22nd April 2025

Climate Adaptation is Critical yet Lags in Southeast Asia. Startups have Solutions

Extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and typhoons are creating havoc with built infrastructure such as offices and factories. Adaptation for these impacts of climate change is essential. While adaptation has lagged, startups are helping businesses move forward.

14th April 2025

Southeast Asia Creates 20% of the World’s Waste – Start-Ups are Creating Solutions

Even though it has just 9 percent of the world’s population, 10 countries in Southeast Asia produce 20 percent of the world’s waste. Governments are scrambling to find space for it and regulate it. Start-ups in the region are creating solutions to help solve the problem.

9th April 2025

Building Office Towers with Bamboo and Hemp – A Sustainable Solution

Buildings and construction are the largest sources of greenhouse gases and account for a about 37% of global emissions. Cement, steel, and aluminium are key culprits. Start-ups are using hemp, bamboo and more to produce innovative alternatives.

18th March 2025

3 Top Actions You Can Take for Conservation and the Planet

Many people feel nothing they do to reduce climate change, from taking the bus to turning off a light, will make a difference. Companies and governments, they believe, should take big actions to change our electricity, transport, agriculture systems in order to reduce climate change that causes wildfire, floods and heat waves. The reality is different. What each of us does has a major effect.

17th March 2025

Community and Cause Power New Eco-Friendly Payment Solutions

From plastic cards and POS terminals to customer spending and energy for software, the payments industry has a large environmental impact. Issuers and acquirers continue to roll out innovative solutions that create less impact, promote conservation and attract customers.

24th February 2025

Cool Buildings Heat the Planet – Start-ups have Solutions

While cooling and heating buildings keeps people safe and comfortable, it also creates tremendous costs and greenhouse gas emissions. Start-ups in fast-growing Southeast Asia have developed innovations to reduce the cost, emissions and impact of buildings.

12th February 2025

Data Centers need Solar Energy

Across the US, tech companies large and small are building data centers to handle generative AI, streaming, social media and myriad other activities that require massive amounts of data. In the past, Washington was a top destination for data centers, but data centers also require tremendous amounts of electricity. While there has been sufficient electricity so far, the scale of the expected growth of data centers and the difficulties with adding more electricity to the grid are reaching a point where there may soon be insufficient power. New solutions are critically needed.

18th January 2025

Expanding Solar with Virtual Power Plants, Microgrids and Local Storage

“There is a general consensus that we've got an energy problem coming in Washington State,” Cascadia Renewables co-founder and managing partner Markus Virta said. We have to be very intentional about where solar goes, where energy storage goes, and those distributed energy resources.What we're looking at, Markus said, is creating utility systems with communication over all of our energy assets and can actively balance supply and demand via the virtual power plants (VPP).

14th January 2025

Start-ups help Cut Carbon Emissions from Construction in Southeast Asia

Walk by any of the multitude of construction sites in Southeast Asia, and along with a new building, you’ll see a major source of the carbon emissions that cause climate change. With construction expected to skyrocket, solutions to reduce the impact are needed. Start-ups are showing the way.

8th January 2025

Southeast Asia Startups Power Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Manufacturing

While manufacturing is a vital industry in Southeast Asia and it is growing rapidly, it uses tremendous amounts of fossil fuel energy and creates carbon emissions. Environmental sustainability is a serious concern. Start-ups are delivering solutions to mitigate the issues.

1st January 2025

Make Your Year Joyful and Meaningful

Year-end holidays can be a time for happiness and making New Year’s resolutions. In the new year, though, happiness may fade and resolutions can be forgotten. To give yourself a meaningful life and joy throughout the year, find and focus on your purpose.

17th December 2024

Look differently to find Good Returns from Nature Based Solutions in Southeast Asia

Nature based solutions( NbS) sound like a great way to mitigate climate change. By protecting or restoring land, investors ensure nature survives and earn a good return. The reality looks harder, though, as NBS seems to face challenges in turning good ideas into good returns.

2nd December 2024

Robots Solve Problems for Farmers in Southeast Asia

Farmers have long resisted agtech solutions, preferring instead to rely on tried and tested practices that they have used for decades, even when those traditional methods may not optimise yield or revenue. Gradually, however, changing climates and improved technology are leading to the acceptance of robots for agriculture in Southeast Asia.

14th November 2024

Advancing Energy Equity and Justice

One of the most engaging panels at the 2024 Solar Summit in early October was about energy equity and energy justice. Solar Washington board member Charlee Thomson, who moderated the panel, said “these two topics, equity and justice, are integral to the clean energy transition and the advancement of solar energy. While we are reaching beyond the typical scope of what folks generally think of as solar energy, we wanted to put solar in the broader context of the clean energy transition.”

Solar Washington • 21st October 2024

Electrify Everything to Save Costs and Decarbonize

“The decarbonization picture is that electricity is more efficient than fossil fuels in many applications, vehicles or cars as well as heating systems,” Solar Washington board member Charlee Thompson said as she kicked off the panel on “Decarbonization and Electrification” at the Solar Summit. Clean Energy Transition Institute Research Analyst Ruby Moore-Bloom, McKinstry senior consultant Scott Foreman-Murray and Rewiring America volunteer Wendy Ferry provided insights on how to make electrification happen and how to achieve Washington’s decarbonization goals.

17th September 2024

Start-ups Battle Bugs to help Farmers in Southeast Asia

As climate change intensifies, the number of insect pests that devour crops has increased too. In times past, farmers scouted through fields nearly every day, looking for pests. Now, start-ups are delivering solutions that automate scouting while reducing costs and pesticides.

12th September 2024

Understanding Solar Tariffs

The solar industry is beginning to experience whiplash due to a recent flurry of regulatory changes, according to the law firm Sheppard Mullin, rendering solar tariffs among the most intricate in the history of U.S. imports. Homeowners are wondering about the extent of the tariffs' cost impact. Surprisingly, the cost may be minimal. Published by Solar Washington at https://www.solarwa.org/understanding_solar_tariffs

2nd September 2024

Innovative Start-ups Abound in Singapore

While Singapore may be viewed as a nation of large multinationals and small low-tech businesses, it’s also a global hub for start-ups. The country has more than 4,500 start-ups as well as more than 200 incubators and accelerators that help these fledgling firms grow their businesses. Singapore also has the highest investment in start-ups per capita in the world, according to Crunchbase, exceeding even the US. (Published by Living in Singapore at https://issuu.com/singaporeamerican/docs/lis_sept-oct_24)

8th August 2024

Eratani’s Tech Solutions Tackle Indonesia’s Rice Crisis

Innovative financing empowering smallholder farmers for sustainable growth Even though Indonesia is the third largest rice producer in the world, it imported 3.5 million tons of rice in 2023 and expects to import at least 3 million tons this year. Eratani is working to boost smallholder farmers’ productivity and incomes to help increase rice production and resolve the shortage, according to co-CEO Bambang Cahyo Susilo. Published by Impact Entrepreneur: https://impactentrepreneur.com/eratanis-tech-solutions-tackle-indonesias-rice-crisis/

9th July 2024

Your Investments Actually Can Reduce or Increase Climate Change

Do the investments you make actually impact the climate or affect carbon emissions? It turns out that they do. Here’s why your investments matter and what you can do to align your investing with your climate values.