Editor's Choice
Japanese plastics manufacturer Sekisui Chemical is the highest ranked Asian firm in a global index of the most sustainable corporations by Canadian publisher Corporate Knights. CK's boss says it is 'worrying' that there are not more Asian firms in the list.
New report shows the world is using up more raw materials, while recycling less and urges greater efforts towards a circular economy.
Climate skepticism exists in other Western democracies, primarily among right-wing populists, but American Republicans are still found to be the least likely to see climate change as a major threat. Why?
Can consumers do their part to curb climate change while observing traditions and ushering in good fortune this Lunar New Year? Businesses and environmental activists offer tips on how to achieve both aims.
Featured
Energy
Green hydrogen could drive the energy transition—but investment and infrastructure are lacking, say experts
Often touted as the missing piece in the renewables puzzle, green hydrogen is enjoying unprecedented political and business momentum, and experts say it will take off faster than previously thought.
Janice Lao, who steered the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Group's shift away from single-use plastics last year, talks about being a sustainability leader, supporting her daughter's burgeoning awareness of climate change, and her unsustainable guilty pleasure.
Planting trees helps to combat the climate crisis by cutting greenhouse gases. But the price can be permanently lower river flows.
WWF scorecard shows a quarter of companies, mostly based in Asia, have yet to make commitments to purchase sustainable palm oil.
The clean energy transition is sluggish, but encouraging communities to actively participate in it could help bring countries up to speed, say lawmakers from Belgium to India.
Water
Will blood be shed over water? A new early warning tool predicts water-related conflict a year in advance
Experts under the new Water, Peace and Security partnership have come up with a conflict prediction tool that uses both climate and traditional socio-economic data to spur political action on water-related conflict.
Policymakers want more productive farmland to feed a growing appetite for meat and dairy and to ease reliance on high-quality imported grain.
Commitments to go 'palm-oil free' may seem positive, but switching to less efficient vegetable oils may drive greater deforestation and biodiversity loss.
Forests have changed dramatically since 2010, and so have global policies, technology and environmental leadership governing them. In this new blog from World...
Given the technology, knowledge, and resources now available, the gap between current progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals and what is achievable...
The narrative of the year will be if 2020 will be a turning point for the better or for the worse, says World Resources Institute president Andrew Steer. What...
CSR
Who are the most influential corporate sustainability leaders in Asia Pacific? The Eco-Business A-List revealed...
After months of deliberation, Eco-Business has compiled a list of the most impactful sustainability executives in Asia Pacific—people who are changing their businesses and industries for the better. They are, the Eco-Business A-List…
Carbon & Climate
After a 40-year struggle, indigenous guardians of Indonesian forest gain rights over their land
The Dayak Iban community of Sungai Utik has long fought to protect the forest and their place in it. After nearly half a century, they are now owners of over 10,000 hectares of customary land.
[EB SPECIAL REPORT] What does it take to transform a business into a good corporate citizen? Eco-Business spoke to some of Asia’s most influential sustainability executives to find out.
The car industry is among the world’s most polluting. Amid growing public pressure to cut emissions and with new solutions disrupting their business model, how can automakers prepare for the dramatic changes ahead and help tackle global warming?
Industries are requiring ever more water in an increasingly water-stressed world. What can businesses do to reduce their risks and reliance on the resource?
What does it mean to build a clean and fair palm oil supply chain? For drivers in Indonesia used to unsafe working conditions, this is what it could look like.
From banks to builders, more companies are going carbon neutral. Carbon offsetting is not without controversy, but in cases where sustainability can only be approached and not achieved, it may be the appropriate way to balance out emissions.
A Japanese printing and packaging manufacturer is trialing a reusable container scheme in Singapore. It costs nothing for the user, offers cut-priced meals and reduces single-use plastic waste. But it is not working. Why?
An alliance between an environmental group and an agribusiness company aims to reduce encroachment by smallholder coffee farmers in the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, one of Sumatra’s last stands of lowland forest.
A single 200-room four-star hotel can use nearly 300,000 pieces of single-use plastic in a month, underscoring the hospitality industry’s challenge as it gears up anti-plastic efforts.
With Asia slated to account for more than half of the world’s surface freight demand by 2050, governments, companies and organisations are increasingly looking for ways to make road freight fleets and supply chain transportation sustainable.
Southeast Asia's clean energy transition
Green hydrogen could drive the energy transition—but investment and infrastructure are lacking, say experts
Often touted as the missing piece in the renewables puzzle, green hydrogen is enjoying unprecedented political and business momentum, and experts say it will take off faster than previously thought.
The Eco-Business A-List: Asia's most influential sustainability executives
Meet the Eco-Business A-Listers: Janice Lao, hospitality trailblazer
Janice Lao, who steered the Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Group's shift away from single-use plastics last year, talks about being a sustainability leader, supporting her daughter's burgeoning awareness of climate change, and her unsustainable guilty pleasure.
Food for healthier people and planet
How 'future-fit' crops can protect the environment and provide for the future
The current food system, with its reliance on a handful of crops, is inadequate and unsustainable in the face of climate change and population growth. 'Future-fit' crops are key to solving malnutrition and feeding a larger population.
An alliance between an environmental group and an agribusiness company aims to reduce encroachment by smallholder coffee farmers in the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, one of Sumatra’s last stands of lowland forest.
Food & Agriculture
After another haze outbreak chokes Southeast Asia, can palm oil smallholders shift to sustainable farming?
Smallholders have taken much of the blame for this year's haze-causing forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan. How can they be motivated to switch to more sustainable, fire-free production methods?
As global attention focuses on forests and the plight of orangutans, the untold part of the palm oil story is people. What is the industry doing to protect palm oil workers' rights and those of the people who defend their land as the industry expands?
RSPO's new standards ban deforestation and growing on peat. But what are the challenges of putting the new rules into practice, and how will they be effectively enforced? On this podcast, Eco-Business spoke to industry experts from RSPO, WWF and Wilmar International.
[The EB Podcast] In the fourth episode of the series Tomorrow’s cities: Engineering the energy transition, we explore the potential for low-carbon cooling as Southeast Asia gets richer and hotter.
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