MAR 2020 Community:
Teaching Danish in Thailand New Chaplain in Singapore
Business:
Finnish CE expertise Pink Pandora goes green
Circular Economy
Theme:
March 2020
ScandAsia Stories 18 Circular Economy will be a game changer
Kathrine and Simon teach Danish in Bangkok
8 First Nordic Covid-19 cases 9 Danish Ambassador rotation 10 Thais and Filipinas in Greenland 13 IKEA postpones store in Philippines 17 Danish nursing interns to Philippines 42 Lovely wall paintings in Penang
8 27 Waste-to-Value Centre setup in Singapore
10 20 Finnish Circular Economy expert shares insight
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28
Pandora in Lamphun: Excellence in sustainability
17 4 ScandAsia • March 2020
WORLD CHANGING
— one MUDPIE at a time.
Our students are learning math and science concepts as they pour, measure and explore volume while playing in the mud kitchen or sandpit. Preparing your child for a changing world.
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Editorial
Dear Reader,
C
ircular Economy is all about making growth sustainable. The vision is zero waste creation: discarded material becomes raw material for the next player. Products must be designed to enable their reuse and recycling, non-renewable natural resources will be replaced by renewables, services will replace products, and energy production will be based on renewable energy sources. Goods and services must be shared, not owned, by individuals and industry. Bringing forward a whole new economic model involves creation of added value across the value chain through business models with extended life cycles and circulation of materials. Circular Economy affects businesses in all sectors and industries.
We are forced to do it, because if we don’t bend the linear economy into a circle, we will all slowly die. However, if it doesn’t appeal to you to do it for love, you can also do it for profit. In particular for the Nordic countries’ highly regarded companies, solutions, innovations and thriving start-ups, the Circular Economy concept should according to the economists open immense business opportunities. Whatever your reason, why not star t today but reassessing your products and values from the perspective of identifying ways that will give them extending life cycles. Have fun!
Gregers Moller Editor in Chief
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7
News brief
Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark confirm cases of coronavirus By Sofia Flittner
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orway, Sweden and Finland all announced cases of people testing positive to the novel coronavirus in their respective countries the 26 Februar y 2020, according to The Local Sweden, Yle from Finland and the Norwegian daily Aftenposten. The Danish health authorities reported the first positive case of coronavirus 27 February 2020. In Sweden a man from Gothenburg contracted the vir us while in northern Italy, reports the Swedish National Health Agency. The Swedish health authorities are reported as working to track down 8 ScandAsia • March 2020
anyone the man may have been in contact with. “We believe our chances of identifying those who have been exposed to be good. It is not a large group. The man was not travelling as part of a large group and was not contagious when he travelled, but only fell ill in Sweden,” said Thomas Wahlberg, a doctor WHO is a specialist in infectious diseases, at a press conference hosted by the Swedish National Health Agency. The Norwegian Public Health Institute confirmed that a Norwegian woman from Tromsoe had been tested positive for the novel
coronavirus. The health authorities assume the woman contracted the virus while in Wuhan, repor ts Aftenposten. The woman is believed not to be in risk of infecting other Norwegians. “The person currently isolated at home after having returned from China the 22 February,” said Line Vold, the inspector of the Public Health Institute. In Finland a woman has been confirmed to have contracted the virus while in Milan, reports the University Hospital of Helsinki (HUS) and the National Institute for Health and Welfare at a press conference, according to yle.fi. “The woman is in good condition and have only been in contact with two people since returning to Finland”, said the chief physician of HUS, Asko Järvinen. Järvinen also confirms that the Finnish health authorities have been in contact with those two people. The two people are in homeisolation and their physical conditions are being monitored. Neither of the individuals have shown signs or symptoms of the novel coronavirus. The Danish Ministry of Health announced 27 February 2020 in a press release that the first positive case of coronavirus had been confirmed. The patient is a man who contracted the virus while in northern Italy with his wife and son. The man will remain in isolation, reports the Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke. His wife and son have been tested negative. Source: the local.se, yle.fi, aftenposten. no & Sundheds- og Ældreministeriet
News brief
New Danish ambassadors to China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand
Jon Thorgaard, new Danish Ambassador to Thailand.
Lars Bo Larsen, new Danish Ambassador to Indonesia.
Kirsten Geelan, New Danish Ambassador to Malaysia.
Sandra Jensen Landi, new Danish Ambassador to Singapore. Picture taken during her posting to Thailand.
ll vacant ambassador posts in Asia have now been filled, announced the Danish Foreign Ministry in a mail to ScandAsia 28 February 2020. Five Danish Embassies have now new head of mission, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The new Danish ambassador in China is Thomas Østrup Møller, replacing Carsten Damsgaard. The new ambassador is on leave from the ministry while working as Commissioner for Corporate Mangement of the National Danish Police. He has previously been Under-Secretar y for Resources and Operations and ambassador to Poland from 2010 to 2012, according to the Danish Foreign Ministry. The new Danish ambassador
to Indonesia is Lars Bo Larsen, replacing Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen. Lars Bo Larsen comes from a post as Danish ambassador in European Union’s Political and Security Committee in Brussels, Belgium. From Aug 2013 – Aug 2017 he was Deputy Head of Mission at the Danish Embassy in Beijing. The new Danish ambassador to Malaysia is Kirsten Rosenvold Geelan, replacing Jesper Vahr. New ambassador Kirsten Geelan will come straight from her post as ambassador in Budapest, Hungary and before this as ambassador of Denmark to Nepal. The new Danish ambassador to Singapore is Sandra Jensen Landi, who currently is the Deputy Director for the Danish Foreign Ministries
A
Thomas Oestrup Moeller, new Danish Ambassador to China.
department for Humanitarian Work, Civil Society and Commitment - a post she has only held for 7 months. She replaces Dor te Bech Vizard who took over the post in 2016 and i 2018 also became Chairman of the Board of Directors, Danish Trade Council South East Asia. It is not clear if the new ambassador also takes over that position. Sandra Jensen Landi has previously been the Deputy Head of Mission in the Danish Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand from 2014 to 2016. The new Danish Ambassador to Thailand is Jon Thorgaard, based in Bangkok, Thailand. He replaces Uffe Wolffhechel. Jon Thorgaard is currently Head of the department of Strategy and Policy in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. March 2020 • ScandAsia 9
News brief
Thais and Filipinos are increasing the population of Greenland By Sofia Flittner
A
repor t by The Statistics of Greenland shows that foreigners are a major reason behind the population increase in Greenland – in fact the repor ts shows a 12 % increase of foreign citizens in Greenland in 2019. Majority of the foreigners in Greenland come from two Southeast Asian countries: Thailand and the Philippines. There are 373 Filipinos and 208 Thais residing in Greenland out of the 1.246 foreign citizens in Greenland – a total increase of
109 people from the two countries compared to a year ago. These two nationalities currently make up 47% of all foreign citizens in Greenland.
On 1 January 2020 Greenland had a population of 56.081 people. Source: Grønlands Statistik
The Museum of H.C Andersen in Denmark impacted by lack of Chinese tourists
T
he Chinese travel ban due to the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus has led to a drastic decrease in Chinese tourists in Denmark. And especially one tourist attraction is suffering, reports the Danish daily JydskeVestkysten. Around 270 Chinese tourists visited the Museum of H.C Andersen in the city of Odense in week 7 of 2019. A year later, only 44 Chinese tourists visited the famous museum. According to the organization of Museums in Odense City the number of visitors is expected to drop to zero during February 2020. If the number of visitors remain low during the second half of the year, the results can be critical – the Museum of H.C Andersen reports that 70% of the Chinese tourists visit the museum from May and into the fall.
10 ScandAsia • March 2020
“It has affected us a lot already. But if the low visitor numbers only last a few weeks or months, we can probably survive. But if it continues into the months of June, July and
Based on the 20.000 Chinese tourists that visited the museum last year, the Museum of H.C Andersen had initally set the expected visitor number significantly higer than what become reality. Photo: Odense Bys Museer.
August, we’re losing a lot of money,” says Torben Grøngaard Jeppesen, the director of Museums in Odense City. The Museum of H.C Andersen yearly earns three million DKK ($439.000) on the tickets of Chinese tourist. The Director of Museums in Odense City adds that they can ‘easily add another million’ ($146.345) to their revenue of the sales of souvenirs purchased by Chinese visitors, according to JydskeVestkysten. “There are a lot of people who wouldn’t be happy if we’re missing three to four million ($439.000 to $585.340) DKK at the end of the year,” the director of the Museum of H.C Andersen says. In total, 20.000 Chinese tourists visited the Museum of H.C Andersen in Odense in 2019.
