Supply Chain

In the wake of last month’s Rana Plaza disaster some of the world's top clothing retailers – including PVH, Tchibo, H&M, Inditex (which owns the Zara chain), Marks & Spencer, Primark and Tesco – have signed up to a legally binding agreement to help finance fire safety and building improvements in the factories they use in Bangladesh. The official death toll from the collapse of the factory build now stands at 1,127, with 2,438 people injured – many seriously - and another 98 still listed as missing. This makes it the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984.

This multi-layered environmental question keeps on being asked, seemingly with few answers that translate into action. With the Center for Biological Diversity estimating that 40 per cent of the world’s ocean surface is now littered with plastic waste, this issue must be addressed and urgently. We need to focus on the issue in a new way, and in doing so create new opportunities. Plastic waste creates large, expensive and unnecessary impact on society because of its ecological impact. Ecosystems give us everything we need to live – air, water, energy and food.

Smart phone rivals Apple and Samsung now share a rather ignominious position after having both been slammed on child exploitation and environmental pollution charges by environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE).

Korean steel giant Posco’s planned INR50,000 crore (USD12 billion) plant in the Indian state of Odisha is facing new troubles as a report on the project’s 2011 environmental impact assessment (EIA) and subsequent clearance has highlighted a number of breaches.

Procter & Gamble (P&G) has announced that 45 of its facilities, including six in the Asia region, have achieved zero manufacturing waste to landfill.

China’s water resources are increasingly being pitted against economic development, and losing. Water is vital to all aspects of the economy, especially for agricultural and power production, making it a strategic resource. However, China’s position as the world’s factory, and its ‘develop-first clean-up later’ mindset, has resulted in much of its water resources being compromised. This is problematic as the country suffers from a lack of potable water. It has to support 20 percent of the world’s population on only 5 percent of the worlds renewable freshwater and the UN has classified China as one of 13 countries suffering from extreme water shortages.

The chickens from China’s decades-long custom of turning a blind eye to the damage inflicted on its environment in return for developing an economic powerhouse are finally coming home to roost as an increasingly-agitated populace demands action from its leaders. With suffocating smog in Beijing and other major cities still making headlines around the world, renewed focus is now being turned on China’s deplorable fresh water conditions as the government scrambles to show it is in control by issuing reams of new standards on industrial pollution and promising to punish violators.

The Philippine island province of Romblon has passed regulations to protect its environment.

China is looking at further steps to bring its notorious coal industry under control including setting higher thresholds for the scale of coal producers and encouraging mergers to form industrial conglomerates.