HOW CLEAN INNOVATION CAN BOOST CLIMATE ACTION By Andrew Lau, Director, ESG Advisory, Colliers
What is clean innovation? Clean innovation is the development and implementation of new technology to help tackle climate change, protect ecosystems and plan for a more sustainable future. It includes advancement in renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste management, water conservation and sustainable transportation. Extreme weather, flooding and wildfire events have motivated technology companies to focus on decarbonisation and climate resilience solutions. The success of clean innovation not only helps to combat climate change, but it also draws a significant demand from investors, with many investing in clean innovation as a strategy to generate positive impact to the environment and economy.
What problems can clean innovation help solve? The applications of clean innovation are endless and can be implemented across the value chain particular for building operations. Some use cases from recent projects applied in commercial buildings and hotels are referenced below which demonstrate how clean innovation can support nature positive operations and behaviour. The first example is innovation in cleaning detergent products which is heavily used in buildings particularly for hotels. In usual practice, single-use plastic bottles filled with chemical detergent such as liquid soap are delivered from manufacturing facilities to logistics centres, then further distributed to wholesalers and eventually to the customers’ hands. This process generates significant carbon emissions through the __________ 09
