Latest news with #RMI
Bloomberg
11-07-2025
- Climate
- Bloomberg
10 Ways to Keep Your Home Cool This Summer
Green Heat Week To protect your home from floods and fire, you can raise the house out of harm's way or establish an ember-resistance zone around the dwelling. But how do you safeguard your home against extreme heat, an increasingly frequent climate-driven threat that now strikes historically temperate regions? 'Even here, it's definitely a leading concern,' says Chris Magwood, who's an Ontario, Canada-based sustainable construction expert for RMI, a nonprofit that promotes decarbonization.
IOL News
26-06-2025
- Automotive
- IOL News
RMI launches Project Dineo to train young South Africans for a career in the motor industry
Project Dineo aims to attract more youths to the automotive industry. Image: Supplied Youth unemployment remains a crisis of epic proportions in South Africa. The most recent figures, from the first quarter of 2025, showed that joblessness among those under 34 surged to 46.1%, from 44.6% in the previous quarter. And yet skills shortages prevail, particularly among the trades. For instance, South Africa currently trains just 13,000 artisans per year, well below the national target of 30,000, according to BluLever Education. A new initiative called Project Dineo aims to attract more youths to the automotive industry by providing a practical pathway to 100 learners per year for the next three years. The project is a partnership between the Retail Motor Industry (RMI), merSETA and the Presidency, and it will focus on empowering women, people with disabilities and youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. Launched at the MIWA Motor Mech Show at the Port Rex Technical High School in East London over the weekend, the programme will provide high-quality training through top public TVET colleges and accredited learning providers. This will be complemented by hands-on apprentices at RMI-approved employers. 'The combination of formal education and real-world exposure sets learners on a direct route to full employment in high-demand trades such as motor and diesel mechanics, panel beating, spray painting, and more,' says RMI National Training Director Louis van Huyssteen. He added that modern apprenticeships offer much more than practical training, they provide a pathway to a respected and sustainable career. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading 'In today's rapidly evolving technological world, being an artisan is about engaging with cutting-edge tools, diagnostics, and technologies. It is a future-facing profession and a real career of choice,' van Huyssteen added. Sabelo Buthelezi, special project director at the Department of Higher Education said participation by private sector employers was essential for providing today's youth with the necessary skills. 'Without workplace experience, an apprenticeship remains incomplete. Without employer mentors, apprentices lack the real-world feedback that makes learning come alive. We are not asking you to carry this burden alone. Government, through SETA grants and support systems, stands with you,' Buthelezi said. IOL
Time Magazine
25-06-2025
- General
- Time Magazine
Should I Feel Guilty About Using My AC?
Air conditioning is one of our great guilty pleasures. When your town is suffocating under a 100-degree heat dome, there's nothing like the sweet relief that comes from returning home, cranking up the AC, and leaving behind the sweltering outdoor atmosphere for the cooler, crisper indoor one. As the first major heat wave of 2025 bakes the Northeast, South, and Midwest, nearly 150 million Americans are discovering that fact anew. But air conditioning comes at a high price. The two billion units operating worldwide are responsible for 7% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations Environment Program—a figure that is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050, when more than five billion units are projected to be in use. This will drive a climate spiral, with increased carbon output pushing global temperatures even higher, leading to still more air conditioning use and still higher temperatures and on and on. 'Air conditioning is becoming a lifeline in this overheated world,' says Ankit Kalanki, a cooling expert at RMI, a research and public policy group originally known as the Rocky Mountain Institute. 'It's no longer a luxury. We rely on air conditioning for comfort, to feel productive, to feel safe and healthy, and this is an invisible driver of electricity demand and emissions.' That fact leaves a lot of people feeling guilty over their own AC use. Our grandparents got by with fans, light clothing, drawn shades and cold drinks; even in the face of climate change, couldn't we do the same for at least routine summer heat? 'The feeling of guilt comes from a sense of responsibility to do something,' says Fionnuala Walravens, senior campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency, a green advocacy group. 'We ask ourselves 'What can we change?'' AC guilt is only a piece of the larger phenomenon of climate guilt, the responsibility and even shame many people feel if they aren't recycling perfectly, composting regularly, driving minimally, and keeping energy consumption as low as possible. 