Suddenly new chaplain at the Danish Seamen’s Church in Singapore
S
By Sofia Flittner ussie Nygaard Foged from Denmark began her journey as a chaplain at The Danish Seamen’s Church in Singapore in midSeptember 2019. Five months later her journey in Singapore came to an unexplained end. According to Tommy Liechti, the Head of Administration in the DSUK - the organization of the Danish Seamen’s Church and Church Abroad, the reason will remain undisclosed. “Sussie Nygaard Foged and the DSUK have come to the agreement, that Sussie Nygaard Foged will resign from her job as chaplain in Singapore ,” states the organization of the Danish Seamen’s Church and Church Abroad on their website. Pastor Car l Bjar kam, who is the pastor in the Danish Seamen’s Church in Dubai, will be the Church’s substitute vicar in the imminent time. During this period the Danish Seamen’s Church and Church Abroad will look for a permanent solution. Whether this solution will be pastor Carl Bjarkam becoming a permanent pastor in Singapore or somebody else is unknown. “The most impor tant thing is that the Church always has a priest for those who need it,” says Head of Administration Tommy Leichti. Reader s who know what happened and wish to share their insight are encouraged to use the comment box below the article on ScandAsia.com.
The most important thing is that the Church always has a priest for those who need it
Carl Bjarkam is until further notice substitute vicar at the Danish Seamen’s Church in Singapore. Photo: The Danish Seamen’s Church. March 2020 • ScandAsia 11
EU to train non-EU countries how to introduce “novel foods” in EU
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By Ruksina Supatnuntakul he European commission has developed a comprehensive set of laws that govern the authorization of Novel Foods. Novel Foods are defined as those which have not been consumed to any significant extent within Europe prior to May 15th 1997, the date of the first Novel Food legislation (Regulation (EC) No 258/97). The European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) will organise a series of three-day regional training sessions that will bring together up to 34 representatives coming from 10 different countries located in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam). The participants are officials from National Competent Authorities in the above-mentioned beneficiary countries who verify compliance with rules applicable to placing novel foods and traditional foods. The first of these sessions took place 18th – 21st February 2020, Holiday Inn Silom Bangkok Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand A group of five International and regional experts delivered this training; it aims at developing cooperation activities on novel food with non EU trade partners with a view to further raise awareness and contribute to a better understanding and more efficient use of existing EU rules applicable to the authorisation and placing on the EU market of novel foods. This is the first of a series of nine regional training session that will be held in 2020 and 2021 in Africa (Senegal and Ethiopia), Latin America (Argentina and Costa Rica), Asia (India, Thailand and China), Middle East (Jordan) and Europe (Moldova) under the BTSF initiative, expecting to reach 300 participants from 68 countries. The revised novel food Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 (NFR) covers an increased number of food categories (10 compared to 4 in the old Regulation). New categories specified under Article 3 of the NFR include, foods containing or consisting of animals or their parts (e.g. insects) material of mineral origin, cell or tissue culture microorganisms, animals or plants and engineered nanoparticles. Another new feature of the NFR is the procedure set out in Article 4 whereby a food business can request a determination from a Member State on the novel food status of a food or ingredient. This process is set out in detail in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/456. 12 ScandAsia • March 2020
(Left) Ms Fabiana QUADU_Mr. Laurent Lourdais_Mr Rafael Perez Berbejal_Professor Henry McArdle_Professor Henk Van Loveren (Right). The NFR has moved the novel food authorisation process to a centralised procedure which allows for a more streamlined process that is more user-friendly for food businesses and regulatory authorities alike. The scientific and administrative requirements for a novel food application are set out in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2469. Also introduced by the NFR is the option of a “notification” process for traditional foods from third countries. This process, detailed in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2468 allows an applicant to submit a dossier through the Commission’s electronic submission system demonstrating consumption of the traditional food in a third EU country by a significant number of people for at least 25 years. Where EFSA or Member States do not submit reasoned safety objections, the Commission can authorise the food and update the Union List. However, where a reasoned safety objection is submitted, the applicant may either withdraw the notification, or else submit a full application under the regular procedure. EFSA has produced guidance on the preparation and presentation of a notification or subsequent application dossier for traditional foods from third (non-EU) countries. BTSF is a European Commission training initiative covering food and feed law, animal health and welfare and plant health rules implemented in both the EU and with third countries. More details could be found at: https:// ec.europa.eu/food/safety/btsf_en.
IKEA delays the opening of the first IKEA in the Philippines to 2021
I
n October 2019 IKEA Philippines repor ted the opening of the first IKEA in the Philippines to be initially “by the end of 2020”. But IKEA enthusiast in the Philippines will have to wait another year to experience their first IKEA. The Swedish home interior giant has confirmed on the official IKEA Philippines website that the first store is opening in 2021.The update reports that IKEA is “preparing to make a new home” in the Philippines and that time is spent “building up our business and learning about life at home in the Philippines”. “Come 2021, we will open an IKEA store in Pasay City to give millions of Filipinos easy access to a wide range of well-designes, functional home furnishing products at prices so low almost everyone will be able to afford them,” states the update from IKEA Philippines. The IKEA in Pasay City is expected to become the biggest store in the world at 65.000 square meters – roughly the size of 150 basketball courts, reports the daily Manila Bulletin.
The construction of the new IKEA in the Philippines. Photo: Real Living Team Founded in Sweden more than 75 years ago, IKEA is the world’s largest home interior retailer with more than 400 stores in 50 countries. Source: Manila Bulletin
March 2020 • ScandAsia 13
Kathrine and Simon teach in Thailand: “Like running your own company” Physical contact, meat balls, parent-teacher relationship and hours spent in the class room. These are merely some of the differences between teaching in Denmark and in Thailand. Read about two young teachers’ road from Northern Denmark to Bangkok and their change in teaching lifestyle. By Sigrid Friis Neergaard
14 ScandAsia • March 2020
O
nly about five million people in the world speaks Danish. It may therefore seem wasteful for some to learn a language, that so few people speak. Especially considering that most Danes speak pretty good English. To Kathrine Bloch and Simon Jørgensen, Danish isn’t wasteful, however. They both teach the language for Danes Worldwide and the international school NIST in Bangkok. It’s also their job to convince parents with a connection to Denmark why it’s beneficial to enrol their child in an extra class with added hours of homework. Most of the children Kathrine and Simon teach have just one Danish parent. These may find it unnecessary or too difficult to teach and maintain a language that’s not usually spoken at home. Other families merely stay in Thailand for a short time, and they speak Danish at home anyway. “But it (following a Danish class) gives the child the opportunity to study in Denmark,” Simon explains. Their teaching follows a Danish curriculum so whether a child is returning to Denmark or arriving for the first time, it allows them to follow their respective classes.
Danish, and Danish only
Simon graduated in 2016 from University College Nordjylland in Hjørring, while Kathrine finished her studies a year later from University College Nordjylland in Aalborg. While Kathrine had never been to Thailand, Simon had visited his dad, who lives in Bangkok, a few times already. In fact, it was during one of these visits that he found and applied for the job.
Simon: I was on holiday here for six weeks and I didn’t want to go home
“I was on holiday for six weeks and I didn’t want to go home (to Denmark),” he says. The 26-year-old was just 23 when he returned to Bangkok and began teaching at the beginning of the school year in 2017. Kathrine arrived in August 2019. Apart from Danish, Simon is eligible to teach social sciences and physical education. Kathrine studied handicrafts and design as well as English. She has an international profile, meaning that the first two years of her studies were entirely in English. And she lived in India for a part of her education. Both teachers have taught children with Danish as their second language, so this is not a new aspect for them. However, teaching only one subject is new to both of them.
A new chapter
Simon had only worked as a teacher for one year in Denmark after finishing his studies. Kathrine had worked for two years but was seeing a temporary position come to an end. It was also the end of a job she cared for. So, with a heavy heart she left her dream job and prepared for a new chapter. But how do you turn the page and move on? The answer turned up on Facebook, when a friend tagged her in a post by Danes Worldwide, who were looking for a new teacher in Bangkok. Kathrine had what she described as a minor identity crisis at the time, so the post appealed to her immediately. “I had no boyfriend, no apartment and no job, so I thought why not?” Kathrine asked herself. In fact, she got so hooked on the job that she initially thought she might have ruined her chances of a job in the exotic capital. “I think they (Danes Worldwide) got a little annoyed with me. I kept calling. A lot,” Kathrine laughs. But now we know, that this chapter turned out well.
