Category Archives: Resource Based Economy

When she was younger, 34-year-old Tran Thi Khanh Trang never imagined that she would go into farming, but her passion for the environment led her to a sustainable development project in her native Vietnam that then spurred her to go into the sector. Further south, in Indonesia, 28-year-old Audria Evelinn is working to improve the local food system in her country, and, since retiring, 57-year-old Tosca Santoso has been involved in a reforestation and coffee-growing project.

Across Asia, many young, educated and masters-level professionals from a variety of sectors are going back to their roots to create projects that can help the environment and support local communities.

It is a trend that James Chin, director of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania in Australia, says is not unique to this region, but is common in countries where there is a growing, and newly emerging, middle class, which is helping young people get a better education.

In the case of Vietnam, where entrepreneur Tran Thi Khanh Trang is from, 70 per cent of the population has some connection with agriculture, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Given the statistics, it could be said that there is nothing unusual about Trang taking this career path. The young womans parents had very limited resources and never thought Trang would go any further than high school but, thanks to her grades, she managed to get into the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, where she majored in technical English and developed a passion for sustainable development through community-based projects.

South-East Asia is evolving fast. According to IFAD, after two decades of rapid economic growth, the Vietnamese are going from being a subsistence economy to an emerging lower-middle-income economy, and the countrys economic fabric has also shifted from reliance on agriculture to industry and services.

The countrys rural population (about 7 in 10 people), however, still has little in terms of savings or state support, and relies almost entirely on natural resource collection and agriculture for a living. Improved living standards in rural areas have also brought greater income inequality and environmental degradation, according to IFAD.

After doing a masters degree related to agriculture at Colorado State University in the United States, Tran Thi Khanh Trang launched Fargreen, a project she began working on in 2013, seeking to help local communities in Vietnam make the most of their resources.

The entrepreneur tells us that her main work with Fargreen is to make the most of rice straw, something that Vietnamese farmers usually burn after the harvest, but which they now use to grow gourmet mushrooms. The mushrooms left over and the by-products of this process are used as a biofertilizer, to enrich the soil, to produce more rice and other crops.

Fargreens high-quality products have made their way onto the menus of high-end hotels and restaurants such as the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in Hanoi, one of the countrys most prestigious hotels, which hosted the summit, in 2019, between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the then US president, Donald Trump.

Andreas Ismars story is very different to Trangs. Born and raised in Indonesias capital, Jakarta, unlike many Indonesians, he grew up in an affluent household and was able to choose his own studies; he went to the city of Groningen in the Netherlands to study economics and business.

Indonesia is the largest economy in South-East Asia and, according to IFAD, three out of five Indonesians live in rural areas where agriculture is their main occupation. The agricultural sector contributed 8.5 per cent to Indonesias GDP in 2016 and, although this percentage has been declining over the past five decades, it is still the main source of income for around a third of the population and, more specifically, for 64 per cent of those living in poverty.

Poverty in Indonesia is still concentrated in rural areas, where in 2014, 13.8 per cent of the population was classified as poor, as compared to 8.2 per cent of the urban population, according to IFADs data.

While studying in the Netherlands, Andreas was taken by surprise on meeting Europeans from farming families who were not by any means poor, unlike in his home country, which made him wonder why farm workers in fertile Indonesia have so little in the way of education and resources.

On returning home in 2005, Andreas worked as a financial journalist for reputable news outlets and started a small catfish farming business with his cousin, an entrepreneurial activity that made him realise, he says, the high costs, difficult market access and questionable seed quality.

Frustrated by the low prices, which left a gross margin of only 1,000 Indonesian rupiah per kilo of catfish (the equivalent of about 0.06 or US$0.07), Andreas decided to load up his van and offer the catfish directly to market stall holders. Before he even got out of his vehicle, he was greeted by a couple of thugs armed with machetes. After this experience, Andreas understood that the business was controlled by a select few.

In spite of this incident and the conclusions he drew, he went on to expand his fish farm from nine to almost 40 ponds in less than two years. At the end of 2019, the entrepreneur met a farmer who was passionate about reducing costs using organic methods and simple technology. He explains that this all helped him to realise that even though small farmers do not have direct access to the market, they can still make a profit.

In 2020 he launched a new project to produce snacks made from sunflower seeds and signed a sales contract with a local company. Andreas believes that if they make it profitable, they can help overcome the stigma attached to farmers, seen as poor and uneducated, and attract more people, especially young people, into the sector, as most of them are now over 45 years old. Their project is called Horekultura (which translates as Hoorayculture), and their motto is to grow happiness.

As the economies of South-East Asia grow, Chin explains that many young people, like Trang and Andreas, feel the need to do something better for the new generations, beyond earning money and feeding a family, because they can afford to do something new and completely different from what their parents did.

Audria Evelinns mission also fits in with this thinking. As she explains, her goal is to improve the local food system in Indonesia by reconciling the relationships between nature, farmers and consumers. Audria has a masters degree from Seattle University (USA) in urban sustainability. She also took part in the sustainable agriculture programme at Growing Power, a community farm in Milwaukee, and a masters programme in gastronomic tourism at Le Cordon Bleu, a renowned culinary and hospitality school in France.

Audrias work seeks to empower farmers and community farm programmes. Food is a powerful vote for the change we want to see in the world, and by choosing local, organically grown, direct and seasonal produce as a customer, we are creating demand that supports a sustainable local economy providing a livelihood for farmers, she says.

Audria has long been drawn to the idea of the regenerative farm as a gateway to environmental conservation. Given that large-scale conventional farming and the non-stop production of food is damaging our precious resources and the soil for our future food supply, as well as damaging our own habitat and wildlife, she summarises, she thought she should do something to try to reverse the trend.

In 2018, Audria set up Little Spoon Farm on the Indonesian island of Bali and designed an online platform from which people could directly order fresh local crops. The project also helps local farmers adopt regenerative farming practices and the farm acts as a space for sharing sustainable farming methods and facilitating the connection between local farmers and consumers.

Since the start of their operations, Audria says they have been able to maintain organic farming practices on ten small partner farms and implement a soil restoration programme using microbe-rich farming techniques.

It is not only young people like Audria who are going back to the land and farming. Indonesian Tosca Santoso, who spent his entire working life in journalism, decided to work the land when he retired. In 2008, when Tosca was managing Green Radio in Jakarta, he had a programme with farmers on the populated island of West Java about reforestation, which evolved into a coffee planting project to increase the incomes of those working on the land.

As Tosca tells us, agriculture, especially when combined with forestry, is very important for both farmers and the environment, so that is where he focused his efforts and founded the Kopi Sarongge project.

Thanks to the work he has done together with a farmer, a 38-hectare open plot of land has been transformed into secondary forest. Currently, about 100 farmers from the surrounding area are working on Toscas forest management project covering about 120 hectares in total integrating agricultural production and forest protection. The project is headquartered in the city of Cianjur in West Java, from where Tosca plans to expand the plantation and encourage more farmers to join the initiative.

Beyond the work of entrepreneurs such as these, governments in the region are starting to do their bit to contribute to this forward-looking trend. As the FAOs Vietnam office explains, Vietnam was implementinga vocational training scheme for rural workers, running until 2020, and, although it has now come to an end, they expect it will be renewed this year and will probably run from 2021 to 2025.

Prosperous Singapore also plans to create more than 55,000 green jobs over the next ten years in the environmental and agricultural sectors, including around 4,000 in 2021.

