Chinese youth rank health, education as most important life quality factors

Throughout November and December of last year, we collaborated with enovate to gather insights into the minds of China’s socially aware, progressive youth. This was the first nation-wide survey of youth attitudes towards environmental issues and awareness!

Through an online survey of over 400 students and young employees from around China, as well as in-depth interviews in Shanghai, Greennovate and enovate sought to discover what defines a modern quality of life for Chinese youth in 2010, as well as attitudes and perceptions towards green products and brands.

So what were the findings? Put in short, Chinese youth have indicated a desire for a healthier, more environmentally-conscious lifestyle, and have demanded that green brands prove their “greenism” through products – not just marketing!

Special thanks to the Shanghai youth-insights group enovate for all their help!

Click here to see the detailed results!

Greennovate will travel back to Guangzhou once again this month for the third installment of our partnership with FedEx. Our team will provide environmental empowerment sessions for employees, training them on sustainability challenges, and engaging volunteers in community outreach programs at local high schools.

On Friday, March 12^th, Greennovators will travel to Kunshan for a day of environmental education at the Double Tree Hotel, an international branch of Hilton that has partnered with several environmental groups on its path towards sustainability. Our presentation will be part of their community outreach program, “Teaching Kids to Care.”

Bill Gates' vision of "Innovate to Zero" may be difficult but necessary

Everyone knows who Bill Gates is, and just about everyone is aware of his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – the world’s largest charitable organization. The Gates Foundation is famous for, among many other things, taking on global challenges like vaccination shortages and extreme poverty. But recently, the Microsoft founder has been focusing his energy on a new project, something he calls “innovating to zero”: the pursuit of a world with zero carbon-dioxide emissions. I’ll admit that even an eternal optimist like myself was sceptical; reduced emissions, sure. Greatly reduced emissions, definitely possible. But zero emissions? The idea of Shanghai taxi drivers plugging in their electric Prius’ to a wind power station just seems a bit far-fetched. At his TED appearance in L.A. last month, however, Gates gave a lengthy speech outlining just how we might achieve the lofty zero-CO₂ goal. His formula (after the jump):

The amount of CO₂ in our atmosphere =

(People) X (Services per person) X (Energy per service) X (CO₂ per unit of energy)

Gates argues that one of these factors must be reduced to zero in order to create a zero-carbon world, and because, of course, we cannot reduce the population to zero (even the notoriously ruthless Gates won’t consider it), and since people will always require services (defined here as anything people do that uses energy), the only options are to eliminate energy used per service or CO₂ emitted. While we can increase energy efficiency greatly, we can’t quite bring usage down to zero, so the only real option is to reduce the amount of CO₂ we emit all the way down to zero. But how?

Gates is frank about the challenges ahead. “We need energy miracles,” he says, suggesting that there are five possible solutions. In addition to the familiar renewable energy sources, which he says are not yet productive or efficient enough to be a significant clean energy source, Gates mentions a system of carbon capture and storage, but notes the many logistical problems of this method.

His real passion project, it seems, is the fifth solution: a new type of clean, entirely safe nuclear technology called a “traveling wave reactor,” also referred to as TerraPower. This technology would use old nuclear waste, currently an environmental nuisance, as fuel, and would work so efficiently that the waste stored in just one small town in Kentucky, USA, could power the US for more than 200 years. It’s still in the planning stages, of course, but Gates seems hopeful that this energy technology could lead us to a zero-CO₂ future.

While he talks about the technology specifics a lot, Bill Gates’ main point (and the one I found most inspiring) is that we need to get our smartest, hardest working people involved in coming up with a zero-carbon solution. “We need 100 or more separate companies working on this,” he says, suggesting that a spirit of competitiveness could help us achieve his initial goal of an 80% reduction of emissions by 2050. Of course, making CO₂ the sole enemy isn’t going to get everyone on board, and there are many very difficult challenges ahead, but when the wealthiest, most successful businessman on earth says it’s possible, even the most cynical among us finds it hard not to believe him.

You can see his talk in full here.

