1. Environment: More organisations are taking action towards more sustainable practices.

“First off, a lot of them said no thank to single-use plastic. This year, inspired by a push from a broad coalition of activist groups, Starbucks pledged to phase out single-use plastic straws by 2020. Other major players like American Airlines and McDonald’s are makings similar shifts. McDonald’s and Starbucks are also teaming up to develop a compostable coffee cup. Through a new pledge launched by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 250 organizations, including brands like H&M, PepsiCo, and Unilever, as well as the World Economic Forum and 40 academic institutions, will work together to develop a circular economy for plastic. The aim is to shift away from plastic when unnecessary, and ensure that all that is used is recycled. By 2025, they want all plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable–and not end up in the oceans or landfill, where it harms environments.”

Read the full article on Fast Company: The most exciting corporate sustainability moves of 2018

  1. Public Health: While most people think that bubble tea is a healthier choice, study found that bubble tea contains more sugar than a can of coke.

“Experts warned that a lack of knowledge of how much sugar goes into each cup of bubble tea could mislead people into thinking it is healthier compared to soft drinks.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has started consulting the public on four possible measures that include banning and taxing some pre-packaged sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) like soft drinks. This is to try and cut Singaporeans’ overall sugar intake in an ongoing fight against diabetes. Almost half a million Singaporeans live with diabetes, higher than the global prevalence.

However, freshly-prepared drinks are excluded from the public consultation.

“There is a lot of attention given to soft drinks, but it is the unlabelled products that slip under the radar,” said Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach at The Nutrition Clinic Bonnie Rogers.

Read the full article on Channel NewsAsia: Sweeter than soda? The hidden sugars in bubble tea

  1. Japan’s linguistic practice: A convenience store in Japan is loosening its practice on having a strict greeting policy in light of labor immigration trends.  

“While firmly rooted in Japanese consumer culture, change is nonetheless coming in regard to manual keigo—not due to highbrow academic debate, but as a result of shifting demographics in the service industry. Some 44,000 foreign workers—mainly Chinese, Nepalese, and Vietnamese—are now employed in Japan’s convenience stores. In March of this year, Family Mart, the country’s second-largest chain of convenience stores, announced that it would relax its policies surrounding manual keigoto accommodate the growing number of non-native Japanese speakers in its ranks. This will allow for the use of more natural and intuitive Japanese that eschew byzantine conjugations.

For Wetzel, the change perhaps “has more to do with people’s attitudes [in Japan] about foreigners than it does about keigo itself.” She points out that in the post-Taisho era (1912 to 1926) the Japanese have had comparatively limited exposure to immigrants working in service industry roles. To that end, while non-native speakers are generally accorded leeway when speaking the language, Wetzel suggests that in a customer service context, “if there’s anything worse than a Japanese [employee] using manual keigo badly, it would be a non-Japanese person using it badly””

Read the full article on CityLab: The Language Debate Inside Japan’s Convenience Stores

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