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The rise of a new generation of 'green collar workers' in South-East Asia - Equal Times

news, latest-news, water management, South Coast, Illawarra, Southern Highlands

A major review of water sharing plans covering the rivers supplying drinking water to the South Coast, the Illawarra, Southern Highlands and Sydney has found the plans are "flawed" as it is not known how much water removal would be sustainable given "the criticality of the water supply for maintaining this demographic and economic growth." The review of the Greater Metropolitan Water Sharing Plan was completed by the NSW Natural Resources Commission (NRC) and was the first since it came into effect in 2011. The report warned water extraction limits in the plan are not based on sound evidence of sustainability, difficult to measure and enforce and therefore cannot be managed and that environmental flow rules are not based on sound evidence of ecosystem requirements. Read more: It was published last week along with a half page response from NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey dated 26 March 2021. Minister Pavey made no comment or commitments in regards to the 19 detailed recommendations in the review report, but extended the existing plan for two years as advised by the report. The report specifically recommends the Government conduct upgrades to allow environmental flow releases from Warragamba Dam to deliver environmental outcomes downstream of the dam in the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment and review water transfer and environmental release rules for the Shoalhaven River and the Tallowa Dam. Independent NSW MP Justin Field said, "the last decade has shown that water management in NSW and Greater Sydney is failing, yet the Government still doesn't appear to be taking seriously the warnings of their own independent natural resource management experts. "A half page response to a detailed and complex report and recommendations, months after the fact, is simply not good enough. "This report shows that the water management failures of this Government are now not just an environmental and water supply risk but now also present a risk to future economic growth. "The Government needs to explain how these recommendations by the Natural Resources Commission are going to be actioned over the next two years to ensure the region is best placed to respond to future droughts and water supply challenges but also to protect the environment. "We're increasingly seeing the National Party trying to sideline advice coming from the NRC, especially in regards to water. These water sharing plan reviews are not just advice to take or leave, they are a requirement of the water laws in NSW to ensure our rules are fit for purpose. If the Nationals won't take this seriously, Premier Berejiklian should step in and take the water portfolio off the Nationals. "The Government must stop sticking its head in the sand and take seriously the challenges of water management and sharing in NSW, particularly in the face of a changing climate as we see overall reductions in inflows into the state's water catchments and more extreme droughts and flood events."

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FLAWED WATER PLANS: Independent NSW MP Justin Field says the government doesn't appear to be taking seriously the warnings of their own independent natural resource management experts.

A major review of water sharing plans covering the rivers supplying drinking water to the South Coast, the Illawarra, Southern Highlands and Sydney has found the plans are "flawed" as it is not known how much water removal would be sustainable given "the criticality of the water supply for maintaining this demographic and economic growth."

The review of the Greater Metropolitan Water Sharing Plan was completed by the NSW Natural Resources Commission (NRC) and was the first since it came into effect in 2011.

The report warned water extraction limits in the plan are not based on sound evidence of sustainability, difficult to measure and enforce and therefore cannot be managed and that environmental flow rules are not based on sound evidence of ecosystem requirements.

It was published last week along with a half page response from NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey dated 26 March 2021.

Minister Pavey made no comment or commitments in regards to the 19 detailed recommendations in the review report, but extended the existing plan for two years as advised by the report.

The report specifically recommends the Government conduct upgrades to allow environmental flow releases from Warragamba Dam to deliver environmental outcomes downstream of the dam in the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment and review water transfer and environmental release rules for the Shoalhaven River and the Tallowa Dam.

Independent NSW MP Justin Field said, "the last decade has shown that water management in NSW and Greater Sydney is failing, yet the Government still doesn't appear to be taking seriously the warnings of their own independent natural resource management experts.

"A half page response to a detailed and complex report and recommendations, months after the fact, is simply not good enough.

"This report shows that the water management failures of this Government are now not just an environmental and water supply risk but now also present a risk to future economic growth.

"The Government needs to explain how these recommendations by the Natural Resources Commission are going to be actioned over the next two years to ensure the region is best placed to respond to future droughts and water supply challenges but also to protect the environment.

"We're increasingly seeing the National Party trying to sideline advice coming from the NRC, especially in regards to water. These water sharing plan reviews are not just advice to take or leave, they are a requirement of the water laws in NSW to ensure our rules are fit for purpose. If the Nationals won't take this seriously, Premier Berejiklian should step in and take the water portfolio off the Nationals.

"The Government must stop sticking its head in the sand and take seriously the challenges of water management and sharing in NSW, particularly in the face of a changing climate as we see overall reductions in inflows into the state's water catchments and more extreme droughts and flood events."

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South Coast water management flawed and a risk to the economy and environment - South Coast Register

Vermonts post-European settlement identity and cultural history is inextricably linked to the working landscape. However, the relevance of working lands to the states future economic and social fabric is at a tipping point. As fewer Vermonters work the land, more Vermonters lose appreciation and empathy for the people, businesses, and communities whose lifeblood is linked to the land.

The very definition of The Working Landscape depends on the relationship one has with it. It might be the wooded trails that hikers and skiers pass through, the inherited responsibility of generations of hard labor and husbandry, a farmstand, or a skid road. At its best the working landscape is verdant and beckoning, but if the working stops the landscape reflects abandonment.

Vermont has been, and continues to be, an attractive place for the in-migration of people because of the working landscape and all it represents. New Vermonters like the beauty of the varied scenery and recreational activities made possible by our Natural Capital (the land, air, and water), and our ability to sustain it. Earlier migrants were motivated in large part by the promise of making a living from the land, and essentially created todays working landscapes. Instead of nurturing the natural capital however, many newcomers treated what they found as if it was a resource to be exploited. Within several generations the landscape was dotted with failed dreams and environmental degradation. This is in stark contrast with the earliest inhabitants of the area now called Vermont who lived within the limits of the lands ability to provide.

The challenge before us is to create an environment where folks whether native-born or newly arrived who want to make a reasonable living from the land and contribute to Vermonts overall economy and quality of life have the opportunity do so. We must employ bold, creative actions that support the things we want and resist the things we dont. Our recent track record suggests that we have the ability to rise to the task:

The Vermont Sustainable Jobs Funds 2010 Farm to Plate initiative is one example. The initiative collected, for the first time ever, data on Vermonts food system. The resulting snapshot of food production, distribution, spending, and consumption patterns led to the creation of a ten-year strategic plan that was designed to enhance the components of Vermonts food sector. The Plan included a number of strategic goals, and formed working groups to achieve them. Many of the goals were met or exceeded well within the Plans timeframe. The initiative was so successful that last year the legislature authorized VSJF to undertake Farm to Plate 2.0, which will run until 2030.

The Working Lands Enterprise Fund was created by the legislature in 2012. This was a direct outgrowth of the Council on the Future of Vermonts finding that 98% of Vermonters surveyed supported Vermonts Working Landscape. The Fund tangibly shows the states commitment to a prosperous working landscape. Businesses and support services in the agriculture and forest products sectors can apply for funds that are designed to stimulate business growth and employment opportunities, help legacy businesses modernize so they can better compete in the marketplace, and explore potential new market ideas for Vermont products.

The Vermont Land Trust is dedicated to ensuring land access to future generations of people willing to productively work the land. To date it has conserved about 590,000 acres of land in Vermont for forest and farm-based businesses, recreational opportunities, and ecological health.

