Stevie-winner Cainiao Network is a global leader in e-commerce logistics and cross-border e-commerce logistics services with logistics facilities in strategic locations around the world, serving over 200 countries and regions.

It was founded by Alibaba Group and other partners in 2013 to address the growing, evolving requirements for logistics services of the buyers and sellers on Alibaba Group’s e-commerce platforms.

The rapid shift to e-commerce during the pandemic amplified challenges in communications and collaboration between last-mile logistics companies, merchants, consumers, and courier personnel. To alleviate some of these pain points, Cainiao developed an AI e-commerce logistics digital collaboration platform.

The two key offerings of the platform include:

• An AI outbound call robot, used primarily by courier personnel, which helps to proactively notify consumers of their upcoming deliveries, obtains corresponding delivery requests, and provides acknowledgments.
• AI-powered customer service robots in the smart call center to handle inquiries from merchants and customers autonomously, including order placement, parcel tracking, complaints, pick-up locations, and more. Each year, the smart call center serves more than 40 million customers, saving one million working days for customer support.

The proprietary platform aims to address communications needs, data security, consumer privacy protections, and the inefficiency and high cost of manual calls. The platform improves the overall efficacy of communications systems, reduces labor costs, mitigates labor constraints, and supports the continuation of logistics operations with minimal human interaction or labor—all while enhancing customer satisfaction rates.

Today, the platform facilitates over 80 million private and secure communications daily. It assists couriers, post station managers, and customer service personnel across the entire network to save more than one million outbound calls daily while reducing labor costs by approximately USD $42.8 million a year.

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Initiatives
Cainiao's ESG initiatives are deeply embedded in every element of the logistics value chain, revolving around five focus areas, namely green logistics, customer experience, community services, emergency logistics, and high-quality employment.

Cainiao’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy aims to support the sustainable development of communities and businesses, drive job creation, and revitalize rural revitalization amid economic instability.

Recognizing CSR as a multifaceted initiative, Cainiao’s business is mapped against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) to pinpoint focus areas that align with the company’s expertise and resources. To that end, Cainiao Post and Green Logistics serve as the key technology and community-enabled sustainability initiatives.

Cainiao Post
Launched in 2015, the Cainiao Post network was created to alleviate the pain points of last-mile delivery. Presently, there are over 170,000 post stations across China, providing entrepreneurial opportunities while also serving as a model for revitalizing last-mile logistics via digital transformation.

Over the past year, the network has been expanded by over 20%. Over 200,000 jobs were created in 40,000 communities and 3,000 campuses, serving over 100 million consumers combined. By 2024, Cainiao aims to build 10,000 more Cainiao post stations to support the government’s goal of driving domestic economic growth.

Green Logistics
To reinforce a greener supply chain, Cainiao has partnered with global brands, such as Nestlé and P&G, alongside logistics players to share resources and expertise as well as organize campaigns to raise awareness.

Cainiao’s green warehouses feature photovoltaic (PV) panels on its rooftops, which generate 25 million kWh of electricity and are responsible for reducing 16,000 tons of carbon emissions in a year. To double capacity by 2023, Cainiao aims to install PV panels across all its logistics park rooftops in China.

Looking ahead, Cainiao is committed to delivering faster, more cost-effective, and environmentally friendly services to merchants and consumers across the world.

Cainiao won a Silver Stevie^® Award for Innovative Achievement in Corporate Social Responsibility, and a Gold Stevie Award for Innovation in Transportation & Logistics in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie^® Awards.

Interested in entering the 2024 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards?

Stevie-winner The Tea Heaven is a women-run tea company built upon more than 60 years of experience in providing fresh, premium quality, 100% organic teas with a consistent taste.

More than a tea brand, The Tea Heaven is a community of professional contributors who have been involved in the tea business most of their lives. Founder Harshada Bansai is a fourth-generation tea producer who learned the art of blending teas from her father and grandfather.

