First stop after 20 hours of travel: The Geeks on a Plane Rethink Shanghai dinner.

Many thanks to Kris Krug who used a flash (unlike me). You can see more of his amazing photos of the GOAP tour and more at: www.kriskrug.com and www.staticphotography.com

Turns out Christine Lu had arranged for Dr. Zhao Gang (the director of Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development and Ministry of Science and Technology) to speak with us, so within moments of arriving I was listening to his vision of a low carbon economy in China.

So I figured, what the heck, might as well bust out the flip cam and see what I can learn. Dr. Zhao was kind enough to take a few moments out and discuss the importance of planting trees to address desertification from drought, the initiative to put 1,000 electric cars into 10 cities, and more.

Stay tuned for a much longer (and coherent) article on Dr. Zhao Gang.

Many thanks to Jing Zhou for translating. If you are dying to see a bit of our conversation, see below. But I warn you, if you care about production quality, spare yourself the torture (it was very dark) and consider yourself warned (aka I don’t want to hear any complaints).

So the idea started out simple enough. I was going to coordinate the sustainability segment into the Rethink Shanghai section of the Geeks on a Plane Conference. But my brother decided to graduate from college on the same day of the event and it was looking rather complicated until Christine Lu made the obvious suggestion, why not make it virtual?  And all of a sudden, what started out as a morning session turned into the 10 day Sustainable China Virtual Tour! For the next week and a half I’ll take you on an adventure through Shanghai’s sustainability scene.

First stop: Starbucks. No need to reread that line. You read it right.

That’s where I met Richard Brubaker. According to his blog, All Roads Lead to China.  But for me, when developing my road map of who’s who in the sustainability scene in Shanghai, all roads led to Richard Brubaker.

We spoke about a ridiculous range of topics, including corporate responsibility, the recent Foxconn suicides, the sustainability scene in Shanghai, a range of challenges and solutions re: energy China, and the quickly developing world of NGO’s in China.

I couldn’t write a book on Richard, so I opted to start out with a post on the sustainability guru (did I mention he is also a professor of sustainability?) who can’t sit still long enough between do-gooder projects Richard Brubaker on What Gives’ site where we focus on developing the first volunteer organization in Shanghai, HandsOn China.

“It doesn’t matter what the rest of the world does regarding the environment if China doesn’t go green.”

That’s the line that sent me reeling during a recent call with a specialist in the green sector in China. Hence the creation of  The Sustainable China Virtual Tour; an online event and sustainability track of the Rethink Shanghai Conference. The virtual tour will take place via blogs, twitter, and video interviews with China’s leaders and innovators in China’s green sector, and will explore the opportunity for innovation within the largest nations on the planet.

We will meet innovators in green tech, student leaders, and urban planners. We’ll explore the race, failures, and successes of eco cities. We will visit the first and only eco retreat in China, and go inside the classroom and experience first hand new educational programs that are preparing future generations for a changing world environment. We’ll explore opportunities for collaboration and explore the opportunity to get involved with the green tech sector. We will hear first hand accounts about China’s philosophies and actions on the environment along with their influence on the global green movement. So stay tuned, and by all means, if you have questions about things you want to see highlighted or explored, or have insights about China and sustainability~ you know what to do (leave a comment)!

Many thanks to WhatGives.com for their generous support of this initiative!