As global political and business leaders convene in Singapore this week for the 20th APEC meeting to tackle issues that include sustainable development, a new website that focuses on sustainability and business goes live today.
eco-business.com is Asia Pacific’s first news platform for environmental businesses, NGOs, policy makers and the general public to tell their stories and share information that will help put Asia on a growth path that is low-carbon and sustainable.
The site is the brainchild of Straits Times journalist Jessica Cheam. It will serve as a platform for firms that offer environmental products and solutions, and firms that adopt green business models.
These firms will be able to tap into the experience of a network of prominent environment journalists from the region and beyond. The writers include Ms Cheam, former broadcast journalist Pearl Forss, Vice-President of Corporate Social Responsibility with Chinese media group XinYa, resources reporter Mathew Murphy from Australia’s The Age, and Julian Wong, Senior Policy Analyst at the Centre for American Progress amongst others. Together, this committed team will write features, blogs and insights on environmental news and issues.
Ms Cheam came up with the idea when, in the course of work, she found herself having to turn down many requests from firms in the environmental space due to the lack of publishable space.
“I was getting a lot of requests to write about green businesses and sustainability issues, but news-space is finite. I became acutely aware that there were stories out there not being heard. Stories of efforts by businesses who were innovating within their industries to create more efficient products and solutions, and of local communities across Asia starting community projects to tackle the environmental impact of modern society’s consumerism,” she said, speaking at the website’s preview event at IndoChine Waterfront this evening.
The answer was in the social media space. While there are many such websites in more developed countries like the United States, until now there were no similar platforms for Asian companies.
The non-profit project is jointly funded by British High Commission Singapore, Ms Cheam and the Singapore Environment Council. It will officially launch on Nov 12, Thursday, at a seminar on low-carbon growth at the Grand Hyatt Singapore. The seminar is organized by the British High Commission Singapore in partnership with Sustainable Energy Association Singapore (SEAS).
The website will deploy a full suite of social media tools to ensure stories have maximum exposure - it can be followed on Twitter and FaceBook for instance, and readers will also get ‘live’ coverage from a team of writers covering the Copenhagen negotiations.
The team’s vision is for eco-business.com to become the leading news portal for Asia’s green businesses, reaching out to organizations that are struggling to tell their story.
Mr John Pearson, Head, Southeast Asia Climate Change Network, British High Commission Singapore, said the site comes at a time when companies need it most.
“The world cannot continue on its current path. We need to avoid dangerous climate change - and we can only do this by creating a low carbon society. There is enormous growth potential for the new green revolution: in energy efficiency; in energy production: in transport; and in many other areas. We are building a new economic model - one that provides low carbon goods and services, supports sustainable development and clean living, and creates jobs and wealth.
There are great opportunities for those companies that move quickly in this area. eco-business will provide information on what is already happening in the low carbon field, and how businesses can exploit these opportunities. It will help Asia to build a new, low carbon society”.
Ms Esther An, Head of CSR at leading green developer City Developments Ltd, who is launch partner for eco-business.com, said: “eco-business.com is an excellent initiative as we face an array of escalating ecological tipping points. It will be an invaluable source of information for companies that are already actively involved in environmental sustainability as well as for those who just embarked on their green journey. The content and dialogue will make environmental impact relevant to businesses in this region.”
eco-business.com’s preview also kicks off a week of activities by the International Union For Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in partnership with the IndoChine Group, who supported the launch of the website. Chief executive Michael Ma said: “eco-business.com is a long overdue platform that will share information, enabling corporates to find better ways to embrace sustainability in their business models.”
Ms Cheam added: “Asia is going to be the growth story for the next century, so it is imperative that the region grows in a sustainable way, and eco-business.com hopes to help in that journey.”