Home alone in Bangkok
Getting the job is only the first small step in becoming a teacher for Danes Worldwide, it turned out. Both Simon and Kathrine had to obtain their original exam papers, produce a clean criminal record and document their whereabouts for the past ten years career wise. Looking to become a teacher abroad you would also have to do a three to four hour long English test. Kathrine wasn’t spared even though she has her international profile, which allows her to become an international coordinator. “It was such a long test and you can’t bring anything. Not even a lip balm,” Kathrine recalls.
March 2020 • ScandAsia 15
Kathrine: I had no boyfriend, no apartment and no job, so I thought why not?
Danish culture. Some of them may have never been to Denmark. They therefore have videos about certain Danish topics. This can for instance be the group of painters who are well known in Denmark as Skagensmalerne. “I would never have talked about frikadeller (Danish meatballs) in my class in Denmark,” Kathrine says and laughs.
Rules of contact
The job description offers an explanation for the strict background check, however. Apar t from teaching, the two also have to do all the administrative work involved with teaching. It is as if the two of them are an entire Danish school in Bangkok. “It’s like running your own company,” Simon explains. In Bangkok, they have no bosses and no other colleagues. The two young teachers are basically home alone. Of course, they have an office in Denmark they can consult, but for most of the time, they figure things out for themselves. “We only have each other. Just one colleague. It’s very far from what I’m used to,” Kathrine says.
Simon teaches the older pupils (udskolingen) while Kathrine takes care of the little ones (indskolingen). She loves children and the Disney universe but while she would have very close contact with her pupils in Denmark, the rules on pupil-teacher relationship in Thailand are slightly different. “In Denmark children would hug me and style my hair,” Kathrine says and adds that it would be frowned upon in Thailand. As teachers, Kathrine and Simon are obliged to participate in a child safety course which has taught them about safe contact with children. Simon elaborates. If he wants to give a child feedback, it must be done so in front of other pupils or at least where he is visible to other people. At one of the schools, he teaches at, there are even no doors. And physical contact is a no-go for the most part. “You have to ask yourself, is the touch necessary?” Kathrine says but quickly adds: “If there is a need for contact, I wouldn’t deny the child a hug.” “It’s just contact on different terms here,” Simon elaborates.
A change in lifestyle
Increased engagement
The differences between a teaching job in Denmark and the current position of Kathrine and Simon don’t end with administrative work. With only one subject to teach, the hours of teaching itself are reduced heavily in comparison to Denmark with just about 8 hours in Thailand. In Denmark, teaching could get closer to 29 hours. Mind you, a lesson in Denmark is only 45 minutes compared to one hour in a Thai classroom. The extra hours not spent on teaching allow time for said administrative work, preparing for classes and moving between school through the notorious Bangkok traffic. With fewer pupils to teach, class levels are also combined, so any extra time for preparation is of great help to the two teachers. On the bright side, having fewer pupils is sweet music to most teachers’ ears. In Denmark, classes can reach up to 28 children. “Here, my biggest class consists of six pupils,” Kathrine tells. Apart from teaching the Danish language, it is also Kathrine and Simon’s job to introduce the children to 16 ScandAsia • March 2020
A change in contact doesn’t only include the children but also the parents. Needless to say, the Danish community in Bangkok is somewhat smaller than that in Denmark. Seeing their pupils or parents thereof at an event during the weekend is therefore quite common for both teachers. “I had to get used to the contact with the parents,” says Kathrine, who was even invited to a private Christmas gathering at one of her pupils’ house. Simon adds that he even gets invited to the children’s birthday parties. This is a part of the job, that they are both very pleased with. They haven’t experienced parents being as engaged in their children’s school as in Thailand. Even the pupils appear to be more involved as well. Where Simon and Kathrine might struggle with children who don’t like school, nap during class or skip them altogether in Denmark, the story is a little different here. “In Thailand it’s more prestigious to go to school than in Denmark. Children want to be taught,” Simon says. “Some of my children even felt sad that there were no classes right before Christmas,” Kathrine adds.
Danish nursing interns at Cebu hospitals
News brief
T
he Provincial Board of Cebu authorized on 10 February 2020 an international internship program between Denmark and the Philippines. The program details that government-run hospitals in the province of Cebu will be hosting an internship program in which nursing students from Danish universities can join. The internship program will be facilitated by Bylling Foundation, a Danish NGO that promotes the rights and welfare of street children in Cebu, reports Cebu Daily. “The Cebu Provincial Hospitals have been allowing internship requests from various nursing students for the latter’s training in the same health facilities,” reads the resolution of Fourth District Board Member and Committee on Health and Social Services Chairperson Kerrie Keane Shimura. During their internship program, the nursing students will be subject to the existing policies of the provincial and government hospitals. Source: Cebu Daily
March 2020 • ScandAsia 17
Circular Economy: Sustainability-driver and business model game changer ScandAsia showcases in this theme examples of Circular Economy, how the Nordic countries view the business opportunities and how Nordic companies embrace the concept. By Joakim Persson
18 ScandAsia • March 2020
C
ircular economy reduces waste and environmental degradation; it increases competitiveness; creates jobs; helps switch to a green economy; and leads to a truly sustainable economic development. We cannot continue using a monetary and economic system that drives the systematic exploitation and destruction of healthy ecosystems. The ‘take-make-waste’ tradition of the linear economic model based on the limitless exploitation of virgin raw materials and energy has reached its physical limit. As the solution to this, the Circular Economy aims to redefine growth by focusing on the social and societywide benefits of economic activity. CE is all about making growth sustainable. The underlying vision is zero waste creation: discarded material becomes raw material for the next player. It means using our natural resources and designing our products in a way that extracted raw ma-
terials are used as sensibly and as many times as possible. Products will be designed to enable their reuse and recycling, non-renewable natural resources will be replaced by renewables, services will replace products, and energy production will be based on renewable energy sources. Goods and services will be shared, not owned, by individuals and industry. Bringing forward a wholly new economic model it involves creation of added value across the value chain through business models with extended lifecycles and circulation of materials. The CE affects businesses in all sectors and industries. All businesses should reassess their products and values from the perspective of identifying solutions that generate added value by extending lifecycles and promoting the circulation of materials. The CE model is also expected to have huge economic potential. Spearheaded by Finland with its World Circular Economy Forum, the Circular Economy shift could potentially add US$4.5 trillion over the next decade to the global economy while better protecting our increasingly vulnerable environment An increasing number of countries and national governments are shaping their strategies to support CEoriented investments and agendas. A 2018 blog post from the European Commission (EC) states that “transitioning to a CE relies on everyone’s commitment to consume better and to manage waste responsibly. It also relies on innovators who bring smarter products and business models to the market”. “The CE requires a fundamental change, and this will not be easy. But without change there can be no progress.” In Indonesia the EC has collaborated with local authorities, EuroCham and the EU-Indonesia Business
Network in exploring avenues for cooperation between EU and global green companies and entrepreneurs. In Singapore, 2019 was the Year Towards Zero Waste, with the launch of a Zero Waste Masterplan, that paves the way for a CE and a zero waste nation. Thailand is looking for ways to combine its economic growth without fur ther damaging the environment. The Ministry of Science and Technology has launched the BCG Model (Bioeconomy, Circular Economy and Green Economy) as a driver for economic growth, and the new Power Development Plan continues to put high emphasis in promoting investments in Biomass and Waste to Energy projects. EU is engaged in a sectoral dialogue on Circular Economy with ASEAN, advising interested ASEAN Member States on changes in policy and legislation on plastics, plastic waste and single use plastics. Meanwhile in the Nordics, the countries are embracing and implementing CE policies and have also partnered up in the Nordic Circular Hotspot. This coalition aims to increase knowledge sharing about circular economy business models between the Nordic markets, while exploring the oppor tunities for specific circular economy projects in the Nordics. Denmark, among them, has launched its inaugural CE strategy, including a budget to accelerate the “smart transition” that strengthens the Danish companies and their strong international competitive position (including by CE helping to lower the companies’ costs) and contributes to the creation of sustainable consumption. It aims to create growth and employment and simultaneously support a green and sustainable transition. We hope you find inspiration in the articles on the following pages.
March 2020 • ScandAsia 19
Kari Herlevi, Project Director for the Circular Economy at Sitra. Photo: Miikka Pirinen.
