Going Green: Environmental Programmes Around China

Going Green: Environmental Programmes Around China
Jun 11, 2012 By Jessie Chien , eChinacities.com

Environmentalism has become a hot new issue in China, fuelled by an ever-rising population and the nation's increasing spotlight in world economic affairs. China has embraced the challenge, and its current, twelfth five-year plan (2011-2015) features enhancing environmentalism and improving clean energy, promoting environmental protection, low carbon emissions, and energy efficiency (among many other things).

Though the numbers of NGOs dealing with climate conservation and energy efficiency have skyrocketed, information for how to get involved is still kept within the boundaries of environmentalist communities. Even for an expat living in China, finding out how to become involved can be a little difficult.

Compared to many Western cities, where recycling and low-emission routines are becoming a way of life, our daily routines in China are far from a reflection of environmental concern. Communities abroad convene to save water, save energy, and recycle glass and plastics. In China, there is still a gap to bridge environmental ideals, current events, local grass root campaigns, and what goes on in our own homes.

Although there won't be a legal measure passed to collect my glass bottles from my apartment anytime soon, there are a few ways to get yourself involved while living in China.

1) Biking for the environment in Beijing
Beijing's bike ridership rate is about 19%, which ranks among the top of international cities such as Denmark, Germany and Amsterdam (where up to 30% of commuters regularly travel by bike). However, much of Beijing's bike riding is still out of necessity, rather than a yearning desire to go “green”. A growing wealthy community within the city and a new generation yearning to become westernized have created a disparity in cycling's image. When possible, a well-to-do Chinese would much prefer to ride in a car rather than on a bike, if only to save face. However, Beijing's cycling community is in fact growing, in the form of a purely recreational activity. Many weekends, the mountains outside of Beijing see an influx of cycling enthusiasts, but these weekenders don't dare navigate the streets of Beijing during the week.

The organisation Smarter Than Car (STC) is trying to break the disparity between weekend riding and weekday commuting, and dispel the negative reputation of biking on the streets of Beijing. The organisation holds regular recreational bike tours, and also connects environmental researchers and enthusiasts in message boards and through organising events. For example, STC hosts events to participate in midnight rides, listen to online lectures from different countries about biking to save resources, hosts charity events, and holds bike swap meets. They have also helped the establishment of Biking for Better Beijing, which focuses on cycling as a part of the future of sustainable development in China. STC also supported the first Beijing Bike Week, held in March earlier this year. Bike Week promoted various events throughout the city in the form of talks, screenings, gatherings and exhibitions.

2) Working with youth programmes in Shanghai
Originating in 1991 in Tanzania, world renowned Jane Goodall started the Roots and Shoots organisation to educate local youth organisations about environmentalism and humanitarianism. The organisation has since grown to a network of 100 countries, with the Shanghai Roots and Shoots offices part of a wider international network designed to motivate individuals to take environmental action via involvement in education and youth programmes.

Roots and Shoots remains predominately active in schools throughout the city, but has also designed various outreach programmes where adults can volunteer. These programmes include The Million Tree Project, in which individuals and organisations are first taught how to minimise their impact by lessening pollution, then promote a positive environmental impact by planting trees in desertified lands of Inner Mongolia.

The organisation also has a programme creating organic gardens in public spaces, where organic farming methods and benefits are brought to local schools. There is also a mentors project where businesses and individuals can support the development of environmental research and education first-hand by getting paired with youth from various school programmes throughout the city.

With the array of programming available through the organisation, volunteer opportunities are both abundant and varied. Visit the general volunteer page for more information.

3) No Impact Week in Guangzhou
Each year in April during Earth week, the American Consulate in Guangzhou devises a vigorous schedule of environmentally-focused programmes aimed at outreach and community involvement. The creation of the project was derived from the ‘No Impact Project', which aims to examine how each individual can lessen his or her daily carbon impact.

This year, activities for No Impact Week included two screenings of the film, No Impact Man. Representatives from various NGOs and organisations in Guangzhou such as Green Point, Bike Guangzhou, and the Guangzhou International Wetland and Construction Federation participated in a very lively discussion after the screenings about low impact lifestyles in their own lives. Earth Day and No Impact Week events focused on different themes each day, such as consumption, trash, transportation, energy, food and water, and challenged all participants to make efforts to improve their impact in the related issues.

Though many of the activities brought up through the consulate throughout No Impact Week were geared towards education for local Chinese communities, participation in lectures organised by the American Consulate Public Affairs Office were free and open to the public. Information for No Impact Week participation could be gathered at these lectures. For more information, visit the Events page of the American Consulate.

No Impact Week can also be organised in your own community. Resources and support for speakers, screenings, web pages and surveys can be provided. Visit the website for details.

4) Get involved from home with Greenpeace East Asia
Greenpeace East Asia is the branch of perhaps one of the most well known environmental agencies in the world. They too, offer volunteer opportunities, and cater to a world of activists who can make a difference with the simple click of a mouse. A list of current online campaigns is always available on the Greenpeace East Asia website, where online petitions are offered in the place of sit-ins and protests.