The Farm and Forest Products Viability Program within the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board provides personal, financial, and professional resources designed to help individuals develop the skills needed to profitably make a living from the land.

The key to success in these and other initiatives is their focus on the prize: the working landscape and everything it represents economic opportunity for individuals and businesses; prosperous and well-functioning communities; clean air and water; and a diverse, productive, and resilient land base. By using Vermonts working lands as the framework for the development of sustainable economic and environmental policies, future generations will continue to be drawn to what Vermont has to offer, either as workers of the land or their allies.

For many Vermonters, the 2008 Great Recession and the past years COVID pandemic have brought home the idea that we need to regain control over and reinvest in the things we value and may have let slip away: regional food security, the importance of relationships, and local governance. Working lands play a role in all of these.

Relational, or relationship-based agriculture represents one path forward. Made up of full-and part-time producers, and by far the largest percentage of Vermonts roughly 6,000 farmers (as defined by the USDA), these operations are throwbacks to the Vermont of pre-WWII. Most of the output from relational farms is consumed within several miles of the farm itself, through CSAs, Farmers Markets, etc. This provides opportunities for producers and consumers to become personally acquainted through meaningful transactional relationships. These personal interactions can lead to a sense of community, which provides fertile ground for understanding, caring, and empathy across sectors. The relatively small scale of relational working lands businesses also provides affordable gateways to opportunity for next-generation producers.

Working lands policies and programs must include both long-time and first-generation residents. It is not enough to have successive iterations of first-generation people who count on the land for their livelihood. Place-based knowledge, which comes only after years of interactive experience with the land, is vital to land-based operations. It is also an undervalued resource. Simple things such as frost pockets, rain shadows, or fox dens are critically important to management decisions and best learned from personal real-world experience and the inter-generational transfer of knowledge.

A working lands community shares a common understanding of how and why things are done the way they are. Families who rely on the land for their livelihood view their relationship with the land differently than those who dont. With commodity agriculture in particular--where much of the production is exported and/or consumed far from the farm non-farming neighbors have little reason to know or care about farm life. This represents a challenge for our rural communities at a time when Vermont is facing a potential surge in so-called COVID and climate refugees. Many of our recent in-migrants are moving to Vermont because of our working lands, but few of them intend to make their living from our agriculture or forest sectors. All Vermonters need to know that authentic working lands enterprises bring value to the state at a relatively low cost if mutual interests are clearly identified.

We need to be willing to commit any and all available resources to maintain, support, and promote our working landscape. Weve done a lot of good work around land conservation, business planning and market development, and intergenerational succession planning for ag and forest operations. Our next steps should include: using our brand (or image) to add value to our products, creating and demonstrating pathways to profitability for working lands-based enterprises, developing a regional niche for our ag and forest-derived products, and viewing our land base more in terms of capital to be conserved and enhanced and less in terms of a resource to be exploited and degraded. We need to take a systems approach as we consider the future of our working landscape, because its importance is one of the few things that we all seem to agree on.

Will Stevens is a first-generation farmer and co-owner of Golden Russet Farm in Shoreham, which is now transitioning to the next generation. He served in the Vermont Legislature from 2007-14 and was ranking member of the House Agriculture and Forest Products Committee for four years. Hes been president of Vermont Organic Farmers, on several Town and non-profit boards, and is currently a member of the Vermont Community Foundations board, chair of the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund board, and Shorehams Town Moderator.

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Proposition 9: Reinvest in the working lands Vermonters value - Barre Montpelier Times Argus

In this ongoing series, MIT faculty, students, and alumni in the humanistic fields share perspectives that are significant for solving climate change and mitigating its myriad social and ecological impacts. Nadia Christidi is a PhD student in MIT HASTS, a program that combines research in history, anthropology, science, technology, and society. Her dissertation examines how three cities that face water supply challenges are imagining, planning, and preparing for the future of water. Christidi has a particular interest in the roles that art, design, and architecture are playing in that future imagining and future planning process. MIT SHASS Communications spoke with her on the ways that her field and visual cultures contribute to solving issues of climate change.

Q: There are many sensible approaches to addressing the climate crisis. Increasingly, it looks as if well need all of them. What perspectives from the HASTS fields are significant for addressing climate change and its ecological and social impacts?

A: My research focuses on how three cities that face water supply challenges are imagining, planning, and preparing for the future of water. The three cities I focus on are Los Angeles, Dubai, and Cape Town. Water is one of the key issues when it comes to adapting to climate change and my work tries to understand how climate change impacts are understood and adaptation policies developed.

My approach to climate change and adaptation brings together various disciplines history, anthropology, science and technology studies, and visual cultures; each of these helps me see and elucidates very particular aspects of climate change.

I think history reminds us that our ways of being and systems are historically constructed rather than given, inevitable, or natural, and that there is an alternative. Anthropology elucidates that while we may all talk about "climate change,"what is meant by it, how it is understood and experienced, and how it is dealt with as a problem will differ from place to place; climate change is as much a social and cultural phenomenon and experience as it is a scientific or environmental one, as much a global issue as it is a local one. The social, cultural, and local, anthropology reminds us, have to be factored into meaningful policy.

Science and technology studies sheds light on the various communities involved in developing climate change knowledge; the role that their investments, stakes, and interests play; and the translation between science and policy that needs to happen for scientifically-informed policy to emerge. The STS perspective also points out that science is one of many systems for understanding climate change and that there may be other valid, useful worldviews from which we can learn.

And finally, visual cultures underscore how pop cultural and visual references, symbols, and imagery shape imaginaries and expectations of climate change, including scientific ones, and sometimes open up or foreclose pathways to action.

Q: What pathways of thought and action do you personally think might be most fruitful for alleviating climate change and its impacts and for forging a more sustainable future?

A: I think we are going to need a lot of imagination going forward. As climate change gets underway, were seeing a lot more emphasis on adaptation, and imagination is key to adapting to a set of totally different circumstances.

This belief has led me to explore the "imaginative capacities" of planning institutions, the impact of popular culture imaginaries, from the utopian to the dystopian, on our preparations for the future, and the role that creative practitioners including artists, architects, and designers can play in expanding our imaginative possibilities.

One of my interlocutors aptly uses the phrase "crisis of imagination" to describe the present. In order for the necessary imagination work to take place, we must take seriously different actors as sources of knowledge, expertise, and perspectives, and make the process of imagining and planning more inclusive.

Partly, my work considers how creative practitioners are imagining climate change and the future of waterand the alternative knowledge or perspectives they can offer. Most of the works that I look at involve collaborations between artists/architects, scientists, engineers, and/or policymakers. They see artists contributing to science or transforming urban space or impacting policy.

For instance, the UAE pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Wetland, will unveil a locally-produced salt-based building material as an alternative to cement. Developed by Dubai-based architects Wael Al Awar and Kenichi Teramoto, the pavilion tackles the issues of brine a salty byproduct of desalination, which is the countrys main source of potable water and the carbon footprint of cement use in Dubais robust construction industry.

Inspired by historical examples of salt architecture and by the natural architectures of local salt flat ecosystems, the architects worked with scientists from NYU Abu Dhabi to develop the material. Such work shows how interdisciplinary collaborations with creative practitioners can not only advance the sciences, but also reimagine established industries and practices, and develop innovative approaches to the carbon emissions problem.