'There are often a lot of emotions that are connected,' says Wendy Greenspun, a clinical psychologist who is affiliated with Climate Psychology Alliance North America, an educational nonprofit. 'There is sadness, anger, anxiety, fear—lots of different emotions that I put under the umbrella of climate distress. Guilt may be one of those.' Managing all of those emotions—and taking all of the green steps to ameliorate them—can be a considerable lift, and almost no one can claim to be a perfect climate citizen. But when it comes to air conditioning there are plenty of coping measures—ways to keep your use of cooling in check while at the same time accepting that in an increasingly sweltering world, air conditioning is a daily essential. The most significant—if most expensive—step you can take to reduce the carbon footprint of your air conditioner is to scrap any model you bought 15 years ago or earlier and upgrade to a new one. In 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned the sale of new AC units (either central AC or window models) that use Freon—also known as R-22—as a coolant. Freon, which can leak from home units and often has to be replaced and topped off by a service person, has a so-called global warming potential (GWP) of nearly 2,000—meaning it packs 2,000 times the planet-heating punch of an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. New units now use Puron Advance—also known as R-454B—which has a GWP of just 465. That's still considerably more than CO2 (which, by definition, has a GWP of 1), but a whole lot less than R-22. 'Industry is transitioning to alternatives that have a much lower environmental footprint,' says Kalanki. 'There is a lot of promise when it comes to what kind of refrigerants can provide similar cooling without impacting performance.' Disposing of old units is a bit more complex than just tossing them in a town dump. Many state or local laws require that refrigerant first be drained by an EPA-certified technician, after which the AC can be recycled or carted off by local curbside pickup programs. Kalanki also recommends buying what are known as smart air conditioners, units that connect to WiFi and can monitor energy use and be controlled remotely via phone. Smart AC's make it possible to pre-cool your home, turning the unit on when you're away to lower the temperature before you return, allowing you to shut the AC off—or at least turn it down—during peak evening use when air conditioners are commonly operating at their maximum. That can make a big difference to the larger world as air conditioners currently account for 40% to 60% of peak demand on the grid in the summer. Keeping your electricity use low in those hours also saves money, as energy companies often charge more for power consumed in that window; curbing consumption at such times can also help avoid grid crashes or blackouts. 'A smartly designed unit,' says Kalanki, 'can sense and measure how much of an energy load is required to cool a space. You can really reduce energy consumption significantly.' Architects and designers of apartments and single family homes have a role to play too. Better insulation, for example, can not only keep out the cold in winter, but keep in the cool during summer. Shades and awnings to screen out the sun can help too, as can painting roofs white—instead of the common black tar seen in cities—which reflects away the heat and light that black roofs absorb. 'There are a host of these passive strategies that can be used when buildings are designed,' says Kalanki. Buying, renting, or renovating a home with a mind toward these efficiencies, as well as installing new, upgraded AC units and heat pumps can not only reduce your carbon load, but reduce your emotional load—bringing down some of the guilt that comes with gobbling too much power in the summer months when energy use spikes. A few other simple adaptations can help as well. Businesses like law firms and banks can relax their suit and tie rules during the summer, says Walravens, lightening the load on office air conditioners that have to make the environment cool enough for people wearing dark layers in triple-digit temperatures. Adjusting our own internal thermostats can help too. As of 2022, 88% of American homes had air conditioning, compared to fewer than 10% of European homes, according to MIT Technology Review. And we drive our units hard. One TIME analysis from 2022 found that U.S. residences are kept at around 74° F even when no one is home, and 70° F when the family returns. 'We have to change our mindset a little,' says Walravens. 'The reality is we can survive and be productive at higher temperatures. That may at first seem a little bit daunting, but it's going to use a lot less energy and cause a lot less guilt.' Of course, you didn't cause the climate crisis all by yourself and you can't remotely fix it alone either. The best you can do is play your small part and let go of the sense that you're to blame. 'We as individuals can be change agents,' says Michaela Barnett, a civil engineer and the owner of KnoxFill, a bulk sales business that seeks to limit the use of single-use containers. 'We can reconceptualize the way that we think about our individual actions for change and the way we're living in line with our values. But we should also give ourselves grace and patience, not bearing all of the weight either, because that's not productive.'