Kari Herlevi
Finnish Circular Economy expert shares insights By Joakim Persson 20 ScandAsia • March 2020
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inland is aiming at becoming a global circular economy (CE) leader by 2025. As a country it came up with its first CE roadmap in 2016, with the leadership of Sitra, and has organised the annual World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) since 2017.In this regard, Business Finland has also launched a program that supports the development of competitive bio- and circular economy solutions and ecosystems that offer solutions to global environmental challenges and hold potential for significant global markets. Their aim is to increase the exports of such solutions in order for Finnish solutions to be adopted in international markets. The right man to consult in how to implement CE practices and legislation also for Asean overall and its developing countries is Mr Kari Herlevi, Project Director for the Circular Economy at Sitra, who is part of the team behind Finland’s CE roadmap. He talked to ScandAsia in connection to his very first visit to Thailand in late 2019 invited by the United Nations. “We at Sitra are now looking at having international partnerships in the CE.We work mostly in Finland now but want to outreach more internationally,” he commented. Mr Kari, who previously worked with the promotion of Finnish cleantech and renewable energy solutions in Silicon Valley for Tekes, came to Sitra in 2015, tasked to establish the CE area. “We had already at that time investigated the business oppor tunities on a national scale within the CE for Finnish industries and after that we decided that we should have a national view on the CE: what it means for Finnish society at large but also for certain value chains. And it was important that it included giving direction, visions and some actions in order to speed things up – we wanted to showcase what was already happening at the time in Finland,” began Kari. Later, in October 2015in the English version of the ‘Sitra Studies 100 – The opportunities of a circular economy for Finland’ was released where Kari writes in the foreword, along with his boss, director Mari Pantsar: “Companies will find huge economic potential and an opportunity for renewal in the circular economy. Pioneering companies will be able to make efficient use of their material flows and benefit from new, user-oriented business models, as an alternative to owning goods.” Entrepreneurs and SMEs can benefit from opportunities in different parts of the value chain, commented Kari.“And of course globally even more so, because you have countries with a lot of people where there is a strong need for better solutions and where the CE could be an opportunity in job creation and poverty reduction.” And the report predicts: “Forerunners in exploiting opportunities will win a large slice of the global market”. The report presents consumers, businesses and Finland as a whole with tangible opportunities for action, while it also predicts that “a long but exciting march towards the circular economy lies ahead of us.” Sitra has also assessed the CE’s potential for Finland together with McKinsey and found that even conserva-
Photo: Susanna Lönnrot/Sitra tive estimates value such potential at around EUR 1.5–2.5 billion already in few selected sectors. Meanwhile, the global CE markets were estimated to be worth more than one thousand billion dollars by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and could generate cost savings of EUR600 billion a year in Europe. “As we want the roadmap to be dynamic, we also updated it in the spring of 2019. We looked at things through a different lens, where education became one of the cornerstones of the whole roadmap because we wanted to foster CE natives for Finland in the coming years – from preschool all the way up to university level. It has therefore been integrated in the studies so that everybody–from arts to business to material science–can think about how they can contribute in this topic.” “In other examples we have worked with cities and citizen-level engagement and aim to have as holistic an approach as possible, to really make sure that Finland takes these things on board to be among the frontrunners by 2025.”
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he World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) is among the flagship projects of the roadmap because it is important to have international outreach and dialogue, said Kari. And the response has been enormous already from the first forum, where many people wanted to partake, even causing a waiting list. The WCEF2020 will be co-hosted by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and Sitra in Toronto from 29 September to 1 October, and organised in cooperation with international partners. In the context of how people understand what CE actually is Kari replied that the transition towards the circular economy can be described in the following way: countries in a linear economic model that still put waste in landfills, dumps and the seas; others that are recycling economies that just try to solve the waste problem; and finally those that are putting the emphasis on waste reduction and the design to prolong the lifecycle of products and maintain value as well as investing in digital solutions and services. March 2020 • ScandAsia 21
“I think countries are divided by where they stand. There are some countries that are better than others, but it doesn’t solve the problem itself. In developing countries, you definitely need to have waste management systems and recycling because waste is ending up in nature and landfills, causing an environmental catastrophe in many areas. So it really depends on where you are.” A country like Thailand has a long road to the CE, but Kari says this: “There are certain developing countries that have the perception that it’s too expensive. But I’ve been arguing that it’s very expensive to change current legacy systems that for example Europe has. If you have waste-to-energy and recycling in a traditional sense, they don’t encourage you to maintain the value that much. And I think many developing countries have the opportunity to re-think, and maybe to do things differently, in a less expensive way while still moving forward.” “On the other hand, in many places environmental problems are so grave that it’s very costly to maintain the current system already, so I think that it’s necessary to have more and more investments in reducing emissions and waste and to really think about different policy measures to regulate as well and to follow up on the regulation.” “On policy level I think it’s important to provide a positive vision, , but to also put smar t legislation in place that for example industries and others can follow; that is predictable and does not change too often. But at the same time policies should challenge this current status and it is necessary to have legislation that reduces single-use plastics, where it’s evident that status quo can’t continue. But I would say also that having waste management systems in place that takes care of the regular stuff is already an improvement! If you can go beyond that it’s a plus but just to have the basic things in place would be very helpful for many perspectives. And if you could integrate it to digital solutions with transparency and AI and systems, this would actually give you better understanding in how you can improve systems.” For such smart solutions better standards and regulations are also required, and not only in Asia but also in Europe, thought Kari. As for Asean countries investing in the CE he commented: “I think to have a system level thinking and infrastructure in place that supports these activities is a key thing. That usually means quite a lot of investment in material recycling, but also transportation systems and how these are organised. Could you use more digital solutions and sharing platforms and different ways to not only make it more efficient but more creative and change it from a CE point of view? At the same time, we should have companies that innovate in their product and service models on a company level and there you are talking about different types of investments and players. On governmental level one should look at the whole systems and not only pinpoint one problem, because if you change that particular problem it could lead to another problem, which is not a holistic solution.” 22 ScandAsia • March 2020
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CEF as a forum examines how businesses can seize new oppor tunities; gain a competitive advantage through circular economy solutions; and how the circular economy contributes to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (one of its targets is to separate resource use from the concept of economic growth). “It is really important; there is a strong connection to the SDGs and also it’s important that the businesses have the CE in the core in order to have the growth as sustainable as possible,” commented Kari. In Finland, the development of high value-added products and services is a big focus. “It’s certainly a good goal and many companies see that opportunity. And it can’t just be the recycling part of the business; it really has to be something they could see as a business opportunity and that could change the business model as well as maintain the value of materials used, for example, and not just be producing stuff and not knowing what will happen to them.” ‘Paint the future brighter’ is Sitra’s slogan and Kari favours the positive spin that the most recent WCEF has resulted in.“I still think people want to be part of the solution rather than the problem and the CE is not the end result, it’s a tool to mitigate climate change, but also a possibility to reduce waste in society, e.g. singleuse plastics so it is a positive narrative offering solutions to many of the problems that we have, and I think that one important thing is that the CE, where environmental aspects are integrated, is also generating good business out of it, so I think the industries can relate to it but also the environmentalists. And certainly one of the themes that we’ll be investigating in the coming years is the social aspects. Does this mean that we will have a just and fair transition as we need to make a big shift when it comes to consumption and production? Does this mean that jobs will change, that we’ll have to re-educate people? There’s a need to look aspects related to education, employment and equality. All these combined I think makes it a very interesting approach.”
‘Smart energy’ a circular- and bioeconomy enabler
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By Joakim Persson
Helena Sarén leads the Smart Energy program and runs it together with the program team, Business Finland advisors, and the global Finnish network.
usiness Finland’ has a ‘Smart Energy Finland Program’, which brings together the services for technical development and expor ts. Its Head, Helena Sarén, believes that smart energy connects strongly to the circular and bioeconomy concepts, which Finland now also promotes extensively. Global demand for such solutions is increasing significantly. Helena joined the latest Finnish business delegation to Thailand in 2019. She shares insights on smart energy as part of circular economy (CE) and the efforts and opportunities for Finnish export and business internationalisation. “At the moment, energy is at the centre of climate change mitigation. It’s about ever yday life of people; star ting from transpor tation and including industrial production. Energy is the link to many of the issues as an enabler; it’s the backbone of the economy and the smart infrastructure of tomorrow,” she begins. “I think CE is the ultimate goal but many of the countries, especially the emerging ones, take baby steps when heading in this direction, where energy is often the first priority.There’s definitely a need for energy and then the countries try to solve that challenge.” March 2020 • ScandAsia 23
“Within that process it is then also very important that the countries are not going for partial optimisation but take a holistic approach, from the perspective of what kind of raw materials, including different kinds of biobased raw materials (forestry, agriculture and so forth), or about the industrial side and waste streams. So they need to understand the big picture behind it all, and see what can be used for energy purposes and later on, or furthermore for some circularity purposes.” “So, in many ways energy is the first step which then guarantees development of the society. Then, countries, regions and cities can gradually move up the ladder in the development towards CE.” “We are also going further towards CE with electric vehicles coming heavily onto the market, then of course affecting the renewable side of the grid. But at the moment we are mostly using lithium batteries and Finland has been given the leading role within the EU in lithium-iron batteries recycling research, development and innovation.” The ‘Batteries from Finland campaign’ will contribute to establishing a business ecosystem worth millions of Euros in Finland.The programme will make Finland a business platform that will attract international companies in the battery sector and take the position of a leading technology and service provider in the global market. “At the moment, the challenge is that a lot is not being recycled. With millions of EVs coming in to the picture what to do with the batteries; who will take them?” says Helena. “That is something we need to solve on a global level, definitely.”