For example, pledge your support to stop Arctic oil drilling, or campaign for a nuclear-safe South Korea, or perhaps spread the word about how Lipton has been selling toxic tea in China. Each campaign page has its own in-depth news stories and videos to inform the cause, plenty of information supporting reasons to be concerned, and most importantly, how to take further action from the comforts of your own home.

Similarly, donations and online support to Greenpeace is equally appreciated by the organisation, and equally as easy. Greenpeace also urges us all to create our own campaigns for causes that we care about.

5) Find Volunteer Opportunities in Your City
Here are a few more websites where you can sign up for opportunities with an organisation that interests you, or to read more about local events in your area:

  • ISC: Institute for Sustainable Communities
  • NRDC: National Resources Defense Council
  • JUCCCE: Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy
  • Finally, check China Daily for Weekly Events such as the upcoming Shanghai Green Fuels and Vehicles Exhibition or the World CSP Asia Forum in Beijing (the solar power industry convention).

 

Related links
Green China – Real Steps Forward or ‘Prestige Environmentalism'?
Netizens Pick Top 10 Challenges Facing China in the Next Decade
Donate! Giving All That You Can Leave Behind

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Keywords: environmental programs China green organizations in China environmental protection measures saving the Chinese environment

2 Comments

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Chaching

David 1,
Well said. Consumerism and competitive markets are a driving force behind the incentive to pollute. However, I don't think that we can 1) blame something as arbitrary as consumer demand, and 2) changing consumer demand is more time consuming and not an economically a viable option. You're fighting against a ghost so-to-speak. I mean, are we going to start rationing what people can buy? I believe educating the public about what they consume is good. However, it needs to be coupled with tax incentives and enforced punishments for the manufacturers. This type of government regulation bolsters innovation. The only downfall is that there is a lag time between when the regulation is in place and the development of sustainable systems within manufacturing.

Here is a different but tangent example, a factory has a choice whether to hire 10 factory workers or develop a piece of machinery in-house that will do the job of 20 employees. However, the machine needs to be designed and developed. It may take several years for the R&D and cost the company some money in the beginning. But after 5 years, the net-present-value of the decision to use a machine is positive and the company will run at twice the capacity at half the cost. Here's the problem. CEO and CFO compensation and bonuses are linked to short-term earnings improvement. They are only concerned about the end-of-year earnings report. Shareholders want their money back asap. So the incentive to invest in long-term projects is risky to the company's perceived value and to the CEO's job. Are you following? If you are a true environmentalist, then you will vote for the politicians that propose tax incentives to companies who engage in R&D. You see there is a link between environmentalism and finance. It is not a new concept, we call it CSR. With the help of "game theory" we have statistically proven that CSR is profitable and benefits everyone in the long-run. I'm covering a lot of ground here, an entire semester of "business ethics" boiled down into one synopsis.

Back in school, I wrote an article about restructuring long-term corporate bonds in such a way that involved both a coupon rate and a built in incentive hurdle rate that would increase the returns to the investor. A kind of convertible bond. This has positives and negatives, but the hopeful outcome is that increases in long-term debt financing would result in more investment in R&D and long-term projects. Because usually we finance guys do not like to use short-term financing options for long-term projects. It's just plain stupid to payback a loan before your investment has time to generate income. You run into cash flow problems and what's the point in using financing then? It's like taking out a car loan, then using the loan money to payback the loan amount instead of buying the car.

The point is, let's attack the source of the problem. It doesn't have to be a "Greed vs. Environment" situation. Sometimes we tend to focus on the problem and not the solution. We want to blame someone or something, instead of just putting our heads together to come up with a viable solution. I believe there is an environmentally and economically viable way to produce these same products that we all consume. Sometimes, it takes time. Sometimes these environmentalists cause more problems than they realize. They convolute the rhetoric and get caught up in arbitrary details without thinking about the long-run themselves. Their added confusion distorts the reality and the message is lost. It is like screaming at a bomb defuser while their trying to defuse a bomb. They should keep fighting, but need to focus and concentrate their efforts where it is most effective. I am in total favor of it, where there's a will there's a way. We have proven that win-win situations do exist. It is through cooperation. We're changing our course gradually in the right direction. I just hate that politics has to play such a major role.

Jun 12, 2012 18:53 Report Abuse

Chaching

Good. I don't want to bash any efforts to clean up this Sh*t hole. However, enforceability of the laws I believe is the main issue. Corruption needs to be addressed first, then maybe the people in power will stop turning a blind eye towards the majority of offenders. You know this issue runs very deep and has roots in so many other aspects of China that I really don't see things changing anytime soon. Some examples: Corruption (never is going to change without a revolution), people's apathy towards it (will take years of education but will be ineffective coming from a corrupt government), population (obvious), money (as soon as government leaders see "going green" as profitable, maybe).

Jun 11, 2012 15:57 Report Abuse