- Michael Hurwitz

Bamboo rafts: a unique part of Yangshuo culture

After travelling to Yangshuo last year for the GECKO program, I’ve just visited for a second time on vacation. Like most visitors to Yangshuo, I was transfixed by the beauty of the stunning karst formations and quaint villages among the rice paddies, scattered between the hills. However, seeing the pace of development and its impacts on the town of Yangshuo itself, with high capacity hotel construction projects and crowded tourist shopping streets loaded with touts and factory merchandise, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of future is in store for Yangshuo. This gets cast into sharper focus when you consider that a high speed rail link to wealthy neighboring Guangdong province opens next year. Can the new revenues pouring in be channeled to benefit the people of the area while preserving the natural beauty and local culture that attracted visitors in the first place? While a definitive answer to this question just isn’t possible, especially after only two visits, I’ve had a chance to witness elements of ecotourism appearing in some of the villages nestled among the karsts surrounding Yangshuo. Through the efforts of local and foreign entrepreneurs who recognize that the value of the villages is in their distinct local character and pristine environment, a picture is starting to emerge of a different style of development that could be very good news for Yangshuo as a whole.

What is Ecotourism?

Before I take a look at a few examples of ecotourism in Yangshuo,  I need to define what I mean with this somewhat hazy term. The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) defines ecotourism as “Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.” Ecotourism looks to minimize its impact on its natural surroundings and maximize benefits to the community by building opportunities for the locals through employment and education. We’ve already had a chance to see what that looks like in Moganshan, near Shanghai, through our visits to naked Retreats and our cooperation with them on environmental education in the local schools there. Now I’d like to take a look at two resorts in Yangshuo that embody some of these characteristics: Riverside Retreat and Yangshuo Mountain Retreat.

Riverside Retreat

Shelly on a litter pick with her students

We first encountered Riverside Retreat when its founder, Shelly Che hosted our GECKO program in the local vocational high school where she educates students on the hospitality industry. After seeing Shelly in action, it didn’t take long before we started calling her “the future mayor of Yangshuo”. Shelly’s contribution to ecotourism is in using her exceptional abilities to organize people at the village level to awaken the people of her village to the opportunities that it represents for them and at the community level to introduce students to aspects of ecology and hospitality to which they would not otherwise be exposed. Key efforts so far have included environmental education and recycling programs in the high school and getting approval for a new tourism development training center in Yangshuo. Shelly recognizes that sustainable development of tourism will not just happen by itself, and is committing her efforts to building capacity to make it happen in her community.

Yangshuo Mountain Retreat

Village woman prepares food - Courtesy YMR

Founded ten years ago by American Chris Barclay, Yangshuo Mountain Retreat (YMR) was one of the pioneers for ecotourism in Yangshuo. Like Riverside, YMR is located in one of the small villages outside Yangshuo and gets its staff and food almost exclusively from the village. Chris has gone to great lengths to reduce the environmental impact of the retreat, starting with the elimination of disposables: flasks instead of plastic water bottles, reusable bags instead of plastic bags, etc. The result? According to Chris, these precautions save 2 tons of waste per year. YMR also reduces its greenhouse gas emissions through the use of solar water heaters and supplementing (with the goal of replacing) coal with waste-briquette fuel made from rice straw, newspaper and sawdust. Chris also looks out for the needs of the community by encouraging guests to spend a night in the local villages and share a meal with the farmers. As a result of this initiative, several Bed and Breakfasts have developed among the villages. More on YMR’s green efforts can be found here.

These two examples offer a glimpse of what sustainable tourism development in and around Yangshuo could look like. Although pressures will increase with the greater influx of tourists, there is a path for a kinder type of development. Through our connection with the Yangshuo community, Greennovate will be following these developments and we look forward to further involvement. Stay tuned.

Ecosia helps protect Brazil's beautiful Juruena National Park

How many square meters of rainforest have you saved in the past week? I’ve saved 121.6 m² – pretty cool, right? The best part is that all I had to do was search the internet using the new eco-friendly search engine, Ecosia.

Launched in Germany on December 7, 2009 (along with the start of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen), Ecosia donates 80% of its revenue to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – more specifically, to their project to protect Juruena National Park, a thriving tropical rainforest located in the heart of Brazil’s Amazon River basin. Ecosia claims so far to have saved just over 35 million square meters of rainforest, calculating that each and every search performed on their website saves about 2m².

According to these estimates, one user can save an average of 2,000 m² per year (if 1% of internet users joined in, that would equate to the size of Switzerland annually). Of course, this begs the question – how can we verify that every single search is directly contributing to protecting the rainforest?