Historical restructuring
Finland has some 30 companies around that topic looking at the sustainability issues and tracking the raw materials; starting already at the mining process stage all the way to the end of the lifespan, through the second life and then the final disposal. “Another interesting thing, relating to bioeconomy and circularity is that the energy sector is going through a huge restructuring at the moment. And the most advantageous companies are looking for new business in this area. One of the largest companies in Finland, Fortum, is in the driving seat in an ecosystem linked to fibre business. Straw can be processed for ingredients for other industries like food industry, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical.” “The restructuring is historical – probably as big as the invention of the steam machine, because new players are coming to market; entirely new businesses and new business models emerge and so forth,” she says. Analytics has predicted that the global smart energy will grow by 15 % (CAGR) during 2016–2020. The annual global energy investments will total approximately 2 trillion dollars with a major focus on giving up fossil fuels and increasing renewable energy production. This means an increased need of grid flexibility and energy storage. The energy market will experience further changes with the electrification of traffic. 24 ScandAsia • March 2020
The restructuring is historical – probably as big as the invention of the steam engine, because new players are coming to market; entirely new businesses and new business models emerge and so forth.
“Within the Smart Energy Finland Program we’re running and orchestrating a group with around thir ty energy companies, jointly looking into what other business potential paths that exist. And we’re trying to solve together how straw fibre could be used for production of fuel; so it’s very interesting I think, from a re-structuring of business point of view and seeing new kinds of opportunities.” The energy sector of the future will offer completely new business opportunities in particular for companies in the software and digital industries in the fields of data processing, data security and more. Energy consumption will be managed more efficiently with the help of learning and smart systems. All businesses should reassess their products and values from the perspective of identifying solutions that generate added value by extending lifecycles and promoting the circulation of materials, recommends Smart Energy Finland. Finland possesses significant expertise in the fields of renewable energy technology, smart networks, power electronics and automation. The energy sector already contributes to a major share of the Finnish exports and it is predicted to keep growing. The Smart Energy Finland Program brings together the services for technical development and exports what Helena prefers to call internationalisation of companies. She describes it as many-sided: “Now, one sees new kinds of partnerships, there are different types of
players - it’s kind of a spider’s web and not anymore a one-way road, but more about partnership, where movement goes back and forth.”
Many present in Southeast Asia already
China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are among the focus target markets within Asia. These choices are originally based on input from the companies (altogether around 100 companies currently focusing on Asia) and from Business Finland’s own view on development of the markets; where the opportunities are and how they match what Finland has to offer. “We create groups, as global teams, with experts, in this case around the energy topic. I have colleagues from the target areas included and we jointly develop our view on the most important segments from our Finnish perspective. As the Lead I have a global view and pull the strings together but I definitely rely on and the respect a lot the expertise of my colleagues,” she points out. The support to companies includes having a continuous cooperation and discussing with them, for instance on what the challenges are, what kind of growth they are looking for. Business Finland supports them in their market selection and then in real activities in the markets. Based on the delegation visit to Thailand she comments: “Thailand at the moment has very advanced plans relating to their renewable energy sector, the renewing of their whole infrastructure, electric vehicles, bioenergy,
and definitely the challenges with waste-to-energy and waste-to-value topics. So, I think this is a good moment for companies to at least take a look at Thailand. We organised B2B meetings for the companies, having precisely identified the target companies and then set up meetings with those ones. It is essential–especially when we are located so far from the markets–to have a local partner who knows how this market operates, have the local contacts and so forth. The Finnish companies have to see and feel where the market is at the moment because only based on that experience they can know if this market is good for them or not. And then they can go home and reflect about the findings and see whether these are good for them, whether they match their business model or not and so forth.” Helena adds that most of the Finnish companies have references in Southeast Asia already, many also with presence in Thailand. Building larger packages of solutions from several companies that can solve all challenges and problems at once for clients is also in focus for Finland. Finally, as investment-intensive sectors, funding is very essential for the energy sector and CE. “The lead time of such projects is long but definitely the investments are needed and therefore it’s so crucial that the countries, when they want to climb up in the development, make the investments themselves. And quite often it means that they have to change legislation in such a way that these investments can be supported.” March 2020 • ScandAsia 25
Finnish initiated Waste-To-Value Centre set up in Singapore
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By Joakim Persson nitiated by Finnish exper ts and with initial suppor t from the Embassy of Finland, a Waste-ToValue-Centre (WV Centre of Excellence) has been launched in Singapore. The volume of waste just keeps on growing, increasingly ends up in landfills and generates staggering costs to society. But what a waste, as all waste could have value! So it does not have to continue this way, and it really can’t - as the ever growing cities in for instance Asean are seriously struggling to cope already. The circular economy (CE) thinking, where products and cities are designed and optimized for a cycle of disassembly and reuse, replaces the end-of-life concept. Marko Kärkkäinen, the brainchild behind the new
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centre and who is usually at the end of the value chain, says that CE gives him the opportunity to climb up the circle a bit. “Somebody’s residue is someone else’s raw material. And I see huge oppor tunity for the circular economy, but there are always hurdles to climb up – how you scale it up,” begins Marko, who has two decades of experience within waste management, mainly in Asia, CE etc. “And I would like to add that no matter what you do, however circular economy succeed, there will always be waste, and you have to think how to go about things during a transition period of where living patterns and conventional waste management change.”
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e have set up the centre in order to bring together the policy-makers, the governments, technology, academia and the business community. And it’s not easy because in Southeast Asia there are many different kinds of policies even within one country. And somehow we want to involve this process so that we can make circular economy scalable. It’s a huge opportunity but we have to bring stakeholders together.” “The most important thing to know is what’s happening here; what is really going on in the waste management and circular economy businesses, and what the policies are. And when you know that–which our centre will help out to map–then you can offer solutions for the local businesses, municipalities or governments. What fits in Finland, Sweden or Norway does not fit straight away one by one or one to one here in Asia,” adds Marko from a Nordic perspective, where there are both tons of triedand-tested as well as new exciting solutions for the waste sector (many whom are already active in Asia). “It’s also our aim in the centre to bring those companies together. Because even if one has a very nice solution for waste-to-energy somebody has to solve the logistics,” elaborates Marko as he gives an example of a city in Southeast Asia, Bogor. “They lack 300 waste trucks and if there’s a waste-to-energy plant which needs 600 – 1000 tons of waste and can separate organics and make it feasible, then those trucks are really needed. So our aim is that we can bring all these stakeholders together. And I’m also a businessman; I see big potential that we unite Nordic companies – then we can have complete solutions and a pathway forward.” Embassy of Finland in Singapore, representing Team Finland network of supporters of Finnish businesses, saw this as a promising initiative. Riku Mäkelä, Counsellor in innovation and trade affairs at the Embassy, was very supportive early on in establishing the WV Centre of Excellence. “Marko’s case is that he cannot sell good waste solutions, waste-to-energy and so on in Southeast Asia because regulation does not support it. So he started thinking that something had to be done about regulations. And the only way to speed up the change of that is to start sorting what works today and what doesn’t,and provide good information, education and knowledge. And
Marko Kärkkäinen, Head, Waste-To-Value Centre Photo: Joakim Persson.
that has to be done between the public sector, meaning the regulators; universities and researchers, meaning understanding; and the industry, meaning companies who already have existing solutions – all these players have to come together and start talking to each other. They have to start piloting things. They have to start writing white papers, obtaining the understanding of different cities and nations and what the local conditions are, what the situation is like right now, what it could be, what it should be and what to do about it,” explains Riku. Finland’s support includes ordering a study of seven Asean cities and waste opportunities. This Asean Waste Report will be a step towards the pathway to develop first waste index study in the future by the centre for Asean countries. The current initial report covered some cities in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar,Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore and Thailand. It includes the waste situation and opportunities including EPC (Engineering Procurement & Construction) value chain partners for the benefit of Finnish and Nordic companies. And following on that the WVCentre team has initiated Asean engagement in Cambodia with real client targets in February 2020; and has activities planned in Indonesia in March 2020 with a Finnish delegation with Marko for waste and sustainability opportunities. March 2020 • ScandAsia 27
Erik Hertzman, Director WV Centre of Excellence Photo: Joakim Persson
The repor t paved the way for Finnish business teams lead by Business Finland to narrow down to the most suitable best weighted markets Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar for immediate follow-up in year 2020 by Finnish and Nordic companies. “This will help us develop the direction for a waste index in the near future as the market needs one once the centre and their work are funded with partners. As for the immediate report we’ll be able present to the companies what the real target market is, what kind of applications and solutions you can provide to these cities; the core knowledge essentially. There are lots of studies already but if you compare the numbers they differ. And the waste composition can vary city by city. The organic waste means that the waste-to-energy solutions we have in the Nordics cannot fit here; you have to do something about the organics. And that’s why the waste-to-energy and biogas industries in Asia do not have that good reputation because the first plants have been disappointing,” says Marko.