Once Harshada started learning more about tea, she always had a dream of building a tea product that not only provided the freshest and healthiest tea to consumers but also helped underprivileged women who are an unseen part of the tea industry and environment.

With this vision in mind, she learned the basics of building a great brand by attending courses in brand management from business and fashion schools in Paris, London, and Shanghai. During her travels and studies, she spent hundreds of hours learning more about the tea industry and the gap between what tea is available in the market and how it can be improved.

Harshada then decided to start The Tea Heaven in 2018 and determined that it would employ only women and only use 100% sustainable packaging material for all products. She wanted to challenge the male-dominated tea industry with her determination to provide a product that is environment-friendly and 100% plastic-free. 

Tea Heaven’s product design and development includes tea bags that are handcrafted with muslin cloth without the use of any plastic, paper, glue, or staples. Along with this, the loose-leaf teas are packed in double-lid moisture, light-proof, food-grade tin caddies. The muslin cloth tea bags ensure a microplastic-free cup of tea, and they also employ underprivileged women in rural India to produce them since eight of 10 women in rural India know the art of stitching. With this approach, they seek to provide employment and enable financial independence for these women. All teas are grown and shipped from small estates, eliminating the need for middlemen.

By July 2020, The Tea Heaven had successfully expanded its presence on Amazon in India and the United States, achieving this milestone with no external investment. In its inaugural year, The Tea Heaven generated USD $100k in revenue, though the profit margin remained modest due to reinvesting all earnings into training employees and equipping them with modern tools and machines. Harshada led training sessions for women unfamiliar with computers or lacking opportunities to contribute as breadwinners in their families. Despite the modest revenue, the impact on individual workers was substantial.

Fueled by the motivation and dedication of its women workers, The Tea Heaven family labored diligently, resulting in a significant revenue surge to $200k in 2021. By early 2022, the brand began gaining visibility in other countries, attributed to its products, mission, vision, and packaging. Responding to heightened demand from global markets, a new entity, Tea Heaven Inc., was established, commencing operations in June 2022. Remarkably, within a short time, this new entity has already achieved a six-figure revenue.

The Tea Heaven won a Silver Stevie Award for Excellence in Innovation in Consumer Product & Service Industries - Up to 20 Employees in the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards.

Interested in entering the 2024 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards?

Stevie-winner OfficePartners360 (OP360) is a specialized outsourcing company focused on providing custom back office and customer service solutions for small to medium-sized businesses and Fortune 500 companies.

US-owned and managed, OP360 was founded in 2006 by entrepreneurs with strong experience in technology, HR, IT, and finance. Today, they are a full-service, fast-growing solutions provider with thousands of global employees and clients ranging from mid-sized corporations toFortune 500 firms.

Because the owners have been clients of offshore and outsourced services, they understand first-hand the benefits of outsourcing. For clients who require personnel, OP360 ensures the outsourced team not only performs but also operates as an extension of the client’s existing teams with the same shared values, training, and culture. In addition, OP360 operates out of premium facilities in tier-two cities thereby reducing client costs.

Principles in Action
OP360 leaders are committed to building and maintaining a transformative, high-performing culture. They hope to do this through effective communication, genuinely caring about their team (and the communities where they live and work), ensuring rapid career development for strong performers, and providing well-above-average compensation. Their methods seem to work, as they consistently have an exceptionally high management retention rate.

When the pandemic thrust the world into a state of disarray, leaders in the Philippines office responded by tapping into OP360’s core values of compassion and cooperation, as well as its ability to stay agile and adaptable to changing circumstances in order to guarantee employee health and well-being. 

By March 2020, 99% of staff were successfully pivoted to remote work. Computers and portable WiFi kits were sent home with employees, and those who did not have a suitable home office were housed in hotels from where they could work. A corporate telecommuting package was also offered for staff to have wired internet at home. Remote IT support was available 24/7, and when needed, IT staff were deployed to homes to swap out or repair damaged assets. A resiliency hub was also maintained to cater to employees who, due to emergencies, were unable to continue working remotely. 

