Plastic bags create a significant environmental impact and lead to economic burdens. About 25 million tonnes of plastic were produced in 2010 alone and 90% of trash floating in the ocean consists of plastic, which is 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile. Over 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds die each year due to plastic. Sri Lanka, being an island country, faces the serious concern of oceanic pollution.
One successful way to reduce the number of plastic bags in circulation is to replace them with biodegradable bags which offer a suitable alternative. REPLACE, co-financed by DEG and implemented by BASF Lanka and ASSIST, demonstrated the ease and benefits of switching to biodegradable materials for plastic production. The objective of this project was to encourage the use of compostable bags and effectively manage organic and biodegradable waste in Sri Lanka. The project aimed to do this by increasing awareness among government policy makers, major stakeholders and users on the environmentally harmful and damaging consequences of non-degradable plastic and the importance of waste segregation at the source.
As part of the project initiative, an awareness station was inaugurated on World Environment Day (June 5) in Good Market, Colombo to create awareness among the public about the need to switch to certified compostable plastic bags. University students / volunteers were engaged to facilitate the educational session and conduct surveys to collect feedback from the participants. Apart from Good Market, awareness stations were also set up at some of the prominent retail stores in Sri Lanka. Other activities included the conducting of road shows and seminars. These activities drew more than 15,000 participants from hotels, shopping malls, retailers and government agencies. Two producers / converters to biodegradable plastic bags were identified and were given trainings to produce the biodegradable bags while many more were encouraged to make the shift.
The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in India has categorized the retail sector as an energy-intensive industry which needs to optimise its operations to become sustainable. The food and beverage sub-sector constitutes about 60% of the retail sector and generates large amounts of waste. In addition, 40% of food production is estimated to end up as waste due to improper handling, transportation, and storage.
The project Green Retail, therefore, targets the food and beverage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India in order to green the retail industry in the country by facilitating the switch to resource efficient practices in retailers’ operations and contributing to the evolution of green consumers. Green Retail was part of the European Commission’s SWITCH Asia Programme; and was implemented by ASSIST, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), Retailers Association of India, AREC and STENUM Asia. This project involved agricultural and livestock producers, food processing industries, retailers and consumers across the value and supply chains.
ASSIST undertook the following interventions for this project: creation of a sustainable business model for retailers; management and oversight of supply chain members; promotions of sustainable consumption; strengthening of partnerships and sustainability reporting. Improvements were made in three focus-areas – supplier and manufacturing practices; retailing and in-store practices and consumption and end-of-life practices. Some of the positive impacts reported by the participating SMEs include a reduction in energy bills, reduction in consumption of oil, improved electrical safety, improved efficiency of thermal systems, increase in production and a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) constitute a major part of the ancillary industry as well as the overall manufacturing sector in India, especially those dealing with metal finishing operations. These SMEs are often constrained into using inefficient processes and technologies leading to lower competitiveness, poor environmental performance and unsafe working conditions. Moreover, they are under constant cost and time pressure from their clients up the value chain.
Sustainable production through market penetration of closed loop technologies in the metal finishing industry (ACIDLOOP) is a 4-year action under the European Commission’s SWITCH-Asia Programme, which aimed to introduce technology innovation as well as resource efficiency in the metal finishing companies (SMEs) that would lead to improved environmental quality and combat pollution through advanced water treatment measures and energy efficient processes. The objectives of the project were (a) improved urban environmental quality in the urban regions of National Capital Region (NCR) and Chandigarh, Pune, Ahmedabad and Chennai; (b) improved living conditions in the target regions and (c) improved production technologies.
Some of the important activities carried out to achieve the project objectives include raising awareness and delivery of trainings on the concept of closed loop technologies, adaptation of resource efficiency toolkits and individual consultations on resource efficiency and acid recovery measures. ACIDLOOP was able to benefit a total of 106 companies through the individual consultation on resource efficiency and acid recovery measures. This resulted in an average decrease of more than 20% of material, energy and water consumption in participating companies across all regions. In addition to this practical demonstration, two acid recycling and one water recycling technologies were also showcased across all target regions.
Industrialization has the potential to help achieve poverty eradication, improve gender equality and labour standards and provide greater access to education and healthcare. At the same time, industrial processes play a major role in the degradation of the global environment. Industries in developing countries have significant potential to reduce the material, energy, and pollution per unit of industrial output.
The project’s aim was to implement a sustainable industrial development programme through the promotion of resource efficiency and waste management practices benchmarked on international standards. The envisaged outcome of the project was to help the supply chain factories of footwear, apparel and accessories (FAA) sectors in the developing countries of Asia (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia and China) to reduce their energy, water, waste and CO2 emission by 25% by 2015, compared to the 2011 baseline, and to contribute to a green economy and sustainable industrial development.
Over the course of the project, more than 500 attendees were trained and 35 factories participated from the target countries. The project resulted in total savings of USD 4 million in the first year with an average payback period of 2.5 years, 62,000 MWh per annum of energy saved (equivalent to 44,500 tons per annum of carbon dioxide emissions), nearly 633,000 m3 per annum of water saved and approximately 660 tonnes per annum of waste reduced.