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e will collaborate with municipalities and universities; locally and nationally. Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute, NEWRI,at Nanyang Technological University is our pioneering partner in kind, providing us a space and people, researchers. Possibly we will process the information and map it in a systematic way. Once we have this
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information, we can calculate and compare different kinds of solutions and I feel that if you want to influence the governments and policy-making you have to bring also economics.” “We want to work directly with the policy-makers, to make sure that the governments are well equipped to fully understand the best decisions they can make by using the tools that could be available to them,” explained Erik Hertzman, Director WV Centre of Excellence during their presentation in the Nordic Pavilion during SWITCH (Singapore Week of Innovation & Technology) last year. “We want to drive implementation of best practices and make sure that the implementation is done through direct outreach to the mayors and city decision-makers. In order to do this we are working with customers both from the government as well as from the industry.” “We want to produce policy-relevant research, and make sure that anything available to the stakeholders is something that can bring waste to value, something that can not only reduce the cost to society but to actually also bring value back to the people. In order to do this, the centre will provide training, thought leadership and consulting solutions to help to drive through this change,” he continued. The centre has established an academic team of partners that involves NTU Singapore, Murdoch University in Australia, Chiang Mai University in Thailand, and LUT University (Lappeenranti-Lahti University of Technology) in Finland so far. Other Singapore and Asean Universities are in discussions to join the centre’s direction. The initial home base was slated with NEWRI, who is at the forefront of driving waste-to-value and waste-to-energy research in the region. “A Nordic Innovation House partnership has now started in Singapore. And Finnish Waste-Cleantech companies/start-ups like Clewat Oy and more–even some Nordic players–have star ted their Asia expansion and market suppor t engagement and discussions with the centre as of February 2020,” says Marko. “We are ready and open for immediate business and policy work to serve Finnish And Nordic companies, SMEs and start-ups in the waste-to-value/clean tech and sustainability industry space as well as collaboration with related universities and R&D centres for start-ups and innovation.” “This centre leads back to a global movement on circular economy and back to our ‘Finnish roadmap to Circular Economy’ that we published already a couple of years ago, as the first nation to do so and become as circular as possible a nation. Then, a year later, we published in Finland, in a big co-creation project between a lot of stakeholders, also a plastics roadmap on how to avoid plastics waste, how to still use plastics but in a smart way. And then all this leads back to the fact that there are many parts of the world where waste is a huge problem, so waste goes to nature, to landfills, and that’s it,” says Riku Mäkälä.
Indonesia teams up with Denmark to become the first Southeast Asian country to adopt circular economy
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ndonesia and Denmark, along with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have launched a new initiative to help Indonesia create the first strategy for a circular economy system – and will therefore be the first Southeast Asian countr y to adopt the sustainable system of economy. The system will manage resources and waste sustainably, according to the Indonesian news site Jakar ta Globe. The goal is for the system to be ready to be fully implemented by 2024. Denmark is funding the circular economy initiative with $540,000. “Transitioning to a circular economy is an important step toward creating sustainable development. I am very happy that Indonesia is taking this initiative to formulate a circular economy strategy, and I am glad that Denmark and UNDP can support this first step in the transition,” said the Danish Environment Minister Lea Wermelin 24 February 2020. Jakarta Globe reports, that the collaboration between the Nordic and Southeast Asian countr y has given occasion for a ‘circular economy workshop’ with representatives of the private sector and nongovernmental organizations present. The participants discussed five potential sectors – food and beverage, textiles, construction, wholesale
The Danish Ambassador In Indonesia Rasmus A. Kristensen and UNDP Indonesia representative Cristophe Bahuet signing the agreement for funding Indonesia’s circular economy initiative. Photo: UNDP Indonesia
and retail trade, and electronic where the circular economy system might flourish best in the Indonesian industry “This year we’re analyzing the economic, environmental and social potentials of circular economy. We will then develop a national action plan, projects and partnerships,
and start its full implementation in 2024,” said The National Development Planning Agency’s director of Environmental Affairs, Dr. Medrilzam 24 February 2020. Source: Jakarta Globe
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Pandora Lamphun is shaped like a bracelet of roof with office buildings for charms. In the middle is a lake. Photo: Pandora
Reuse, recycle, reduce: Pink Pandora goes green
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By Sigrid Friis Neergaard ne hour’s drive south of Chiang Mai in Lamphun in Northern Thailand, you will find one of Pandora’s two jeweller ymaking facilities in Thailand. Designed to look like the Danish brand’s famous bracelet with charms, a circular roof construction makes for the bracelet, while connected buildings resemble charms. Despite being white, the facilities are green and have earned Pandora a spot on the list of environmentally aware businesses.
Leading in LEED
The charm shaped facilities opened on 1 October 2016, merely 16 months after the ground breaking ceremony The decision to build a new production facility followed the realisation, that the production in Bangkok wasn’t enough to accommodate the demand for the popular jewellery. Back then, Pandora had just moved its head quarters in Denmark to a different area and new LEED certified buildings, as the company had decided to keep up with consumer sustainability awareness. So naturally, new facilities in Lamphun should also be LEED certified. 30 ScandAsia • March 2020
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED for short is a certificate awarded for businesses who, as the name suggests, consider the environment when building. To obtain LEED cer tification there are cer tain requirements such as waste management, the building process and the materials. The latter are not allowed to travel more than 800 kilometres from origin to construction site. The cost of all this? About 15-20 percent of additional costs, Lars R. Nielsen, Pandora’s general manager in Lamphun, estimates. “It is the right thing to do,” he says. He adds that the brand was the first jeweller y company in Asia to earn a LEED certificate on gold level, meaning that they had gone the extra mile in green construction. The creativity was sparking at the architectural table and Pandora’s new environmental profile was a part of the design from the get-go. The “bracelet”, or circle of roof, acts to provide shade to avoid employees going straight from the sun to the inside. Office buildings make up “the charms”.
The employees are happy to separate their trash.
The centrepiece of the Pandora charm construction is a lake. It was decided to reestablish the existing water canals. Furthermore, rain water is collected for reuse. The water is used when possible such as for production, cooling and toilet flushing. All roofs on the premises are white, as it minimises the intake of sunlight and thus the need for aircondition. The air is cleaned constantly, but rather than taking air from the outside which needs to be cooled, it is sucked up, cleaned and reused through large ducts. All metal dust collected is also reused. Where the roof isn’t white, it is covered by solar panels. A total of 8,500 square metres of panels which provide 13-15 percent of the production’s energy usage. “We would like to be one hundred percent selfsufficient,” Lars R. Nielsen says. He explains that the obstacle lies in Thailand’s strict regulations on excess green energy which is usually fed to a grid system to be sold or used later. The general manager is hopeful that the rules will change in the future, and Pandora’s energy consumption will get even greener.
General manager at Pandora Lamphun, Lars R. Nielsen - without shoes like everybody else in the company. March 2020 • ScandAsia 31
Air ducts suck up metal dust and air, which is then cleaned and reused.
Pandora’s jewellery is shipped to Europe, North America and Asia. While the two former are packed in cardboard boxes, the Asian deliveries are packed in green plastic boxes, which are then returned to Pandora. The same goes for individual plastic packaging as far as possible. Individual packaging remains an issue for Pandora, as the solution to cutting down on the plastic is yet to be found.