When onsite work resumed, staff were shuttled to and from the offices to limit exposure to the commuting public. Free meals were provided to limit the need to leave the offices during breaks. A stringent office sanitation and disinfection schedule was maintained; more staff were certified in first aid and safety; and additional clinic nurses were hired to ensure safety. A mental health program was also launched to support employees’ mental well-being. Employees who tested positive for Covid-19 were given paid time off and received a care kit.

As soon as vaccines were available in 2021, OP360 rolled-out its vaccination campaign, “Together & for Each Other.” Joining a public-private venture, OP360 offered free vaccination to employees and their dependents. Within 3 months, 78% of staff were fully inoculated through the company’s efforts, exceeding the Philippines’ then-national average. The company also extended its care externally by distributing face masks and vitamins to 5 beneficiary-schools of its philanthropic arm, OP360 Cares. 

While the situation exacerbated vulnerabilities, OP360 never stopped operating with the health and safety of its community in mind.

OfficePartners360 won a Silver Stevie Award for Most Valuable Corporate Response to COVID-19 in the 2022 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

Interested in entering the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards?

Stevie-winner Agribid Private Limited is a farmer-friendly business-to-business marketplace specializing in the sale and purchase of agri-commodities with every stakeholder along the agribusiness chain, including farmers, traders, corporate consumers, and global buyers.

Launched in late 2020 by Ashutosh Mishra, Manoj Suvarna, and Chetan Suvarna, it is their company vision to be the most preferred marketplace for agri-products globally. Since launching, 300 farmer producer organizations (FPOs) have signed up to benefit from Agribid’s business model.

Agribid sees that the plight of small farmers across India is due to fragmented land holding. In the market, a small farmer does not have any control on price—not due to a lack of trading options—but in accordance with the concept of economies of size: the average cost per unit of production decreases as the size of the farm increases. With an average land holding of 2 to 3 acres each, a small farmer can produce a crop of 2 to 5 MT. Such a low quantity would never interest a big trader who is looking for 1 truck load (10 MT) minimum size for optimizing logistical costs.

According to Agribid, the solution is aggregation. Using their integrated platform, they seek to empower farmers by aggregating them in order to achieve the best price from buyers across India and globally.

In addition, as a company policy, Agribid does not charge farmers for their services—aggregation will be free for life to all participating farmers. In fact, the company has committed to sharing a portion of revenue with the FPOs who have joined. Agribid expects the farmers to utilize these extra funds to improve farmer welfare, machinery, and storage facilities.

Agribid plans to expand the Indian base from 11 to 23 states and its global presence from three countries to nine. Since winning their Stevie Award, they have been named one of the 20 Most Promising Startups to Watch in 2022 by Business Connect. 

Agribid won a Bronze Stevie Award for Most Innovative Startup – Business Services Industry in the
2022 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

Interested in entering the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards?

 

 

Stevie-winner BCW is the global communications agency built to move people. BCW partners with clients in the B2B, consumer, corporate, crisis management, healthcare, public affairs, purpose and technology sectors to set strategic direction for all communications and create powerful and unexpected ideas that earn attention.

Through an “earned-plus” offer—earned media plus paid media, creative technology, data, AI and an expanding suite of innovative capabilities—BCW moves people with power and precision to move its clients forward.

One such client is Chinese laser projection specialist Formovie. Formovie planned to launch its “T1” flagship laser projector in an effort to reinforce its leading position in the highly competitive China laser market. Formovie and BCW came together to develop a comprehensive marketing campaign, which earlier this year won a Bronze Asia-Pacific Stevie Award for Innovation in Cross-Media Marketing.

