey battering the southern corners of North America, to Typhoon Haiyan and Paolo plaguing Hong Kong and the Philippines respectively — are costing governments millions of dollars in terms of clean up costs. 

The summit was conceived as a forum that would engage 170 industry leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, regulators and leading Asian researchers in conversations about how we got here, and what we can do to transition to more sustainable systems.

Sachs says saving the environment is not a do-good agenda, but a necessary one. Source: The Economist

Understandings about “sustainability” varied across the board, but it was generally agreed upon that key to it are concerns about the environment and our ability to interact with it in a productive way. The event included prominent voices in the sustainability industry, such as conglomerate John Swire & Sons head of sustainability Mark Watson; Center for Liveable Cities chairman and Singapore’s former master planner Liu Thai Ker as well as Malaysia’s Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi.

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Conversations ranged from how policy can work for both industry and the environment, to discussions about the developments in water management and climate research. The event was also deeply interested in topics about how business can benefit from sustainability, and how it’s no longer a niche concern but impactful on profits and growth.

Jeffrey Sachs, the chairman of the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, at Sunway University, said:

“Saving the environment is not a do-good agenda. This is a necessary agenda.”

“Your business cannot thrive in the dangerous world that we are entering in. If we put our minds to it, we could end extreme poverty by 2030. Get some funds to public healthcare, improve sanitation, empower people with mass broadband because that brings in information and educates businesses.”

The conference also included perspectives from the young founders of Bye Bye Plastic Bags, a Bali-based movement by Melati and Isabel Wijsen targeted at achieving important sustainable goals from the grassroots level; technology innovators from Schneider Electric and Shenzhen Fountain Corporation; and government officials such as Malaysia’s Performance Management & Delivery Unit CEO Idris Jala.

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