Winniper
Recycling ice cubes
Upon entering each office building, it’s mandatory to take off your shoes. It is so, because employees felt it added a homely feeling and thus wanted to keep it that way even after construction was finished and it was no longer necessary in order to avoid dragging dust and dirt inside. In general, it’s very calm at Pandora, and not just because everyone is wearing slippers in the offices. It is exceptionally quiet, and to save energy on light, the buildings are darker than your average offices. Instead, the walls are light, and there are high ceilings which together with large windows add extra light. In every office building is the same mythical creature. It’s Pandora’s mascot if you like. Named by combining the names of Pandora’s founder Per Enevoldsen and his wife Winnie, Winniper is inspired by the African Savannah. The lion represents pride and teamwork among Pandora employees, just like lions in the wild living in packs. The giraffe represents passion and the larger overview. Finally, the bumble bee is a symbol for a “can do attitude”. “It doesn’t know that it technically shouldn’t be able to fly,” Lars R. Nielsen says. 32 ScandAsia • March 2020
Outside, some employees take a break in the shade by the lake surrounded by trees. Upon building, en effort was made to maintain natural plants and trees. Constructors would build around them. Obviously, in such a green and clean environment, there isn’t a single piece of trash to be found on the ground. Beside the regular recycle and general waste separation bins, is an odd one. A bin for ice cubes. When people throw out cups with ice cubes, the water ends up using space, and it can’t be reused. Throw it in a separate bin dedicated for melted water, and the problem is solved. “The employees are happy to separate their trash,” Lars R. Nielsen says. Pandora reuses or resells trash when possible, which is the case for about 93 percent of the company’s waste. The unique silikone molds are melted and sold to China for plastic toy production and the company’s biggest waste sinner, plaster, is processed and dried to be resold for cement.
Plaster used for molding are the biggest waste component at Pandora. When used, it is cleaned, dried and sold for cement.
Big Heart Spirit
Part of Pandora’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy involves repaying the local community. So, apart from rethinking how to best clean jewellery and dispose of or reuse waste in a green way, Pandora has also turned its attention outside of its own four walls. “When you’re a new company, it’s impor tant to establish a good relationship with the local community,” Lars R. Nielsen explains. This is why Pandora in 2017 decided to finance a disabled organic farming project in the near-by area. A local monk had donated the land and the Danish company wanted to support it as well. Some of the organic, local crops can be found at Pandora’s own canteen. Each employee has their own cup to refill with water throughout the day, so they won’t need to buy plastic bottles. If some of the 4,032 employees feel like offering their own hand in fur ther assistance, they can do so through Pandora’s Big Heart Spirit project. Essentially, Pandora will inform employees about local projects which they can then sign up to help out with. “We have planted trees in cooporation with local
Pandora also tries to improve the work environment for employees. One method is having their own radio channel, that plays music through overhead speakers twice a day. Employees can volunteer to DJ.
Pandora’s mascot Winniper is a combination of a lion, giraffe and a bumble bee. These two are for the employees to write on, when they start working for Pandora. places, we have painted schools, built dams and helped clean up,” Lars R. Nielsen says to name a few of the projects. “We are constantly trying to be better, and helping the local community makes sense to the employees.” March 2020 • ScandAsia 33
Food waste rescuer: Bo H. Holmgreen
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By Joakim Persson he more we implement circular economy the more we will transform and improve the world – for business, people and planet. Bo H. Holmgreen is a highly successful Danish entrepreneur-come-philanthropist who has launched a monumental undertaking to reduce the world’s food waste - with Thailand and Indonesia as test beds. While most people sit and say that someone ought to do something about this and that, that the government should solve certain problems etc. Founder and CEO Bo’s ‘Scholars of Sustenance’ non-profit food rescue foundation, SOS, launched in 2012, is an admirable example of walking the talk. The Dane experienced firsthand all the food waste taking place and got convinced that something had to be done. And this was very much relating also to his previous financial technology solution for banks, which was all about optimisation. It is a fact that food waste is unavoidable. However, a lot food unnecessarily becomes waste, while many people are suffering from hunger and are depending on others’ support to survive.
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100 million meals wasted
Bo had an eye-opening experience in Bangkok in 2012 as he was enjoying the canapés and wine in the club lounge of a Bangkok five-star hotel by the riverside. “So I’m sitting there in the sky lounge and after they finish and carry out all the food –of which 97 per cent is untouched–I ask the butler: ‘What happens to this food, do you get to take it home?’ ‘No, Sir, then we would be cooking more and wasting more, so it goes into the trash’ was the reply.” “I thought: ‘No way! While this goes into the trash I can sit here and look down at the people outside the gates of the hotel that would need this food.’ Then, suddenly I realised: Why am I optimising banks’ money? I need to optimise food for the needy the same way!’ “That gave me the idea how to set up SOS - which is all about the logistics and the concerns with food safety; where managers in hotels do not want to give the food to the poor because they could be sued and so on.” Bo continues: “So I had to lift it safely out of one logistics system and then safely into another distribution system – where both systems cannot object to each
Why would the hotels not donate? All the chefs have seen this food waste for years.
Bo H. Holmgreen, founder of Scholars of Sustenance. Photo: Joakim Persson. other. And that is how SOS has been successful, so we now have about 100 hotels and some 25 supermarket branches and are growing dramatically.” Since 2015, their Thai foundation has been pioneering their principles in Bangkok, followed by SOS Indonesia established in 2016, and also Phuket. SOS has estimated that over 100 million meals that are being wasted every month in Southeast Asia could be redistributed to underprivileged people, so the opportunities for food rescue operations to grow is enormous. “Right now we are focused on building a ver y healthy food rescue business where we get as much food as we possibly we can from the donors. And that can sometimes be challenging; where we have overcome objections such as: ‘No, we’re not going to give anything.’ or: ‘Maybe we’ll give you a little bread, but no protein because it’s too dangerous.’” “Here in Southeast Asia SOS have to sign contracts with every donor–which we willingly do–that we take full responsibility for the food and we make it anonymous so it can never be traced back to the donor. In this way we’ve been operating for four years without one single incident,” explains Bo.
Replica from the banking world
But let us rewind to this thing about banks, which will explain where Bo is coming from. Bo has been working with computers and within IT for the banking sector throughout his career. He founded his own Transoft International in 1992 in the U.S., which he eventually sold as a very successful business.
“We mathematically optimised cash for banks, predicting how much money was needed where and when and how to put it there at the least cost. We were definitely pioneers and I travelled and sold this service all over the place on all continents. It was a real success and we would save the banks millions of dollars just by being a bit smart.” “So, our idea for SOS–that this enormous food waste has to stop–comes from my logistics background. My optimisation brain looks at each component that all have a set of restrictions, complexities and so on but none of them can individually do the optimisation. And hotels have to be focused on their profit. It’s an exact replica of what I did in the banking world – if you take your food levels too low you’re hurting the quality of your business. In the banking world it was: your ATMs are running out of cash. In the hotels it is about running out of food or the quality of food. At the same time one shouldn’t have too much, so we encourage them to work on getting the food losses down to a minimum - it’s all about optimisation. And once you’ve done that you optimise the rest of it by using us – we will take the food to the needy people, instead of it going to the landfill.” The donors get information back on where the food has been re-distributed and how much CO2 and Methangas emissions that have been avoided, so they can also include it in their CSR programme.
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This is the same I saw in the banking world where we showed with our simulation techniques that they were wasting money. Once food loss prevention has been implemented by hotels and supermarkets, SOS is happy to be the last optimisation part of the chain. Use it, don’t trash it!
