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4 Mins Read A new report by the environmental NGO Tearfund has just revealed the massive plastic and carbon pollution of major drink firms. According to the report, the 4 leading beverage corporations – Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever – are responsible for more than half a million tonnes of plastic pollution in 6 developing countries each year. […]
4 Mins Read This may come as a surprise to you, but street stalls in the Philippines are loaded with meat and dairy-free options. Whilst sizzling baboy (pork) and Pinoy roast manok (chicken) still feature heavily on most sidewalks in Manila, you don’t have to look very hard to find accidentally plant-based nibbles either, from fried bananas to […]
11 Mins Read Who doesn’t love burgers? No one, that’s who. But here at Green Queen, we’re partial to plant-based patties. We curated a list of the best vegan burgers in Asia, so you can eat your way across the region with fries and ketchup. Our list features every kind of plant-based burger you can think of, from […]
3 Mins Read A team of civil engineering students from the University of the Philippines has developed an environmentally-friendly concrete that is made from recycled and locally sourced materials. Their innovation, a concrete made from fly ash, waste glass and the locally abundant rock pozzolanic tuff, won them the eco-concrete prize in a competition organised by the American […]
3 Mins Read Developed by the Design Center of the Philippines, Pinyapel is a specialty paper made from pineapple leaves that would otherwise go to waste, which can be used to make a number of products from coffee cups to paper shopping bags. It has recently won the 2019 Wood Pencil award by the UK-based charity D&AD Future […]
4 Mins Read A major report about plastic bottle recycling in the Southeast Asian region reveals the severity of the waste crisis facing countries that simply do not have the adequate infrastructure for collection with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of value being lost and consumers and businesses bearing the brunt of the collection responsibility. Singaporean environmental […]
3 Mins Read In a speech in Bangkok, Thailand last Saturday, United Nations Chief Secretary António Guterres described climate change as the “defining issue of our time,” and that Asia must be on the “front line” to fight it by eliminating fossil fuels. Citing a recent Climate Central study that found that Asia is most at risk of […]
3 Mins Read According to intergovernmental agency World Organisation for Animal Health, the spread of the African swine fever (ASF) epidemic will wipe out a quarter of the world’s pig population. Since last year, Asia has experienced mass escalation of ASF, with the world’s largest pig producer – China – bearing the brunt of the deaths while the […]
5 Mins Read Veganism is officially mainstream. If you asked for vegan food at a restaurant a few years ago, you might get a surprised, even annoyed look in return. You might have had to explain that it meant “no dairy, no animal by-products, no egg” – and be met with a muted “uh-huh” or exasperated look. But […]
5 Mins Read Asia is home to many of the planet’s wonders, including beautiful fine sand beaches and coastlines. However, due to years of plastic pollution, marine litter and waste mismanagement, many of these beaches are no longer as pristine as they once were. In fact, Asia’s coastlines are chocking in waste – the region is now home […]
4 Mins Read Youth in Asia and the Pacific went on strike for the planet this past Friday September 20 2019, part of 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg ‘Fridays For Future’ campaign, to demand climate justice. Millions took to the streets as students from all over the world joined in the third internationally coordinated Global Climate Strike […]
4 Mins Read For months, millions of young climate activists around the world have been taking to the streets on Fridays to demand governmental action on our planet’s most urgent issue: climate change. Ahead of the United Nations Climate Action Summit, today’s 20th September protest marks the third general strike for the climate, as a part of the […]
3 Mins Read While the effects of climate change will undoubtedly be felt all around the world, it will have the most devastating impact on Asia and the Pacific, home to roughly 60% of the global population. Extreme weather events, such as prolonged dry spells and flooding, as well as rising sea levels from global warming, are already […]
10 Mins Read It’s seriously time to break up with packaging. It’s unnecessary, wasteful and there are now so many packaging-free shops that you actually can live without it. When we realised how many zero-waste bulk buy shops had popped up across Asia, we knew we had to create a dedicated guide, so no matter where you are […]
6 Mins Read Green Queen hosted the second edition of our United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) #PlantBased Dinner Series, bringing our community together at Africa Coffee & Tea, Hong Kong’s resident Ethiopian restaurant, and featuring a talk by Hong Kong & Philippines-based NGO International Care Ministries (ICM) to call attention to SDG #1 No Poverty. At the […]
2 Mins Read 23-year old Denxybel Montinola, who recently graduated from the University of San Carlos in the Philippines has just invented an ingenious water-soluble plastic that could be the solution for food waste and the global plastic pollution problem. Using mangoes and seaweed, which are locally abundant ingredients, Montinola has created a new blend of bioplastic. We […]
3 Mins Read Anti-plastic crusader and community activist Froilan Grate has dedicated his life to fighting plastic pollution on the shorelines of his native Philippines, known to be the third worst ocean polluter in the world. After years of leading local initiatives to improve recycling awareness and waste organisation, Grate began calling out companies to pressure manufacturers for […]
3 Mins Read If there’s one thing that’s a little hard to give up when going plant-based, it’s the cheeseboard. Pre-dinner, post-meal, during cocktail hour or just as a snack anytime, cheese and crackers is the ultimate in delicious gorging food. But a new age of ethical, sustainable and healthy food consumption is upon us and dairy cheese […]
7 Mins Read If you had to guess how much waste Hong Kong produces a day, what would be your estimate? Probably nothing close to the sobering figure of 9, 000 tonnes, which is the actual number of solid municipal waste (SMW) that is sent to the landfill daily, and that does not everything else that is disposed […]
5 Mins Read An earlier version of this article previously appeared on spas+beyond. Ananda in the Himalayas, India Up on a mountain top overlooking the sacred Ganges and Rishikesh, spending time in Ananda feels like coming home, albeit with a hint of Indian maharajah aristocracy. Nurturing staff, beautiful grounds and spectacular food keep you happy between Ayurvedic treatments, yoga […]
2 Mins Read For this month’s Green Queen Giving, we talk to Tess Lyons who heads up Donor Relations for the Hong Kong office of International Care Ministries (ICM) in Hong Kong. How was ICM started? ICM came into existence 22 years ago when a Hong Kong woman was visiting The Philippines and a local lady asked for money […]