Sri Lanka generates an estimated 6,700 metric tons of waste daily – out of which only 2,800 is collected. The absence of an efficient system to clean up the waste has brought about a need to create a well-organized waste management system in Sri-Lanka to avoid the spread of toxic chemicals and pollution in the environment.
PROMISE is a private sector partnership (PSP) project between DEG and Holcim (Lanka) Geocycle Limited, in partnership with ASSIST, that aimed to provide an appropriate solution to the unorganised dumping and burning of waste in Sri Lanka. Thus, a waste management complex was set up at the Seeduwa dump site – which is surrounded by two key industrial zones called Katunayake and Biyagama, the country’s largest housing scheme called Raddolugama and the main airport in Sri Lanka (Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport).
ASSIST undertook various interventions to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of PROMISE. The waste management complex included a fully operational material receiving and segregating site. Training was facilitated for the surrounding communities, municipal / government offices, and urban councils. Green clubs promoting proper waste management and green bank facilities for collecting waste were set up in local schools and universities. Involving households and neighbourhoods in the establishment of a waste management ecosystem was essential to the project’s success.
i2Can – Inspiring and Igniting Young Minds is a series of experiential learning programs designed to provide in-school children with a combination of simple life skills and awaken in them the passion for green, clean and safe living. More specifically, the focus is on instilling the right values and skills on health, sanitation and hygiene, first-aid and emergency response, green living philosophy (reduce, reuse, recycle), ethics and morals and problem-solving and decision-making, which would enable the youth to become agents of change.
Through the above initiatives, i2Can aims to empower these young people to learn, practice, and thrive in their communities. They are also actively encouraged to share their knowledge with their immediate family and friends. The key beneficiaries of this programme are the urban poor and rural communities.
ASSIST undertook various activities during the implementation of this project that included teaching using live demonstrations, activity-based learning, workshops, seminars and lectures. By the end of 2017, i2Can had reached over 20,000 students and involved more than 450 schools in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India.
School gardens serve as living laboratories where academic subjects can be integrated and the children can be active participants in the learning process.
In order to introduce children to such learning, 1,2,3 Grow was an initiative that promoted the creation of gardens at schools in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The main aim behind 1,2,3 Grow was for children to gain appreciation and respect for the environment that lasts into adulthood. The initiative also aimed to promote improved social skills amongst school children such as, working in groups and problem-solving; and to prepare them for higher education.
Gardens were built in private schools where children could practice their social skills and learn how to grow plants from which they get healthy food to eat. Workshops were also conducted as a supplementary activity to these pilot gardens.
The agricultural sector of the Philippines comprises 30% of the workforce and about 12 million people. Challenges from resource depletion, social exclusion and lack of access to technology among others, continue to affect the worsening agro-economic trend in the country. Given this, the national roadmap for the cocoa sector has been set to increase production tenfold, providing sustainable incomes for as many as 130,000 Filipino farmers.
Capacitating Cacao Farmers in Mindanao is a project under the DeveloPPP program of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in partnership with DEG and Yara Fertilizers Philippines Inc. It is implemented to address cacao farmers’ limited capacity to meet industry demand due to low productivity. This is mainly due to the shortage of viable planting materials and the farmers’ lack of knowledge on crop nutrition, good agricultural practices (GAPs) and post-harvest handling.
The project also aims to increase the efficiency of farmers in cacao production through Yara’s crop nutrition solutions and effective crop handling. Twenty-five local farmers will be trained to become cacao specialists, who will, in turn, provide crop nutrition training to 50 cacao farmers. In addition, model farms will be established and post-harvest processing facilities will be set up in partnership with selected rural-based cooperatives in the area. Through these strategies, the yield of farmers is expected to increase by at least 25 percent and the selling price of the processed beans to increase by at least 10 percent. Eventually, the project will contribute to the country’s achievement of its national target, which is to produce 100,000 MT of dried fermented beans by 2022.
Traditional farming methods practiced by farmers in the Philippines are becoming less reliable with unpredictable changes in weather patterns due to climate change. Inaccurate weather information would mean inefficient planning of farm activities from seeding to land preparation to post-harvest. This would also result to mismanagement of agricultural inputs, the risk of incurring unnecessary costs and low production and profit. There are many new technologies available to improve agricultural productivity but these are not readily affordable for most smallholder farmers.
Improving Productivity in Agriculture through Climate-Smart Technology in the Philippines (ImPACT Phils.) is a partnership with DEG and Pessl Instruments GmbH under the DeveloPPP program of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It aims to improve the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers and farming communities in the Philippines by providing access to relevant information, data, and technology. The Pessl-manufactured METOS instruments measure environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, rainfall, leaf wetness and insect pressure based on a farm’s location.
The project’s success would be measured by the reduction in the cost spent by the farmers on fertilizers, pesticides and water; and the increase in income and savings by at least 10 percent. In the long run, sufficient historical data will be established through the system, which would contribute to the development of disease models, yield forecasting, crop water management and harvest cycle models for the varieties of crops particularly grown in the Philippines.