Business Times
24-06-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Malaysia's Khazanah picks Singapore, Taiwan VC firms to help fire up next wave of startups
[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional has selected Singapore-based Granite Asia and Taiwan's AppWorks as the first of five venture capital (VC) firms under two strategic programmes to transform Malaysia into a regional venture capital hub. The announcement, made on Tuesday (Jun 24) by Khazanah and its wholly owned subsidiary Jelawang Capital, marks the first rollout of its Emerging Fund Managers' Programme (EMP) and the Regional Fund Managers' Initiative (RMI), which were launched last October. The five selected fund managers under EMP and RMI are expected to deploy over RM200 million (S$60.5 million), a significant portion of which will be channelled into Malaysia-Nexus companies, supporting around 50 early-stage firms, said Khazanah managing director Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir. 'Our hope is that these five managers will nurture the next wave of Malaysian startups, and that over time, these startups and those who fund them will become mentors, backers and anchors for the next generation,' he said at a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur. He added that the initiatives are part of Khazanah's broader goal to act as both 'catalyst and connector' through its Dana Impak impact-investment platform and Jelawang Capital. Khazanah, Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, managed US$36 billion in assets as at the end of 2024. Last October, it launched Jelawang Capital, a national fund-of-funds, designed to accelerate the growth of Malaysia's venture-capital sector through investments and partnerships with fund managers. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up Granite Asia and AppWorks As RMI partners, Granite Asia and AppWorks will seek to draw foreign fund managers to Malaysia's startups, with the aim of building regional and global entities. It is hoped that this will encourage global companies to re-domicile in Malaysia, create jobs and attract top talents to its ecosystem. Granite Asia, formerly known as GGV Capital Asia, is a leading multi-stage investor focused on transformative opportunities across Asia; it has a track record of building over 115 unicorns and was behind 61 initial public offerings globally. The firm will back transformative startups in Malaysia through its early-stage fund, focusing on sectors such as consumer tech, enterprise software, healthcare and advanced manufacturing. In partnership with Khazanah and Jelawang Capital, Granite Asia will also offer local entrepreneurs access to its founder network and strategic programmes to help Malaysian startups to scale beyond the local market into the region and globally. AppWorks, a Taiwan-based early-stage VC, stands out for combining equity-free accelerator programmes with founder-centric capital deployment. It plans to roll out Malaysia-focused Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 startup cohorts, backed by local experts and its regional founder network. AppWorks' investment mandate includes artificial intelligence, blockchain and digital-economy startups across South-east Asia, with a track record of top-quartile returns. Local VC firms take centre stage Out of the first five VC firms, three Malaysian firms – Vynn Capital, Kairous Capital and First Move – were selected under the EMP. EMP is structured to support Malaysian fund managers in raising their first, second, or third fund with the goal of creating regionally competitive VC fund managers by strengthening fund governance, building track records and crowding-in capital. Kuala Lumpur-based Vynn Capital focuses on mobility and supply-chain startups from seed to Series A funding exercises across South-east Asia. Kairous Capital, which specialises in cross-border expansion, homes in on Malaysian tech startups looking to penetrate high-growth markets in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. The firm also channels know-how from China to Malaysian ventures. First Move, is a founder-led firm backing pre-seed startups, often acting as the first institutional investor. It focuses on co-building startups with experienced operators and second-time founders. Building a regional VC powerhouse Malaysia's Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan, who also attended Tuesday's event to launch EMP and RMI, said one of the most important lessons from global innovation hubs is that thriving ecosystems do not come about by chance; they are intentionally cultivated. 'In Malaysia, we are laying the foundations for such an ecosystem, driven not just by capital, but by conviction. 'And we are beginning to see results. This month, Kuala Lumpur entered the Top 20 Emerging Startup Ecosystems globally – a first for Malaysia, and a testament to the power of coordinated ambition.' Jelawang Capital chairman Hisham Hamdan expects that, with the collaboration of this group of high-calibre fund managers, the country will be able to attract more capital, talent, expertise and capabilities into Malaysia's ecosystem. The EMP and RMI initiatives form a key pillar of the Malaysian Venture Capital Roadmap 2024-2030, which aims to make the country a preferred regional hub by the end of the decade. The programmes also support the Malaysian government's goal of unlocking RM1 billion in investments to fund high-growth entrepreneurs and attract institutional capital to early-stage companies.