Considering the wide array of existing product choices and increasingly discerning consumers, Formovie faced some big challenges in building a unique product story and developing effective touch points with consumers. What they did was initiate a cross-media launch campaign that aimed to:

• Exposure goal—generate 30 million impressions total.
• Engagement goal—engage with 40 key media & influencers in the consumer projection segment with positive endorsement on product experience.
• Business goal—help with T1 product sales on e-commerce platforms.

According to research, more than 60% of potential laser projector consumers are enthusiastic about an “exquisite lifestyle” that integrates history, art, symphony, etc. Based on this insight, instead of a traditional press event, Formovie launched a cross-over campaign titled “Breathing life to Dunhuang” integrating imagery and connotations of one of the most famous cultural relics in China: The Mogao Caves in Dunhuang. Dunhuang was the first trading town reached by foreign merchants entering Chinese-administered territories along the Silk Road from the west. The city is the site of the renowned Mogao Caves, which form a system of 500 Buddhist temples, some of which were dug out as early as AD366, which were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

Dunhuang was the first trading town reached by foreign merchants entering Chinese-administered territory from the west. The city is the site of the renowned Mogao Caves, which were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.

At its foundation, the marketing campaign was a tech-centric, projection-based mini-art show. Commercial laser shows are often used for illumination projects like this; instead, Formovie’s new cinema-pro quality, consumer laser projector T1 was utilized to reproduce the historical relics of frescos from Dunhuang.

By merging the most advanced laser technology with traditional Chinese culture, the team created an appealing product story across media channels, including traditional media, digital platforms, advertising, as well as e-commerce channels.

As a cultural icon with nation-wide recognition, Dunhuang successfully helped attract attention from audiences with large-scale advertising placement. Dunhuang images were also utilized to produce the boot screen picture, product packages, and a scarf gift as exclusive incentives to boost sales. Riding on the momentum generated from media and influencers, the topic “digital representations of Chinese cultural heritage with T1” led to larger scale exposure and discussion as a result.

The campaign was a success, surpassing all targets:

• Exposure goal— 32 million impressions were generated from all media platforms; search engine data show that the number of searches about T1 increased 1,378% within a month.
• Engagement goal— More than 60 key influencers in the consumer projection industry shared articles, videos, or posts with positive endorsement, generating 100K+ engagement.
• Business goal— Dunhuang-themed packages and gifts helped drive sales by more than $500k within 24 hours on Tmall (formerly Taobao Mall), a Chinese-language website for business-to-consumer online retail, operated in China by Alibaba Group.

The integrated campaign “Breathing life to Dunhuang” created a unique story of how traditional Chinese culture from centuries ago can be revitalized today by innovative Formovie products. Cross-media approaches including traditional media, digital platforms, advertising, as well as e-commerce channels were utilized to communicate with audiences throughout their decision-making journey with excellent results.

BCW won a Bronze Award for Innovation in Cross-Media Marketing in the 2022 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

Interested in entering the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards?

 

 

Stevie-winner Aussie Broadband is a rapidly growing, Australian internet service provider with a reputation for providing high-quality internet and transparent customer service. In 2020, Aussie Broadband launched Carbon, a free self-service portal that allows customers to control all of their Aussie Broadband services from one central location.

Carbon is designed to take the delays and confusion out of ordering new services, with many products and services able to be ordered directly in the platform and with transparent pricing displayed.

Rather than wait for months to order and receive new business services, Carbon users can access free quotes, place their own orders, and control everything from hardware dispatch to service activation, all from a central portal. Carbon enables businesses to turn on a service at any location where NBN (Australia’s National Broadband Network) has been before; activation is extremely fast thanks to Aussie's clever, efficient integration with NBN's systems. 

Customers using Carbon can now:

• Purchase and customize their products and services online, including internet services, data center connections, MPLS networks, SD-WAN networks, hosted PBX and more. 
• Manage and test their services at scale, allowing them to create simple internet services, while managing billing, technical support and ordering. 
• Apply configurations to their services within seconds, as well as take advantage of single-click tests and diagnostics, real-time monitoring of bandwidth and data use, and centralized notifications, billing and support. 
• See immediately if there are any known outages affecting their service.