“We call it the ‘no-brainer’; we do all the transports for free, we clean our own containers, and recycle those in and out from the donors, recipients and so on. We make it simple; taking care of all the logistics and doing it at no cost to them. And why would the hotels not donate? All the chefs have seen this food waste for years and years, and here they are seeing that there is somebody actually coming with a solution!” In optimising the food consumption in hotels and supermarkets, where some food waste is unavoidable, Bo has noted that the awareness is not always there. “This is the same I saw in the banking world where we showed with our simulation techniques that they were wasting money. Once food loss prevention has been implemented by hotels and supermarkets SOS is happy to be the last optimisation part of the chain. Use it, don’t trash it!” SOS estimates that across Asean, 35% of all food purchased in general ends up in the landfill. “Indonesia, as an example, is number two in the world of food wasters so we can do so much there that it’s incredible!” “Supermarkets know better because they have to quantify these things. With hotels we try to work with them in order to find the leftover food but the important thing is to get to the realisation at management level and once we have that everything changes.” Tesco Lotus and Tops are two main supermarkets that are donors in Thailand. “They give us a lot of food that otherwise goes to landfills,” says Bo “We have definitely turned into a food trucking company with the complexity that this kind of food poses; it’s not frozen, cannot last long and so on, so we’ve got 36 ScandAsia • March 2020
to turn it around extremely quickly. We need to grab it in a timely manner, while it’s still good and edible, and get it to the people that need it. Basically we need to get it out as soon as possible. Usually we get it chilled from the hotels and put it into our cooling truck with its minus two degrees temperature.” To determine that the food is still safe to consume SOS has food hygienists who use smell, taste and sight, as well as collaborate with chefs and universities for assurance. “Food safety must have the highest priority. Right now we only work with four- and five star hotels and as the food is good enough for those hotels’ guests it is O.K for our recipients too,” claims Bo. “We have freezers and certain types of food we can freeze and store for the next day, and we will also start a repurposing programme where we re-cook it in our kitchen and make portions and so on. There are people we have not reached yet, while orphanages, refugee camps etc usually have kitchens and can re-cook most of the food themselves.” In Thailand SOS is also running a compost programme with farmers outside of Bangkok, who gets the food that cannot be given to people, for composting instead. “We buy them shovels, and give them worms and teach them how to do it, and over a three-month period their horribly bad soil becomes perfectly good to grow things in. We have saved so many farmers from a bad fate just by doing that. And, again, it’s food that should not go to waste. It’s wonderful. It’s part of the circular economy and if I can convince these farmers to grow organic vegetables for our empty trucks to bring on the way back I
Food truck collecting food donations from hotels and supermarkets in Bangok. Photo: Joakim Persson could convince our hotel donors to buy that food and send the money back to the farms in the villages, and we’ll have another cycle.”
Food equity the ultimate goal
Aside food loss prevention Bo also has a loftier goal, and that is food equity. “I may not live long enough to see but that is the ultimate vision,” says the Dane, as he elaborates. His foundation is based on two pillars; sustenance (which is the food) and then there is the education part, with scholarships. “We’re launching a scholarship programme to lift very poor people out of their environment; children who have no chance of getting an education. We would like to make them into food rescue ambassadors that can basically learn about the environment. And it’s part of: ‘Don’t give people fish, but teach them how to fish’. So we will give these scholarships to kids that are now involved and who will return to their own community to help out.” “And my statement is that the new adage is: ‘Stop fishing, we have enough fish, let’s eat what we have!’ So it’s a different kind of fish story now. This is about food distribution. And the reason for this is: I call it seven-tenone. We have seven billion people in this world today, but we make enough food for ten billion, and yet one billion goes to sleep hungry every night. So there’s something wrong here; it’s an equity thing.” “If we can change access to good nutrition and get to the point where the whole food industry is doing something, and we all work together for this, we can achieve food equity. Right now SOS goes and picks up
food at the end point; but in the food industry, in the growing, manufacturing and transportation, there is so much food wasted!” continues Bo. “If I can get access to all that we could save so much more food, and then get that to the right people who have not yet become middle class, we’ll have set up a system. So the other side to that story, and the reason why we are in Asia, is that more people are going from poverty to middle class in Southeast Asia than anywhere else in the world. So Bo wants to add the food industry to the equation and is therefore building another charity for that. “I want a thousand trucks and to serve tens of millions of undernourished people. Then the food industry won’t be able to ignore SOS anymore when we come and point out how much of their edible food is going to the landfill. With food equity and all these poor people transitioning to middle class we can change the world.” Meanwhile, as the whole operation is paid out of the US-based SOS charity the long-term goal is also selfsufficiency for the national SOS organisations. Bo is currently running the operation in the same way as he used to run a company, which is also needed in order follow the mission, as long as his charity is paying the bills. “My job is to launch these as boats in the water and to ensure we get volume and scholarships on top. We now have Indonesia,Thailand and we’re entering Cambodia and the Philippines next. I am encouraging the staff to get better at fundraising and then get independent through local fundraising, getting communities involved and so on. But we have not got to that stage yet,” smiles Bo. March 2020 • ScandAsia 37
Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers SOS donor: Happy to contribute
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By Joakim Persson ne of the food donors to SOS in Bangkok is the 726-room Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel & Towers. Executive Chef Rober t Czeschka explains how the hotel handles food waste, and became a donor. A strong supporter of the food donation, Rober t organised to present the opportunity in a cluster meeting to the chefs also in other Marriott-branded hotels in Bangkok. That has resulted in quite a few of them partnering up with SOS. “Even if each hotel gives just a little bit of food the total volume will add up. And it’s great to do something good for people as it is Marriott’s intention to support the community,” thinks Robert. At Sheraton it was initiated two years and took some time to implement; setting up the structure and going through the learning process and training. “We have in average per month 150 kilos of food left over that we are not re-using. This is around 640 portions that we are happy to give and donate for the society.” “With very robust cost-saving programmes in the hotel products are more or less very controlled for buffets. But as we need to have a certain amount of food on the buffet, when a buffet finishes we end up with some left-over food that we cannot serve a second time to the customers but that is still perfectly good to eat. We are happy to forward the items that SOS still can use.” “SOS comes seven days a week and collect left-over buffet items from the breakfast. SOS is very specific in what they can receive and need and can re-use for their meals to the needy,” continues Robert. Robert thinks that chefs on top level must not only have a 2 or 3 Michelin star restaurant in their CV, they should also have worked in a third world country where people have very little to eat, so that they can learn and be able to create something out of practically nothing. “SOS is a helpful tool to open the mind that we have poor people on the planet who have nothing to eat. It’s a very good way to learn that we need to respect the food. We take for granted that we have it every day. But if you take a real diet, and see how your stomach reacts, then you’ll really know what it feels like for people who are suffering from not having enough to eat,” thinks the chef. “Some guests are eating with their eyes, so on buffets some of their plates are quite filled up, and then you
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Some guests are eating with their eyes, so on buffets some of their plates are quite filled up, and then you see how much that become wasted food, and that cannot be used for outside because it was touched
see how much that become wasted food, and that cannot be used for outside because it was touched. People have to learn and respect the food. It’s a learning curve and I think we’re on the right track. It’s similar to at home where your mother teaches you not to waste the food.” As for this type of donation he says that the understanding for it is getting more and more accepted among people. Other than donating to SOS the hotel tries to source food locally as much as possible and use every piece of the ingredients in cooking. “We are working on having very limited waste in the garbage bin. Do like your mother, the modern creativity is to make something out of say a left-over potato; one can make beautiful things out of it!”
Singapore and Denmark team up to promote sustainable infrastructure in Asia developments in Asia,” says the current ambassador of Denmark in Singapore, Dorte Bech Vizard. A key aspect of the par tnership will be sharing and exchanging
The Danish ambassador in Singapore, Dorte Bech Vizard. (left) and Seth Tan, Executive Director of Infrastructure Asia (right). Photo: the Danish Embassy in Singapore.
the exper tise, solutions and practices by the Danish and Singaporean companies. “Infrastructure Asia welcomes this collaboration with Danida Sustainable Infrastructure Finance to better enable regional infrastructure development. We are happy to leverage solutions from Danida to create more bankable project opportunities, especially for Singaporebased companies as well as our international partners,” says Seth Tan, Executive Director, Infrastructure Asia. Danida Sustainable Infrastructure Finance was established in 1993 (then called Mixed Credits). Source:The Danish Embassy in Singapore
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n late Februar y, an agreement between the Singaporean fir m Infr astr ucture Asia and the Danish credit facility Danida Sustainable Infrastructure Finance was signed. The agreement aims ‘to boost the financing of sustainable infr astr ucture’, according to a statement by the Danish Embassy in Singapore. “Singapore is a natural partner for Denmark to promote sustainable infrastructure in Asia with. The country has a strong focus on developing environmental governance and sustainable financing. I hope the collaboration between Danida Sustainable Infrastructure Finance and Infrastructure Asia contribute to catalyzing green infrastructural
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Spot the cats and bikes on the walls of Penang streets
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By Sigrid Friis Neergaard
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eonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in Paris, Pablo Picasso’s Guernica in Madrid and Edvard Munch’s The Scream in Oslo are just a few pieces of art which attract numerous of tourists to their home towns. Similarly, George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008, on the Malaysian island of Penang, is a special place for ar t-lovers. While it isn’t one specific painting in a museum calling for a visit, the streets of the city are filled with fun, creative art. In 2012, the Penang municipality invited Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic to transform the streets with some dashes of paint. Since then, the town has become a colourful canvas. There are plenty of chances to get a fun, interactive photo, as several of the paintings compliment or include parts of buildings. For instance, you can jump on the swing with two playful children, sit on a bicycle, and throw a ball in a basketball hoop. For some reason, there are also a lot of cat paintings. The art covers a large part of the city centre, so grab yourself a map of some of the most iconic pieces and go on an unusual sightseeing tour. March 2020 • ScandAsia 41
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