The Sun
24-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Govt introduces new tax incentives to strengthen venture capital, private equity sectors
KUALA LUMPUR: The government has introduced new tax incentives to strengthen the venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) sectors in the country, said Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan. He said the new incentive offers a concessionary tax rate of 5% for up to 10 years for investment funds that invest at least 20% of their capital in local startups. In addition, VC and PE management companies registered with the Securities Commission Malaysia will benefit from a 10% tax rate. The incentives also apply to onshore limited liability partnership structures. 'Capital alone is not enough. For innovation to flourish, policy reform must walk hand in hand with investment,' he said in his speech at the announcement of the appointment of Fund Managers under Jelawang Capital's Emerging Fund Managers' Programme (EMP) and Regional Fund Managers' Initiative (RMI) today. Previously, Malaysia offered tax exemptions rather than concessionary rates. VC firms investing at least 70% of their funds in early-stage startups could apply for a 100% tax exemption on statutory income for five years, and could apply to extend it. Management companies also enjoyed exemptions, but only on income from VC management fees, and were subject to strict qualifying conditions and definitions. To complement these changes, Amir Hamzah said, Bank Negara Malaysia is enhancing the Foreign Exchange Policy (FEP) framework. 'VC and PE firms may now apply based on their fund mandate size, rather than on a transactional basis, for cross-border fundraising and investments exceeding standard FEP limits.' He said this streamlines VC and PE operations to enable capital to move more efficiently across Malaysia's borders and boosting regional competitiveness. 'These reforms mark meaningful progress in positioning Malaysia as a globally competitive hub for venture and private capital,' he added. Khazanah Nasional Bhd and its subsidiary Jelawang Capital have selected the first five VC firms under the EMP and the RMI. 'Together, these five managers are expected to deploy over RM200 million. A significant portion of this will be channeled into Malaysia-Nexus companies, supporting around 50 early-stage firms,' said Khazanah managing director Datuk Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir. Out of the first five fund managers appointed, three firms were selected under the EMP. The programme is structured to support Malaysian fund managers in raising their first, second, or third fund, with the aim of developing regionally competitive venture capital firms by improving governance, building investment track records and attracting capital. The first of the three is Vynn Capital, a home-grown venture capital firm focused on specific sectors. It was established in response to Malaysia's role within the regional innovation landscape. Vynn Capital will focus on the mobility and supply chain sectors, investing across seed to Series A stages, with a regional focus on Southeast Asia. The second firm, Kairous Capital, is a venture capital firm with roots in private equity. It invests in technology companies and is positioned as a cross-border specialist, supporting Malaysian startups in expanding into key Southeast Asian markets such as Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. Kairous also facilitates regional growth through the transfer of innovation and know-how from more advanced technology markets like China. The third is First Move, a venture capital firm that invests in pre-seed stage startups across Southeast Asia. The firm partners with second-time founders and domain experts, not just as early investors, but also as co-builders, to help turn ideas into scalable businesses. First Move often serves as the first institutional investor. In addition to these three EMP recipients, two regional firms were selected under the RMI, which is designed to attract regional and global fund managers who are committed to enriching Malaysia's startup ecosystem. This includes supporting the growth of Malaysian startups into regional and global players, facilitating the redomiciliation of global companies in Malaysia, expanding local job opportunities, and attracting high-quality talent. The first RMI partner is AppWorks, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Taiwan. AppWorks combines an equity-free accelerator with founder-first capital to help scale tech startups across Greater Southeast Asia. The firm has a performance track record, with top-quartile distributions to paid-in capital. AppWorks' investment focus includes artificial intelligence, blockchain and the digital economy. It plans to launch Malaysia-focused cohorts for Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, supported by in-market experts, capital, and a regional network of founders to help accelerate the growth of Malaysian startups. The second RMI partner is Granite Asia, a multistage investor with a record of building over 115 unicorns and achieving 61 initial public offerings globally. Through its early-stage fund, Granite Asia will invest in startups in sectors such as consumer tech, enterprise software, healthcare, advanced manufacturing and automation. The firm will collaborate with Khazanah and Jelawang Capital to give Malaysian founders access to ecosystem programmes, strategic guidance and Granite Asia's extensive network of top founders and industry players.