Peggy Weil, an artist based in Los Angeles, rethinks landscape as a genre in our climate-changed present. Holding that the traditional horizontal format of the landscape is no longer representative, she develops underscapes, where she films the length of ice cores or aquifers, and overscapes, which involve studies of the air, as portraits of the Earth. These scapes argue for a need to re-perceive our surroundings in order to more fully understand how we have chemically, hydrogeologically, and climatically transformed them.

Peggy and I have talked extensively about how important "re-perceiving" will be for encouraging behavior changes and generating economic and political support for the work of water managers and policymakers as well as the role of the arts in driving this "re-perception."

Q: What dimensions of the emerging climate crisis affect you most deeply causing uncertainty, and/or altering the ways you think about the present and the future? When you confront an issue as formidable as climate change, what gives you hope?

A: I think one dimension of the climate crisis I find especially disturbing is its configuration at times and in certain places as an economic opportunity, where new devastating environmental conditions are taken to be opportunities for innovation and technological development that will enable economic growth.

This becomes especially compelling in times of economic deceleration or as the specter of the end of oil grows stronger. But we need to ask: economic growth for whom, at what costs, and with what effects? And is growth what we really need?

I dont think that the economy should be pitted against the environment; I am a total believer in sustainability as an issue that must encompass the economic, social, and environmental. But the real problems are with economic distribution rather than growth, and the promise of unlimited growth as further stoked by renewables which is a fallacy or fantasy.

I tend to agree with journalist Naomi Klein that the market, green or not, isnt going to solve climate change challenges because we need more than just a technofix; we need policy and behavioral changes and new investment directions, many of which go against established economic arrangements and priorities. Locally produced salt-based building materials are a good start, but not enough.

Some of the most challenging and consequential imaginative work we will have to do will be on the social front; this will entail reconsidering some things we take for granted. I love theorist Frederic Jamesons suggestion that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism, as well as Mike Fishers concept of capitalist realism, which captures the ideological underpinnings of that worldview.

The privatization of water is one of the scariest intensifying developments in my mind, especially given anticipated climate change effects, but I take some reassurance from projects that aim to counter such trends. One of the promising architectural proposals I've studied in Los Angeles is by Stephanie Newcomb.Stephanies work, Coopelluvia, aims to complement stormwater capture projects developed by governmental entities in LA county on public land and that form a major prong of the City of LAs water planning strategy; it explores the possibility of turning stormwater captured in side setback spaces between private properties into a communal water resource in the low-income, predominantly Latino neighborhoods of Pacoima and Arletta in the San Fernando Valley.

Stephanies proposed intervention blurs the boundary between public and privateand empowers marginalized communities through developing communal resource management systems with multiple environmental and social benefits. Her work is guided by theories of the commons, rather than privatization and market-oriented solutions and I think such projects and theories hold a lot of promise for facilitating the kinds of radical change we need.

Series prepared by SHASS CommunicationsEditorial and Design Director: Emily HiestandCo-Editor: Kathryn O'Neill

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3 Questions: Nadia Christidi on the arts and the future of water - MIT News

The BMW Group is underpinning its mission for sustainable mobility with ambitious goals for the reduction of greenhouse gases

The BMW Group is underpinning its mission for sustainable mobility with ambitious goals for the reduction of greenhouse gases: At todays Annual General Meeting, the company announced that it will avoid emission of over200 million tonnes of CO2by 2030. This is equivalent to more than20 timesthe annual CO2 emissions of a city with over a million inhabitants, like Munich. To achieve this, the BMW Group is reducing its vehicles carbon footprintthroughout their lifecycle from raw material extraction, through production and the use phase, to end-of-life recycling. Going forward, using fewer resources will be one of the priorities.

A climate-friendly car is not created solely by using green power. We must design our vehicles for sustainability from the very first day of development: reducing the amount of material used to manufacture them and, above all, planning for reuse and recycling from the very beginning. In the face of rising raw material prices, this is not just an environmental, but also a business imperative, saidOliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG, at the Annual General Meeting in Munich on Wednesday. The technology for this is extremely demanding: That is why we want to lead the way on the circular economy and play a pioneering role. We are already working on quotas for the use of secondary material in our Neue Klasse that are both concrete and ambitious to meet our high standards.

The BMW Group will highlight thefuture potentialof thecircular economyfor environmental and climate protection at theIAA MOBILITY 2021in September. The companys RE:THINK, RE:DUCE, RE:USE, RE:CYCLE approach provides a holistic view of how the use of primary raw materials can be drastically reduced in the cars of the future.

The BMW Group already plans to take sustainability to a radically new level in its Neue Klassemodels from the middle of the decade bysignificantly reducingitsresource consumptionper vehicle. The aim is to substantially increase thepercentage of secondary material, such as recycled steel, plastics and aluminium. Faced with ashortage of natural resourcesand rising raw material prices, the BMW Group sees this step as a crucial lever forsustainable business practicesand creatinga clear efficiency imperative.

To achieve this, the BMW Group has initiated aparadigm shiftin development with its secondary first approach, i.e. using secondary material wherever the quality and availability of materials allow.

Thehigh-voltage batteryplays a unique role in this: The process of manufacturing the battery and producing battery cells is extremelyenergy-intensiveand therefore an important factor in the carbon footprint of any electric car. With thenext generation of battery technologyto be introduced in the Neue Klasse, the BMW Group aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the high-voltage battery toless than halfthe baseline value for the current Gen5 technology.

In addition to the shift togreen poweralready implemented by cell manufacturers, thenew battery and cell concept,combined withenhanced cell chemistry, will also make a significant contribution. Another factor is the growing percentage ofsecondary materialin the battery cells and high-voltage battery as a whole. The housing in theBMWiX*already contains up to 30 percentsecondary aluminiumand up to 50 percent secondarynickel, which is a key raw material, is used in the battery cell. At the same time, the BMW Group has limited its use of critical raw materials in the current generation of battery cells and reduced the amount ofcobaltin the cathode material toless than ten percent. The electric motorno longer requires the use of rare earths.

Recycling needs are already considered in the vehicledesign because extracting materials in a very pure form is a central challenge for currentrecycling processes. For example, the electrical system must be easy to remove, prior to recycling, to avoid mixing the steel with copper from the vehicles wiring harness. Otherwise, the secondary steel no longer meets the automotive industrysstrict safety requirements. Theuse of mono-materials for instance, in seats must be significantly increased to enable the maximum amount possible to be fed back into the material cycle.

Another key aspect isefficient dismantling capability. Forsecondary materialsto be able tocompetein the marketplace, the vehicle and individual components must be dismantled quickly and cost-effectively as a preliminary to recycling. The prerequisites for this must be put in place whendesigning the vehicle for example, by not securing connections with adhesive, but designing them so they can be detached again at the end of the vehicle life and ensuring different materials are not mixed with one another.

The BMW Group made sustainability and resource efficiency the focus of its strategic direction in 2020 and, with this realignment, is pursuing amuch more ambitious coursethan the goal of limiting the increase in global temperature to two degrees. Throughout the vehicle lifecycle and all three scopes considered, the BMW Group has setmeasurable and verifiable goalsthat have since beenvalidatedby theScience-Based Targets Initiative:

Each of these goals represents a substantive reduction in emissions in other words, a real decrease in CO2 emissions per vehicle. A key factor is that BMW Group production and all locations have been sourcing 100-percent green power since the end of 2020. Starting this year, the BMW Group isalso offsettingits remaining CO2 emissions (Scope 1+2) through selectedoffsetting measures, which also cover emissions from company cars and business trips, for example. This means that, from 2021 on, the BMW Groups entire production, including all its locations worldwide, will becompletelynet carbon neutral.