Ecosia explains that it is actually the clicks on sponsored links that generate revenue – but by doing a calculation of the percentages of searches that land sponsored clicks and the amount of money it costs to save one hectare of rainforest (just €5 or 47RMB), the average still comes out to about 2m² per search.

Alright, so it’s not entirely fair to say that each and every search you make will directly save the rainforest, but what other search engines are you aware of that donate almost all of their proceeds to WWF? Besides, all of their servers are run on green, carbon-free energy sources. That’s enough for me.

So how do I know I’ve saved exactly 121.6m² so far? Visit www.ecosia.org to learn more or install the Firefox/IE add-on for fast, easy, green searching, and you’ll find out.

- Schuyler Olsson

AIESEC members in the Greennovate office

With the impending start of the summer semester at Chinese universities, Greennovate and AIESEC are planning a dramatic expansion of their sustainability education programs.

AIESEC is the world’s largest student-run organization. Active in over 1700 universities across more than 107 countries and territories, it is an international platform for youth leadership development. AIESECers strive to be agents of change and have a positive impact on society, with climate change and sustainability issues as significant parts of the organisation’s agenda.

As such, Greennovate’s GECKO project is a perfect match for AIESECers: On the one hand, Greennovate has been making an effort to integrate and train university students in order to expand GECKO; on the other, AIESEC members from around the world are looking for exciting international internships. China’s rapid growth has many students interested in experiencing the country first-hand. However, there are few opportunities and difficulties to interact with Chinese people in a suitable environment.

Participation in the GECKO program gives AIESECers who are considering coming to China a supportive and professional environment. Conversely, GECKO profits from a huge pool of bright university students who are passionate about sustainability. The natural fit between GECKO and AIESEC became apparent when the first AIESEC volunteers took part in Greennovate’s ‘Train the Trainer’ program in October last year. Since then, more AIESECers from Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Canada have worked as green ambassadors for GECKO.

What began as a fruitful collaboration has since evolved into a formal partnership.
With an AIESEC coordinator being deployed at the Greennovate office, the project is about to grow on a big scale. AIESEC members worldwide are now able to come to China for GECKO within theAIESEC internship framework. A greater influx of international volunteers will help enable GECKO to reach its goal of empowering 50,000 Chinese high school students in 2010. AIESEC chapters in universities all over China are expected to join in running the project.

- Thomas Bley

Shanghai Coolbike participants celebrate the end of a great ride!

This year sees Coolbike is furthering its creative appeal and partnerships with high-profile environmental groups in Shanghai, plus rolling out events to other major urban cities in China – next stop, Beijing!

GoodtoSH 01 Coolbike launched on December 5th, 2009, with a fun bike ride around Shanghai to encourage residents to use bikes as a regular transport option in their daily lives in order to stay healthy, reduce air pollution, and enjoy life. Tying in with the launch of the Copenhagen UN Climate Summit on December 7th, this cool bike event aimed to show that in Shanghai we care about these issues, too!

To see a short video of the first Shanghai event, click here.

The next Shanghai event will partner up with Shanghai EcoDesign Fair, with another city bike ride on April 18th at 2pm in downtown Shanghai. Mark your calendar, bring your bike and your friends, and show you care! For more info, please contact susanevanskelly@gmail.com.

See you all soon!

This is the second time GECKO will visit beautiful Mogan Mountain.

We’re excited to be gathering teams of Chinese university student volunteers to bring the GECKO program to schools in Moganshan, starting with a “Big Litter Pick” on March 8th! In collaboration with the eco-resort naked Retreats as part of their naked Green Initiative Month, we will be training 4 different teams of 4 student trainers to run cross-cultural environmental workshops with participating local schools (Moganshan and Paitou Middle Schools), as well as international schools in the Moganshan area. This second installment of our partnership with naked Retreats will run throughout March and April with the goal of reaching out to over 1,000 high school students.

Interested Chinese university students, please contact Winnie at gecko@greennovate.org!

Chris Pothaar presents to a diverse group of YCIS students in Shanghai

This Monday, our GECKO team got back in action with the first event of the new (Chinese) year! After Yew Chung International School’s younger students visited our green office early this month to learn about Greennovate and gain some insight on how to run their new riverside development projects, our team was invited to the international school to present GECKO to the older students. Stay tuned in March to learn about our events in Moganshan!