In addition to simplifying and shortening the ordering process, Carbon also provides users with a bevy of features for managing existing services, as well as handling billing and troubleshooting issues without the need to call customer support. Users can apply their preferred custom configurations to business telco services, which is especially useful for enterprise customers looking to build and manage their own networks and cloud platforms.

Aussie Broadband engineered Carbon to tackle some of the biggest pain points experienced by business and enterprise customers, and the company believes they are the first telco in Australia to offer account features and self-service at this level.

Carbon is not the only tool that Aussie Broadband offers to customers to enhance the customer experience. The MyAussie App offers a range of innovative features for customers that had never been seen before from a major player in the Australian telco industry. Among many other features, MyAussie offers customers the ability to “kick” their internet connection all the way back to the network, which would have required assistance from a technical support staff previously.

Another tool developed by Aussie Broadband is The Proactive Fault Detector, an in-house designed and developed software that automatically detects faults and proactively resolves them before a customer contacts Aussie's support team. They found that more than 50% of dropout and speed faults were identifiable before the customer contacted support. One of the main benefits is that it significantly reduces both the duration and volume of calls, giving their support staff more time to focus on better customer experience. If a fault is detected with a customer’s connection, the system begins running troubleshooting tests and attempts to restore services immediately. The automated fault identification system is currently identifying and triaging over 200 faults per day. 

Since winning their Stevie Award, Aussie Broadband has completed the acquisition of Brisbane Telecommunications and IT solutions provider Over the Wire (ASX:OTW) for $344 million dollars. In addition, they have signed a 3-year deal with Mitsubishi Motors Australia to provide Enterprise NBN and on-net services to its corporate and regional locations across the country.

Aussie Broadband won the Gold Stevie Award for the Innovative Use of Technology in Customer Service - Telecommunications Industries in the 2022 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

Interested in entering the 2023 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards?

 

 

The fifth annual Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards will be presented at Hong Kong's Mira Hotel on Friday, June 1.  A sell-out crowd of more than 280 executives from across the region will attend for the presentation of the Grand, Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards.  Winners were announced last month.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are the only regional program to recognize innovation in every facet of the workplace, from management and product development to customer service, human resources, marketing and more.

The 2018 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards have recognized organizations in 15 markets including Australia, mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.S.A. and Vietnam. More than 800 nominations about innovative achievements in the APAC region were considered by the judges this year.

Entries for the 2019 edition of the awards will open in October. 

Here is the list of organizations that will be represented at Friday's awards banquet in Hong Kong.