For the BMW Group, one thing is certain: Such measures are an important factor inoffsettingthe net impactof climate-damaging emissions however, they must not delay substantive measures that can deliver a real reduction in emissions. For this reason, the BMW Grouponlyapplies these measures for itsremainingcarbon emissions thatare still unavoidable for example, from the use of highly efficient co-generation plants.

As far as the BMW Group is concerned: Avoiding comes before offsetting. In this way, we have already lowered our energy consumption per vehicle produced by more than a third from 2006 levels and were even able to reduce the corresponding CO2 emissions per vehicle produced by over 70 percent, saidZipse.

The BMW Group is thefirst automotive manufacturerto set itself concrete targets for reducing CO2 emissions in itssupply chainby 2030. In addition to the use of green power for the energy-intensive production of fifth-generation battery cells, further measures have been initiated for example,solar powerwill be used in the future for production ofaluminium, which is also highly energy-intensive. The BMW Group is also investing in an innovative method forcarbon-free steel production,developed byUS startup Boston Metal,through its venture capital fund, BMW i Ventures.

A key driver for the decarbonisation of individual mobility and the most important factor in reducing CO2 emissions during the use phase will be the massive ramp-up of electromobility which the BMW Group has stepped up even more in recent years. The company will offer five fully-electric models by the end of this year: the BMWi3*, the MINISE* and the BMWiX3*, as well as the two main innovation flagships, the BMWiX* and the BMWi4*. These will be followed in the coming years by fully-electric versions of the high-volume BMW 5 Series and the BMW X1. They will also be joined by the BMW7Series, the successor to the MINI Countryman and other models. By 2023, the BMW Group will haveat least one fully-electric modelon the roads in about 90 percent of its current market segments.

Between now and2025, the BMW Group willincreaseits sales of fully-electric models by an average ofwell over 50 percentper year more than ten timesthe number of units sold in 2020. Based on its current market forecast, the company also expectsat least 50 percent of its global sales to come from fully-electric vehicles in 2030. The actual figure may vary significantly from market to market and will ultimately depend to a large extent on how much progress is made in expanding charging infrastructure at regional level.

At this point, there will no longer be any segment position in the BMW Groupsentire product portfoliowhere the company does not offer at least one fully-electric model. Individual segments may, in fact, be served exclusively by fully-electric models. The company will also be capable of handling a much larger percentage of fully-electric vehicles if demand develops accordingly. In total, over the next ten years or so, the BMW Group will release aboutten million fully-electric vehiclesonto the roads.

BMW Motorradis also expanding its range of electric vehicles on two wheels for urban spaces: At #NEXTGen 2020, the company shared a concrete vision of what a production vehicle that could soon take one-track electromobility in cities to a whole new level, both technically and optically, might look like, with the BMW Motorrad Definition CE 04. The BMW Group will be presenting the corresponding production model this summer.

*Consumption/emissions data:

BMW iX:Power consumption in kWh/100km: 22.5-19.5 WLTP. Data are preliminary and based on forecasts.BMW i3(120 Ah):Power consumption in kWh/100km combined: 13.1NEDC, 16.3-15.3 WLTP.BMW i3s(120 Ah):Power consumption in kWh/100km combined: 14.6-14.0NEDC, 16.6-16.3 WLTP.MINI Cooper SE:Power consumption in kWh/100km combined: 16.9-14.9 NEDC, 17.6-15.2 WLTP.BMW iX3:Power consumption in kWh/100km combined: 17.8-17.5 NEDC, 19.0-18.6 WLTP.BMW i4:This is a pre-production model, no homologation figures are available yet.

SOURCE: BMW Group

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Over 200 million tonnes: BMW Group sets ambitious goal to reduce CO2 emissions by 2030 - Automotive World

I am hugely optimistic about our future, says Dr. Chen Fong, CM, MD, FACR, who will receive the Haskayne School of Business and Calgary Chambers 2021 Distinguished Business Leader Award on June 17.

We are certainly facing a substantial anexistential threat to our economy right now, but thats what it takes to get people to act, he says. There's a whole world of business opportunities out there. The resource industry has creative people who are innovating to create greener alternatives. There are areas where young people are using their brains to create whole new product lines and industries.

We can use human resources as well as natural resources to fuel the new economy.

Having invested in and mentored over 60 startups, Fong is uniquely positioned to see the glass as more than just half full.

After a successful career as a radiologist at the Foothills Hospital and the University of Calgary, he turned his passion in investing to a vocation. He helped to build Ultrasonix Medical Corporation, which was sold in 2012 and he is the co-founder of Pureweb Inc. Fong has since helped 11 groups to turn university-based intellectual properties into successful companies.

We are pleased to recognize Dr. Fongs outstanding achievements, says Brent Cooper, Calgary Chamber of Commerce board chair. By creating a community of innovators and helping them launch successful companies, Dr. Fongs work has created a ripple effect, making a tremendous impact in our economy.

In 2015, Fong joined the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) at the University of Toronto as a Fellow. The mandate of the CDL is to commercialize science to benefit all mankind. CDL mentors help science and technology-based companies to rapidly achieve objectives to validate their product and scale their venture.

He is widely credited with launching CDL-Rockies at Haskayne, bringing together seasoned business leaders from Alberta, Canada and the U.S. to grow budding companies. Fong is now the co-chair of the Global CDL Strategic Board and Honorary Founding Fellow, CDL Rockies.

Chen is an outstanding connector who prefers to make others shine rather than taking the spotlight himself, says Dr. Jim Dewald, dean, Haskayne School of Business. CDL has been a platform for Chen to use his medical innovation knowledge, entrepreneurial mindset and deep connections to foster a whole new generation of ventures.

Fong was invested into the Order of Canada in 2017 for his contributions to medical technology innovation and philanthropy. He has been inducted as a laureate of the Alberta Business Hall of Fame and is a University of Calgary honorary degree recipient.

Fong sees CDL as a force that unites community in the common goal of accelerating the creation of new business. By bringing together startup incubators, business angels and venture capitalists in one place, CDL gets all players devoting their resources to scaling new ventures.

Another impact of CDL is how it engages seasoned business leaders in the mentorship of the next generation of entrepreneurs.

We have so many people now in the baby boomer generation who have so much experience and are now in the late stage of their own career, says Fong of the Mentors and Fellows mobilized in the CDL. Suddenly they figure out this new way to give back. So instead of people going to retirement they are a part of creating this culture of giving back to young people.

Fong will become the 28th recipient of the Distinguished Business Leader Award, which recognizes ethical leadership, career success and community service. The gala will be as unique as its recipient. The online format will bring together attendees from across Canada, Asia and Europe. Taking the spotlight will be four ventures that Fong has mentored or successfully helped to pivot.

The annual celebration raises money for the Distinguished Business Leaders Scholarship Endowment and Fong, in keeping with his driven style, is determined to exceed previous fundraising goals and has started with his own $100,000 contribution.

The gala is co-presented by Haskayne and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, with support from gala partner Calgary Foundation. Tickets for the June 17 Distinguished Business Leader Award gala are now availablefree of charge for this virtual event. Donationsto honour Dr. Chen Fong as our Distinguished Business Leader are encouraged, to fund scholarships for future leaders and entrepreneurs.

