“Circular economy talks about promoting the sharing of products, prolonging lifespans, maintenance, design, improving product efficiency, removing waste, looking at delivering goods and services virtually, recycling old materials with advanced ones, and also reducing costs that comes with management of waste,” said UOB Head of Sustainable Business, Group Corporate Sustainability Office Melissa Moi.
“Companies need to be connected with others players across their value chain so that they can get the incentives, support and drive to grow their businesse,” said Moi. “With this kind of initiative, the rate of deforestation can be lowered. The life cycle of materials along with chemical and energy utlisation can be optimised. This project acts as a carbon sink to minimise the impact towards climate change and solves the challenges of waste management in the oil palm industry,” said Yap.
“The remanufactured product we offer is easy for customers to transport, process and install. It is also cost effective as waste from another industry is converted to benefit ours. As such, the overall costs for recycling and remanufacturing is very minimum,” said Yap.“There are several programmes in the timber industry that need support financially, particularly in the research and development segment as well as knowledge. This is a big programme which requires a lot of patience and cash flow.
Moi said that in general, two types of sustainable financing can be found in the market. The first being loans, which need to be specifically channelled towards proceeds that have a positive impact on the environment like looking at renewable energy or energy efficiency, or towards social aspect like affordable housing, education, health and infrastructure.