Advancing Sustainable Consumption and Production in Asia

34,000,000 kilowatt hours, 50,000,000 litres of water and 3,000,000 Euro – these are just some of the per annum savings realised by only one of the more than 145 projects funded by the SWITCH-Asia programme, the largest EU-funded initiative on SCP in Asia. That’s the equivalent of the energy-use of 8500 four-person households per year and the water contained in around 23 swimming pools with a length of 50 meters.

With SWITCH-Asia, the European Union seeks to support the transition of Asian countries to low-carbon, resource-efficient and circular economies while promoting sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns in Asia and greener supply chains between Asia and Europe.

Resource-efficient metalworking: The METABUILD project

From 2016 to 2020, adelphi was part of the consortium of the METABUILD project, which supported 400 small and medium-sized enterprises from the metalworking and building sectors in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The yearly energy, water and money savings mentioned above are a result of this project. One of the companies that profited from METABUILD is Hulas Wires, a steel wire production company from Nepal. “We saved energy, reduced fuel and water consumption and pollution levels have also decreased a lot,” says Sanjeev Kumar Jha, Management Representative of Hulas Wires.

Beyond helping individual companies, the project had other positive outcomes. adelphi was involved in training 30 financial institutions on developing cleantech and sustainable financing products. The capacity-building of local teams to support more SMEs was another key outcome, a result of Training of Trainers workshops.

Preventing marine litter in the Lakshadweep Sea

Every year, the Maldives generate nearly 25,000 tons of plastic waste. Up to one third ends up in coastal areas. In 2021, the PROMISE project launch kicked off with a beach clean-up event at Hulhumalé, Maldives. Over 450 kg of trash was collected within an hour, out of which 135 kg was recyclable waste.

The PROMISE project is also part of the SWITCH-Asia programme. The beach clean-up was just a kick-off to a project that will contribute to the prevention of waste leakage from land-based sources into the Lakshadweep Sea. The body of water borders India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. The goals are to promote regionally integrated source-to-sea solutions to reduce marine littering in tourism clusters and strengthen the position of micro, small and medium sized enterprises in the tourism cluster as well as regional governance mechanisms. Find out more about our involvement here.

Using plastic waste for 3D printing

The PROTOPRINT project takes a creative approach to introducing plastic waste into a circular economy system and lifting women out of poverty. The idea is to use plastic waste collected by waste pickers (often female) in India to produce the thermoplastic filament used in 3D printing. The aim is to utilise this technology to enable waste pickers who collect such high-density polyethylene to become profitable micro-entrepreneurs within the solid waste management industry. Up to now, these female waste pickers are part of the informal sector, have little negotiating power and are usually not adequately compensated. By setting up production facilities to produce 3D printing and supporting the waste pickers in selling there collected plastic waste to these facilities, they will be included in the formal working sector and lifted out of poverty.

Sustainable ikat and silk production in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan

Another fascinating SWITCH-Asia project that adelphi is involved in aims to reconnect the fragmented parts of Uzbek and Tajik silk value chains across the border and, at the same time, introduce or revive sustainable practices in the production of silk and ikat. In doing so, the project reintegrates formerly used organic dyes and promotes the sustainable treatment of water in general and wastewater specifically. In addition, the project supports the adoption of circular design practices. The countries also benefit from the project’s international orientation, which includes the certification of organic silk and the facilitation of access to local and global markets, further strengthening the position of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as countries of origin for silk products. Learn more about this project here: RUTSIS.

adelphi’s experts support Sustainable Consumption and Production in Asia

These are just brief portraits of five SWITCH-Asia activities that adelphi plays a role in. In fact, our experts in circular economy, energy, green entrepreneurship, finance and sustainable consumption have been involved in over 30 projects and assignments related to sustainable consumption and production in Asia as part of the SWITCH-Asia programme. To learn more about the impact of SWITCH-Asia, visit the website.