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Human ingenuity is the engine of the new economy, says Distinguished Business Leader Award recipient - UCalgary News

Eating produce with the seasons can help consumers access fresher, more nutritious while directly supporting their local farmers and economies.

Eating seasonally often coincides with eating locally, Jerusha Klemperer, FoodPrint director, tells Food Tank. Local shopping and eating is more likely to be seasonal shopping and eating.

This also comes with a number of benefits. According to FoodPrint, seasonal foods can be fresher, tastier, and more nutritious than out of season produce because it is likely picked at its nutrient-dense peak, rather than harvested early and transported elsewhere.

Buying locally also helps lower consumers carbon footprint, because there are fewer carbon emissions associated with transporting that food shorter distances.

Money spent on local food also supports local farmers and farmland and contributes to the local economy. Through farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), consumers can help local farmers.

To help everyone eat with the seasons and access local distributors, Food Tank is highlighting educational guides for consumers.

1. The Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) Crop Calendar

First published by the Mexican Agri-food and Fishery Information Service in collaboration with AMIS, this online resource provides an in-depth report of wheat, rice, maize, and soybeans around the world. For each crop, the report provides a table for the seasonality of planting and harvesting across two years. The report includes information on each crop as well and has a secondary resource formatted in a table.

2. Cuerpomente Seasonal Calendar (Spain)

Cuerpomente is a Spain-based health and wellness community with a website and magazine. The seasonal calendar shows what fruits and vegetables are in season by each month, and even differentiates produce that is generally in season and produce that is at its peak The calendar comes with illustrated digital graphics and a user-friendly table. Users can also visit web pages for each month that provide more information about the in-season produce and its health benefits.

3. Das Bundeszentrum fr Ernhrung (BZfE) Germanys Seasonal Calendar (Central and Northern Europe)

BZfE, the Federal Center for Nutrition in Germany, provides a Seasonal Calendar of produce that can also be downloaded as a mobile application. The information of the foods provided also applies to most of central and northern Europe. While the website is available in German, English speakers can also find an illustrated version with translations in a drawing series here.

4. Eat Seasonably UK (United Kingdom)

The Eat Seasonably campaign, based in the United Kingdom (U.K.), is a nationwide campaign to promote the consumption of seasonal food. They offer an interactive, online calendar and free, downloadable calendar poster that contains all the seasonal information of produce in the U.K. The Eat Seasonable campaign also has online profiles of the current in-season produce and tips to help growers determine what plant that month.

5. FAO Ethiopia Crop Calendar for (Ethiopia)

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) country profile on Ethiopias agriculture system also features a crop calendar. It includes the major types of cereals and Meher crops those grown during the main crop season. The full agricultural profile on Ethiopia also includes data on vegetation and precipitation indicators and threats to crops. Users can search the websites country profiles for any countrys agricultural data.

6. FAOs Searchable Crop Calendar Database (International)

The FAOs information tool for seed security acts as a searchable database for different crops and countries around the world. Users can search the database by crop, category of crop, or country. The results even differentiate between agro-ecological zones. The database incorporates information on 44 countries and more than 130 different types of crops. It also provides information on the sowing rates of seed and planting material and the main agricultural practices.

7. The FoodPrint Seasonal Food Guide (U.S.)

FoodPrints Seasonal Food Guide draws from a database of more than 140 types of fruits, veggies, legumes, nuts, and herbs. The Guide allows users to search for produce by location in the United States time of year or food item. It also includes information about each produce item including its nutritional value, environmental impact, appearance when most ripe, and length of peak freshness. Access the Seasonal Food Guide online or via a phone app.

8. Harvest Select the Best Produce (U.S.)

Harvest is an iPhone application that allows users to see what produce is currently in-season by inputting a location and month. It then provides a guide for selecting the freshest, ripest, healthiest, and best-tasting produce using visual, touch- or feel-based cues. Harvest also provides tips on how to best store the produce and how long it will stay fresh. Finally, the application provides estimated pesticide levels in popular fruits and vegetables.

9. El Libro Sabio de Las Frutas y Las Verduras (Spain)

The Spanish Government s Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca, y Alimentacin, created El Libro Sabio de Las Frutas y Las Verduras, which translates to The Wise Book of Fruits and Vegetables. This resource provides a look into 24 fruits and 29 vegetables in an easy-to-read, family-friendly format. The book provides information about the produce, its production in Spain, its nutrition, and its seasonality.

10. LocalHarvests Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), Farms, and Farmers Markets National Directory (U.S.)

LocalHarvest provides online tools to connect people looking for local food with the farmers who produce it. Their National Directory provides a search tool that allows users to search for CSAs, local farms, farmers markets, farm stands, U-Picks, grocery co-ops, and more, by inputting their zip code. The directory contains over 40,000 entries and is used by over 7 million people each year.

11. Por Precio y Sabor, Prefiera Frutas y Verduras de Estacin Campaign by the Chilean Government (Chile)

This health campaign, translated to For Price and Flavor, Choose Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables, was promoted by the Ministerio de Agricultura for World Food Day. The campaign includes four graphs of of seasonal produce by geographical area of Chile: Norte Grande (Arica-Parinacota, Tarapac and Antofagasta), Norte Chico (Atacama and Coquimbo), Central (from Valparaso to Maule) and South (from Biobo to Magallanes).

12. SeasonEats (U.S. and U.K.)

SeasonEats is a mobile application providing seasonal data for more than 130 items of produce in all 50 U.S. states and the United Kingdom. Its design allows users to search by location and month, sort by location or produce, or view by the whole year. It is iOS supported and also has an Apple Watch App for searching on the go.

13. South Africa Seasonal Calendar (South Africa)

EatOut provides a visual infographic calendar of the seasonality of produce in South Africa. The printable calendar is beautifully illustrated and provides a month-by-month look at what produce is in season, in addition to a section dedicated to a list of produce that is in-season year-round. The guide contains 54 different types of produce grown in South Africa.

14. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) Seasonal Produce Guide (U.S.)

SNAP-Ed is a national grant program aimed at increasing nutrition education, social marketing, and policy, systems, and environmental change, and it can help people stretch their SNAP dollars further. The SNAP-Ed Seasonal Produce Guide provides an overview of the more commonly eaten produce sorted by season. The website allows the viewer to explore the different major fruits and vegetables through nutrition fact labels and external links to recipes, and other educational resources.

15. Union Freshs Seasonal Charts (Thailand)

Based in the Chiang Mai Province of Thailand, Union Fresh sources and distributes traditional Thai vegetables and tropical fruits. They provide a seasonal chart for both Thai Vegetables and Tropical Fruit for viewers all over the world. The color-coded chart features produce like carambola, mangosteen, rambutan, and durian.

16. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Farmers Market Directory (U.S.)

Maintained by the Agricultural Marketing Service, the USDA National Farmers Market Directory is designed to provide customers with updated listings of farmers markets across the U.S. The directory can be searched within an adjustable radius around the users zip code. The directory provides farmers market information like market locations, directions, operating times, product offerings, and accepted forms of payment. Each listing has an external link to the website.

Photo courtesy of Jakub Kapusnak on Unsplash

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16 Resources for Eating Seasonally Around the World Food Tank - Food Tank

By Letter to the Editor on May 13, 2021.