AD STARS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
amc asia!
APAX Group
APPCO Korea
Azeus Convene
BIBOTING INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
Binary Digital Advertising, Inc.
BoardPAC (Pvt) Ltd
BOC Group Life Assurance Company Limited
BRCom
Busan Metropolitan Police Agency
Busan, Saha-gu District
Cisco Systems
Clariti Group
CLP Power Hong Kong Limited
DANI Communications (LOTTE FOODS)
Darktrace
Dell Technologies
EASTGOLD CO., LTD.
eDENT
Eduwill Co., Ltd.
EPIS
E-STATE ONLINE
FOREST INTERACTIVE SDN BHD
FrieslandCampina (Hong Kong) Limited
Gangwon-do Office
Globe Telecom, Inc.
Green Bulb PR
Gyeonggido Job Foundation
HANAROADCOM
Hanoi Small and Medium Enterprises Association
Hanyang University
Hong Kong Tourism Board
Hotel Soulhada
HP PPS Australia Pty Ltd
HPI CS APJ CC
HP PPS Indonesia
IBM
Interplan International Corp.
IRPC Public Company Limited
JCDecaux Transport
KBCA
KEB Hana Bank
Ketchum Shanghai
Korea Electric Power Corporation
Korea Energy Information Agency
Korea Land And Geospatial Informatix Corporation
Korea Press Center
Korea Resource Circulation Service Agency
Korea Seven Co., Ltd.,
Korea South-East Power Co., Ltd,
Korea: BORAMAE
KT KBN Center
Kumsung Publishing Co., Ltd
LAB360
LafargeHolcim
Leap Agency
M800 Limited
Manage Damage
Manila Electric Company (MERALCO)
Megaworld
Metro Pacific Water
Ministry of Health and Welfare
Morris Cookies (Asia) Limited
MyTaxi.PH / Grab Philippines
NCC Ad
NS Home Shopping
Ortigas & Company
PCCW Solutions Limited
Petronas
PITSTOP MOTORS INC
PR Newswire Asia
PSG Global Solutions
PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero)
Pembangkitan Jawa-Bali
PT Petrokimia Gresik
PT Petrosida Gresik
PT PP Properti Tbk
PTTEP Indonesia
PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited
Seegene Medical Foundation
Semyung University
Seocho-Gu
Seoul Housing and Communities Corporation
Shinyoung
SID Corporation
SIDM
SITEL Philippines
SM SUPERMALLS
SolarWinds
SOOHYUN Inc.
Strategic Public Relations Group
Studio Aup
Supercom
Telkom Indonesia
The K Yedaham
The Korea Coast Guard
ThermoBrush
Toothlife Co., Ltd.
Travellers International Hotel Group Inc
Treasure Collection
Tuan Chau Hanoi JSC
Uniplan
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Vamp
Vinci Construction
VNPT VinaPhone Corporation
VOK DAMS CHINA
W·Design Convergent Center Dankook University,
Weber Shandwick
Wharf China Estates Limited

 Wins for Third Year in a Row;
Other Grand Stevie Winners are Yongin City (South Korea) and Toyoko Inn Co.,Ltd. (Japan)

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, announced the winners of three Grand Stevie Award trophies in its fourth annual Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are the only awards to recognize innovation in the workplace throughout the entire 22-nation Asia-Pacific region. All organizations in the region are eligible to submit nominations.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners in the various categories were announced on 19 April. Those awards were determined by the average scores of more than 50 executives worldwide earlier this year.

All awards will be presented to winners during a gala event at the Hilton Hotel in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, June 2. Tickets for the event are now on sale. 

The three Grand Stevie Award winners announced are:

• Telkom Indonesia, winner of the Grand Stevie for Organization of the Year for the third year in a row. The leading telecommunications and network services provider in Indonesia won the most award points in the competition this year with eight Gold, five Silver, and eighteen Bronze Stevie wins in a variety of categories for innovation. Each Gold win earns three points, each Silver win two points, and each Bronze one and a half points for the Grand Stevie-winner calculation.
• Yongin City won a Grand Stevie for Highest-Scoring Nomination of the Year in the competition this year. The one million population metropolitan city of ‘People-centered Yong-In’ won for its nomination of the city's mayor, Chan Min Jung, who also won the Gold Stevie Award for Innovative Management in Non-Profit or Government. 
• Toyoko Inn Co.,Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan, which submitted the highest-scoring nomination from the host nation of this year’s awards ceremony.

The 2017 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards have recognized organizations in 15 nations including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the U.S.A. and Vietnam. More than 700 nominations about innovative achievements in the 22-nation APAC region were considered by the judges this year.

“We are very pleased with the results of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, with the growth in the number of entries and the depth and breadth of the stories of business innovation that we received,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. “We are very much looking forward to greeting and celebrating this year’s winners in Tokyo on June 2.”

Details about the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and the list of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners are available at http://Asia.Stevieawards.com.

* Sponsors and partners of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards include PR Newswire Asia, the official news distribution partner of the awards, and the Korea Business Communicators Association.

