GREENEXT Sustainability Round-up August 2022
©Hector Retamal, AFP
China’s unprecedented 71-day heat wave has made it difficult for the nation to keep the lights on in recent weeks. To save power, Shanghai authorities said in a notice in August that they would switch off "landscape lighting" at the Bund, the city's most famous landmark. Find out more about China's sustainability news at GREENEXT's Sustainability Round-up for August 2022!
/Brands/
©Feng Chen Wang
Qixi Festival, one of the most romantic traditional Chinese festivals, falls on August 4 this year. Many brands ride on the opportunity by building their brand stories around the myth in order to resonate with local consumers, which includes a few delivering a sustainability messages, for instance, Longchamp, Swatch, Moncler, and etc. De Beers launched the Miao Embroidery project in Shanghai, aiming to support the Miao women to improve their skills, enhance their self-confidence, promote the inheritance and development of Miao embroidery culture. Besides, Chinese-born London-based designer Feng Chen Wang has unveiled her latest creative venture, releasing the ‘Re-Work.2’ capsule collection, which places emphasis on upcycling and reusing. Besides, Sequoia Capital China has made a significant investment in Holzweiler, a Norwegian sustainable fashion and lifestyle brand.
/Retail/
©Aesop
B Corp-certified Aesop plans to open its first store in mainland China, which will be located on Shanghai’s Dongping Road. Located in the heart of Shanghai, ZARA opened the door to its new store in August, practicing the concept of sustainability, which saves an average of 20 percent of electricity consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and up to 50 percent of water consumption compared to traditional stores. This month, Uniqlo's green Doraemon finally hit the China market, together with its marine environmental protection project and sustainability campaign "JOIN: THE POWER OF CLOTHING". In Hainan, known as China's luxury hotspot, L’Occitane unveils sustainability concept store, which is constructed from 84% eco-certified materials in line with the brand’s guiding principle of Rethink, Recycle, Reduce. Lancôme's "Empty Bottle Recycling Program" in the Chinese market hit 3 years, covering more than 330 Lancôme offline stores across the country, which hundreds of thousands of consumers participated, and the cumulative number of empty bottles recovered exceeded 10 million.
/Supply Chain/
©Crystal International Group Limited
Crystal Denim, the denim division of Crystal International, has unveiled its first carbon footprint calculator to advocate low-carbon design in the industry. NTX, a Shanghai-based textile technology business, has announced the completion of a US$200m funding round led by Centurium Capital.
/Innovations/
©NTX
NTX, a Shanghai-based textile technology business, has announced the completion of a US$200m funding round led by Centurium Capital. NTX specialises in textile digital transfer printing and dyeing technology, and has more than 70 domestic and global inventions and application patents. 70/30, a Shanghai-based mycelium protein company, is ready to launch its vegan shredded chicken in China. It is the first time in China that the new vegan chicken shreds were made from biomass fermented protein—Mycelium.
/Education/
©Dalian University of Technology
Dalian University of Technology Carbon Neutrality Research Institute was established through the in-depth cross-integration of disciplines, the integration of advantageous resources, and the establishment of the national key task team.
/Low Carbon Initiatives/
©trip.com
Chinese travel services platform Trip.com released its “LESS-Carbon Neutral Plan,” pledging to gradually achieve carbon neutrality in its own operations, and to jointly launch at least 10,000 low-carbon travel products with its ecological partners. While on the other hand, Shanghai Electric New Energy Development Co., Ltd. has developed a roadmap that focuses on the development of wind, solar, hydrogen and storage energy projects, alongside industrial intelligence, high-end medical equipment, and other new businesses, marking the accelerated expansion and growth of Shanghai Electric's green, low-carbon business. On the other hand, China's gen-z oriented video community Bilibili released its ESG report on achievements and plans to build a more sustainable platform, GREENEXT took an in-depth look into their strategies.
/Consumers/
©Ryoji Iwata via Unsplash
Bluebell Group released "2022 Asia Lifestyle Consumer Profile", aiming at exploring the evolution of Asian consumption trends and of the main consumer personas in Asia, and diving deeper into some of the biggest opportunities for lifestyle retail, from Instagram preferences to the growing appetite for niche brands, second-hand products, and eco-conscious desires.