Editor: The UCP governments sector by sector approach to economic stimulus (Lethbridge Herald 30 April 2021 MLA Neudorf presents partys sector-based approach for economic recovery) is out-of-date, and out-of-step.It is this narrow focus on promoting one industry absent a broader land use, environmental, social and public interest context that made Alberta a petro-state and has brought the current frenzy of opportunistic proposals for coal exploration and extraction in our Eastern Slopes.Thankfully many Albertans think more broadly.The public conversation about coal, in spite of government attempts to constrain it, has expanded to include long-term impacts of open-pit coal mines on tourism, recreation, human health, biodiversity and climate.No topic has evoked more concern than impacts on water.Water flowing down from headwater tributaries to the rivers of semi-arid southern Alberta and on to Saskatchewan is arguably our most precious natural resource.Water is the life blood of another industry sector being narrowly targeted for UCP government stimulus irrigation agriculture. The provinces announcement in fall 2020 of an $815 million deal with the Canada Infrastructure Bank and eight irrigation districts in the Bow River and Oldman River basins boasts plans for new pipelines, reservoirs and a 15 per cent increase in irrigated acres. The amount of water needed to irrigate an additional 208,000 acres of cropland dwarfs the amount that would accommodate coal mine development.Irrigation agriculture over the past 120 years has acquired licenses to withdraw over half of the mean natural annual flow in the Oldman River and Bow River that converge to form the South Saskatchewan River.This one sector controls three quarters of all water allocated in these basins.Because of over-commitments, since 2006 no new allocations have been allowed for any purpose because of risk of shortage for meeting existing commitments including a requirement to pass half of mean natural annual flow to Saskatchewan.Rivers in southern Alberta are suffering from huge amounts of water extracted by the irrigation agriculture sector especially during prolonged dry periods.With climate change, stress on rivers is predicted to increase as is the risk of shortage to meet existing licensed allocations and accommodate future population and economic growth.Broad-thinking Albertans are asking how best to manage demand on our limited water resources to reduce, not increase, environmental, social and economic risk today and in the future.Were these impacts or forgone opportunities for other sectors of our economy considered in governments decision to focus on stimulating expansion of the irrigation agriculture sector?Those of us who have asked are still waiting for answers.Cheryl BradleySouthern Alberta Group for Environment

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Albertans want to know how to manage the demand on limited water resources - Lethbridge Herald

Santo Domingo, May 12, 2021 -The Dominican Republics Ministry ofFinance and Ministry ofEnvironment and Natural Resourcessigned a landmark agreement today with the WorldBanksForest Carbon Partnership Facility(FCPF), unlockingpayments ofup to US$25millionforverifiedcarbon emissionreductionsbetween now and2025through the countrys emissions reduction program.

This agreement is a country achievement, a reason for celebration and progress in the fight against the challenges of climate change and is the result of four years of preparation of the Program for the Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), which will be implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, with the direct involvement of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPyD), said Milagros De Camps, Vice Minister of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

TheDominican Republics Emission Reductions Programis a nationalinitiativefocused onloweringforest emissionsfrom deforestation and forest degradationacrossthecountry's4.8million hectaresof biodiversity and forest-rich land,to improve local livelihoodsand protectnatural ecosystems.With this Emission Reductions Payment Agreement (ERPA) in place,the Dominican Republicis expected to reduce5million tons offorest-related carbon emissions.

The Dominican Republic hasa long and rich history of protecting its natural resources, having dedicated significant efforts to the conservation and development of its forests,saidAlexandria Valerio, World BankRepresentativefor the Dominican Republic. This agreementis further proof of the countryscontinuedcommitment to sustainableforest management and economicdevelopment.

Thecountrys Emission Reductionsprogramwill work with the government and civil society tostrengthensustainable agroforestryinitiativesthataimtocurb agricultural expansion into forest areas.The program also aims to promote broader andmoresustainable natural resource management that can contribute to the growth of small and medium-sizedforest enterprises, and the conservation of forests.

The Dominican Republic is thethirdcountry in Latin Americaand the Caribbean(after Chile and Costa Rica)and 14th globally to reach such a milestone agreement with the FCPF, which together have unlocked nearly $670m in results-based financing. ERPAs are innovative instruments that incentivize sustainableland management at scale and help to connect countries with other sources of climate financing. The resources from the FCPF provide new opportunities to conserve and regenerate forest landscapes and biodiversity while supporting sustainable economic growth, which is critical forthe Dominican Republics development going forward.

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) is a global partnership of governments, businesses, civil society, and Indigenous Peoples' organizations focused on reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, forest carbon stock conservation, the sustainable management of forests, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries, activities commonly referred to as REDD+. Launched in 2008, the FCPF has worked with 47 developing countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean, along with 17 donors that have made contributions and commitments totaling US$1.3 billion.

Website:https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/dominicanrepublic

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Dominican Republic Signs Agreement with the World Bank to Curb Carbon Emissions and Reduce Deforestation - World Bank Group

For global commercial lawyers, advising on cross-border deals between local investors and foreign capital raisers is difficult at the best of times. But when the deal involves US and Chinese interests in the middle of a trade war, risk rises to a new level of complexity.

So, Ting Wang, of counsel at law firm Paul Hastings in Shanghai, had a challenge on his hands when his team tried to broker a strategic alliance between Chinese health group Fosun Pharma and Nasdaq-listed BioNTech to help develop and commercialise a Covid-19 vaccine.

Scroll down to read case studies in the following categories: healthcare; digital advisers; frictionless law; liquidity and finance; and legal design

At the time of the negotiations, Germany-based BioNTechs designs for the vaccine were unproven and a deal with US pharmaceuticals group Pfizer had yet to be signed. Fosun offered co-development resources and clinical trials in China in exchange for distribution in the region. BioNTech wanted a sizeable equity investment and access to patients, who initially were found predominantly in China. To reach a deal as the virus spread required significant cultural and legal differences to be bridged, recalls Wang.

Both parties had to step outside their comfort zones to reach compromises, he says. It required exceptional cultural sensitivity and an understanding of three very different legal systems. Under the agreement, Fosun paid $85m in licensing fees and made a $50m equity investment in BioNTech.

Communicating with parties across China, Germany, the UK and the US before the widespread use of Zoom video calls was a challenge for negotiators used to face-to-face interaction. Yet the deal was made within three weeks, over the phone from home and under lockdown.

Yong Kai Wong, now a co-general counsel at Citic Capital, has also played a leading role in cross-border transactions during his career both for Citic, where he heads special projects, and previously for Dutch pension company APG Asset Management Asia.

He says general counsel who are effective in cross-border deals are aware and sensitive to different cultures, beliefs and the societal implications for stakeholders. Lawyers need to be creative, adaptable and conscious [of] the needs of both sides of the deal not just focused on the legal and compliance issues, Wong argues. Often, decisions at the transaction level may have a large impact on stakeholders and the constituents around them. It is important to try to keep an open line of communication with all relevant parties to proactively address issues that inevitably arise.

Lawyers need to be creative, adaptable and conscious [of] the needs of both sides of the deal not just focused on the legal and compliance issues

Parallel to the US-China trade war, Europe was also making moves to protect itself from economic threats from abroad. By the time the pandemic took hold, the European Commission was calling for tougher measures against foreign takeovers, fearing that raiders might take advantage of wild market fluctuations wreaked by the pandemic. Caught in this net were two deals that law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer had initiated in 2019. China Railways CRCC International Investment Group was trying to acquire a 75 per cent controlling stake in Spanish construction company Aldesa. At the same time, Guangdong Wencan Die Casting was proposing a 251.3m public tender offer for French global foundry group Le Blier, which had dealings with Frances defence ministry.