Honorees for Innovation in Business to Be Recognized in Tokyo on June 2

Winners in the fourth annual Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards, the only awards program to recognize innovation in business throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region, were announced today.  The list of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners is available at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com.

The Stevie Awards are considered to be the world's premier business awards, conferring recognition for achievement in the workplace over the past 15 years in programs such as The International Business Awards and The American Business Awards. 

The 2017 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards have recognized organizations in 15 nations including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the U.S.A. and Vietnam. More than 700 nominations about innovative achievements in the 22-nation APAC region were considered by the judges this year.

This year’s top overall winner, with eight Gold, five Silver and 18 Bronze Stevie Award wins is Telkom Indonesia.  This is the third year in a row in which Telkom Indonesia has led the competition.  Close on their heels this year is PT PETROKIMIA GRESIK (Indonesia), with seven Gold, seven Silver and 13 Bronze Stevie wins.

Winners of multiple Gold Stevie Awards include Amobee (U.S.A.), Cisco Systems (Australia and India), Freelancer.com (Australia), the Hong Kong Tourism Board (China), MSLGROUP (China), PRIZM (China), PT Angkasa Pura II (Indonesia), Shopping Center Management Corporation (Philippines) and TBM Co., Ltd. (Japan).

Stevie winners will be presented their awards at a gala banquet at the Hilton Hotel in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, June 2.  Tickets for the event are now on sale.

More than 50 executives around the world participated in the judging to determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners. 

Details about the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and the list of Stevie Award winners are available at http://Asia.Stevieawards.com.

“We congratulate the winners of the innovation Stevies and look forward to celebrating their achievements with them in Tokyo on June 2,” said Michael Gallagher, founder and president of the Stevie Awards.

Sponsors and partners of the 2017 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards include PR Newswire Asia, the official news distribution partner of the awards, and the Korea Business Communicators Association.

The Chief Representative for Clean Air Task Force in China, Dr. S. Ming Sung won the Bronze Stevie® Award for Executive of the Year - Non-Profit or Government in the management awards categories of the 2015 Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards.  The edition of the 2016 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, which are open to all organizations operating in the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region, will open for entries in October 2015. Find out how to get more information here.

Clean Air Task Force (CATF), a nonprofit environmental organization based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, believes that partnerships between companies in China and the West are crucial to accelerating the commercialization of low-carbon, coal-based energy generation. To that end, CATF is working in China and elsewhere in Asia to facilitate the development of joint business ventures between innovative energy companies and research institutions.

CATF is represented in China by Dr. S. Ming Sung, its Beijing-based Chief Representative for Asia-Pacific. CATF and Sung’s efforts in China focus on developing partnerships and knowledge-sharing that build on the country's current leadership in low-carbon coal technologies essential to addressing climate change and energy security.

Working Together

Beyond simply importing Western technologies, Chinese firms are working side-by-side with U.S. companies to learn how to adapt technologies to their needs and train new workforces. “The United States is more innovative,” said Sung. “But China tends to execute projects faster and cheaper than anyone else. So, if we can get the United States and China working together, everyone will benefit, and those concerns will also make a lot of money.”

Sung is profoundly aware of the importance of his work. As he put it: “CATF has a unique role to play in protecting the environment and addressing global climate change by catalyzing these business-to-business collaborations between the U.S. and Asia.”

Averting the Worst Consequences of Climate Change

Reliance on coal creates many challenges—along with some critically important opportunities. Energy companies in North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia have enormous experience and expertise working with coal, and are similarly motivated to develop technologies and techniques that will preserve a role for cleaner coal in a carbon-constrained world economy.

Business-to-business collaborations hold the potential to:

- Mitigate the cost of developing highly advanced clean energy technologies;

- Shorten the deployment time of clean energy systems;

- Decrease the world's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The environmental and economic benefits of transitioning to clean energy will be smaller and slower to materialize if western and Asian companies do not work together. Investments by both countries will reduce the cost of that technology worldwide, increasing the likelihood that low-carbon technologies such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) will be widely deployed in time to help avert the worst consequences of climate change.

Developing Partnerships in China

Together, the U.S. and China account for about 40% of the world's CO2 releases. Both countries are heavily reliant on fossil fuels, so the challenges they face are the same: How to cut CO2 emissions without harming economic growth and national security. CATF therefore believes that in developing climate change solutions, the U.S. and China are natural partners, not rivals.

Dr. Sung has helped CATF to facilitate several joint ventures between U.S. and Chinese technology companies to get low or zero carbon coal deployed quickly. (Find out more about these projects on the CATF website.)

Dr. Sung has worked with Chinese energy industry leaders to draft energy proposals. He serves as the Senior Economic Advisor to the Chinese city of DaQing, and has been a keynote speaker/moderator at many international conferences.

China’s giant state-owned companies are taking the lead on these projects, and many also involve major international partners. “If CCUS is to succeed, the U.S. and China must share more technical information on clean-coal technology,” says Sung.

A Thirst for Cleaner Energy

China's thirst for cleaner energy and the targets established in its 12th 5-year plan are pressuring the major companies operating in China to ramp up their efforts to explore for natural gas in shale formations and rapidly scale up production. But haste may risk environmental degradation and adverse human health impacts as reported in the press (e.g. The New York Times article "China Takes On Big Risks in Its Push for Shale Gas" from April 11, 2014).

CATF's vision is that by learning from the experiences of modern shale developers, China can leapfrog to more advanced, cleaner, safer practices proven in the U.S.

Moving Forward on Solar, Nuclear and Renewable Energy

Taking the "all of the above" approach to clean energy, CATF has also worked on helping China’s industry develop nuclear and solar capabilities. For example:

• As part of U.S.-China collaboration on nuclear energy development, CATF is helping Chinese nuclear operators receive training in U.S. facilities run by Duke Energy and Southern Companies. Trainees shadow U.S. nuclear operators for a 3-6 months program;

• Working with Duke Energy, Huaneng Group, and others, CATF is evaluating and validating the technical and economic feasibility of advanced small modular nuclear reactors for the global market, including China;

• CATF recently held a solar thermal technical conference in China for potential Chinese market development, and facilitated a meeting between Huaneng Group and a major solar thermal plant operator in Nevada;

• This past year, CATF helped General Compression, an energy storage company based in Massachusetts, to partner with Huaneng CERI to develop a commercial demonstration facility in China.
  

About Dr. S. Ming Sung:

Dr. S. Ming Sung joined the Clean Air Task Force as its Chief Representative for Asia-Pacific shortly after the 2008 ACEII Roundtable event in Beiijng. An American citizen, Dr. Sung was born in Shanghai and is fluent in all three major Chinese dialects. He is well connected with China energy companies and relevant public officials, and has deep ties to the global coal gasification and large chemical/energy project development communities. Dr. Sung's experience and connections have proven a perfect fit with CATF and he has immeasurably expanded ACEII's ability to achieve its objectives.

Dr. Sung's professional experience extends over 40 years in the energy and IT industries. He has worked for a handful of the world's leading companies and institutions, including Shell (where he spent 25 years), AspenTech, BASF, Monsanto, US DOE, and XinAo Group (a division of China's ENN Group). His experience covers management, engineering, operations, and marketing in coal, oil, chemicals and related areas.

Dr. Sung earned his BS and MS in Chemical and Petroleum Refining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. His Ph.D. research was in asphalt rheology at the University of Florida.

About Clean Air Task Force:

Clean Air Task Force is a nonprofit environmental organization with offices across the U.S. and in China. CATF works to help safeguard against the worst impacts of climate change by catalyzing the rapid global development and deployment of low carbon energy and other climate-protecting technologies through research and analysis, public advocacy leadership, and partnership with the private sector. For more information, please visit www.catf.us.