Freshfields partner Yuxin Shen says the firm sets out to advise clients on the operational and cultural commitments they should make to assuage European concerns. Even so, the new restrictions posed problems. Although the CRCC-Aldesa deal had been signed before the EU policies had taken effect, the Spanish government chose to review it anyway. Meanwhile, in France, the new policies added to uncertainty over its foreign investment review regime and hopes for the Wencan-Le Blier deal.

Freshfields engaged with the Spanish and French authorities to find a mutually acceptable position for each deal. These were new restrictions that even the various ministries were trying to come to grips with, says Hazel Yin, the Freshfields partner who advised on the Spanish deal. Our role was to help them understand why these deals were outside the parameters of the restrictions and did not constitute any threat to national sovereignty, economies or citizens.

Having multi-practice teams in China and Europe that not only understood the transaction but could also work with European governments helped greatly, says Freshfields partner Ninette Dodoo, who was involved in the French deal. You need to be able to see through the governments strategic lens, she says.

Charles Ruck, global chair of Latham & Watkins corporate department, believes Covid-19 has greatly changed dealmaking. Companies have responded to the pandemic conditions by rethinking their geographies, core businesses and supply chains, he says. With the growing complexity of high-profile cross-border deals...the commonality behind all successful mega transactions is a top-notch team of experts from around the world who can work together.

How will cross-border deals with China evolve? Kathleen Claussen who is a professor of law at the University of Miami and an expert on international trade, having worked on policy during the Obama and Trump administrations says the risk for US businesses accepting Chinese investment has evolved.

The present White House shares at least one view with the previous administration: it has said a lot more should be done to protect the supply chain, US businesses and American consumers, Claussen points out.

In the Obama years, a central policy tool to deal with China was the World Trade Organizations enforcement mechanism. UnderTrump, it was tariffs and sanctions. Its not entirely clear yet what the Biden administration will do.

In such a fast-moving policy environment, Claussen says, firms working on cross-border deals need expertise in public law as well as commercial transaction prowess.

She categorises the past six years of US policy as a series of trade tool experiments and counsels lawyers conducting cross-border transactions to be keenly aware of changes coming out of Washington.

Think about the risk implications of regulatory or policy shifts, Claussen advises. Pay attention to the relevant federal bodies and what they are doing.

Researched and compiled by RSG Consulting. Winner indicates the organisation won an FT Innovative Lawyers 2021 award; other organisations are listed alphabetically.

Lawyers have been helping pharmaceutical companies to overcome operational, regulatoryand risk challenges as Covid-19 vaccine programmes get under way.

WINNER: Latham & WatkinsThe law firm devised a financing structure to attract early-stage investment for CoronVac, the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Chinese pharmaceuticals company Sinovac. This approach resulted in a substantial return to investors.

The financing structure involved loans converted into equity interest in Sinovac Life Sciences, a research and development subsidiary. Latham & Watkinss work resulted in a total of $515m being raised.

Anand and AnandThe firm succeeded in opposing pre-grant opposition to a patent sought by its client, Pfizer, in India. Opposition is a legal process that allows third parties to halt the award of a patent after an application is published.

The ruling means a party bringing pre-grant opposition in India must now establish its identity and show it has relevant domain knowledge, which will help prevent opportunistic parties challenging patents in future.

Baker McKenzie

The healthcare and life sciences team advised AstraZeneca on its Covid-19 vaccine rollout in Thailand, helping the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals company to navigate legal restrictions and draft contracts to protect its interests.

Baker McKenzie also advised US immunotherapy company CytoSorbents on agreements that enable the use of its medical device to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients inChina.

Paul Hastings

The law firm advised Chinese pharmaceuticals group Fosun Pharma on a strategic partnershipwith Germanys BioNTech to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, which involved licensing BioNTechs mRNA vaccine technology.

The lawyers negotiatedthe arrangement in just three weeks, despite differing jurisdictional requirements and having to negotiate a combined equity investment and cash payment in order to get BioNTech on board.

Lawyers are using their expertise in blockchain, artificial intelligence and data to help clients with digital transformation and to accelerate their businesses.

WINNER: King & Wood MallesonsThe firm launched its digital economy legal service centre in November. This was set up to provide multidisciplinary, cross-practice area advice to clients on data use and compliance.

The centre has already helped one leading Chinese bank to design and implement its compliance programme for the European General Data Protection Regulation enabling it to share data between China and the rest of the world.

Anand and AnandActing on behalf of mobile technology company InterDigital, the firm filed the first anti-anti-suit injunction order in India. This is a court ruling to prevent a party pursuing an application for an anti-suit injunction.

Unlike in other anti-anti-suit injunction cases, the anti-suit injunction had already been granted by the court to Chinese electronics company Xiaomi. The ruling allows InterDigital to continue to pursue an infringement case against Xiaomi.

Nishimura & AsahiLast year, the firm set up a dedicated group that works across practice areas and industry sectors to help clients undertaking digital transformation.

The group advises companies on data, artificial intelligence, digital healthcare services and blockchain,as well as corporate governance andcyber security for public companies. Commended: Kazuhiro Takei.

Rajah & TannThe Singapore-based law firm launched a subsidiary, RTCyber, which provides a full suite of technical services to prevent or respond to cyber attacks.

This allows the firm to provide technicaland legal advice seamlessly to clients with concerns about cyber security.

Ropes & Gray

The firm advised Alibaba, the Chinese ecommerce company, on a strategic partnership with Richemont, the Switzerland-based luxury goods group, to establishFarfetch China as an upmarket online fashion retailer.

The$1.1bn investment in Farfetchallows Alibaba to providevirtual shopping experiences for customers and ishelping to accelerate the digitisation of the global luxury retail industry.

Law firms are using technology and data to enhance legal advice. By putting the user experience first, they have been able to solve problems and streamline processes.

WINNER: Yulchon

Corporate lawyers and legal operations executives used design thinking in which they start with end users in mind to collaborate on creating new tools. Their Incorporation Genie shortens protracted email exchanges with clients looking to set up new entities in South Korea. Clients can now access an online platform where they review and accept documents, and changes are automated, reducing the cost of legal advice by up to 50 per cent.

Yulchon has also created a dashboard for clients to navigate company maintenance requirements in South Korea.

Algo LegalThe firm developed VC Works, a technology platform to manage legal due diligence in venture capital transactions more efficiently and effectively. The tool enables the firm to complete due diligence three times faster than its previous process, which relied on lawyers going through paper files.

Allen & OveryThe law firm designed a free online portal to help individuals and companies that have been subject to a cyber attack retrieve their stolen funds. The tool enables users to freeze their bankaccounts automatically and also automates the process of notifying authorities in Hong Kong of any attack.

The portal has had more than 56 registered users from 19 jurisdictions.

Corrs Chambers WestgarthOn August 5 2020, all Melbourne residents learnt they would need a permit to leave home for work or childcare purposes. So the law firm helped National Australia Bank to secure 3,000 permits, automating their creation and secure filing, and setting up digital sign-off using the DocuSign esignature system.

The process was up and running within eight hours.

Gilbert + TobinEarlier this year, the law firm sold itsVerification product, developed in 2016, to legal tech company Litera Microsystems. Theproduct is used to verify documents in big corporate transactions. The deal marks one of the first times a law firm has developed and sold a piece of technology to a leading legal tech provider.