“Mao had the schools teach to ‘concur nature.’ Now we are rebuilding.”

You have stumbled upon a series of posts called “Sustainable Shanghai.” This is part 2 of Day. Enjoy~

Next up Greennovate. I hop in the cab, and am happy to discover I can pull up the address on my iphone, show it to my taxi driver, and he is able to take me straight there. At one point he yells something at me and I smile and nod, unsure if he is frustrated by the directions, or is speaking louder since I don’t speak Chinese. Either way, right about now you might be thinking “sustainable shanghai my ass~ little missy just hopped in a cab.” And you would have every right to criticize. I would think more often than not that sustainability and rushing just don’t mix. And the reality of the moment is that I am late and taking taxis in Shanghai is dirt cheap.

Anyhoo~ I took the taxi (sigh) to Greennovate, where I entered the land of all things green. (And for extra inspiration and to regain a few karma points I’ll add this photo of a bad ass bike that was parked in their office.)

I wrote a profile about Greenovate for WhatGives (the sponsor for this trip) so you can check out more info there. Also, in this video you can take a tour of the office and meet the people that make it all happen:

The Greenovate team took some time out to discuss their initiatives (MIhela, founder, her sister, Ina Kukovic, Chris Pothaar, Fora Lan, and a few additional interns).

The idea behind Greennovate came from a simple want: to combine business and social potential to do something meaningful in China. This simple want evolved into a social business that is constantly pushing the barriers, integrating sustainable concepts into traditional business and community practices.

Their challenge: act like a business with the intentions of a non-profit (there is no non profit status in China). So they have developed a way to fund their educational initiatives with the sustainability consulting (since you can get the full scoop on what gives I’m not going to repeat myself), in essence, they break down complex ideas about sustainability and how people can make an impact and teach that in a 3 hour curriculum in the schools.

They explained that at this point, sustainability is still a concept. There are regulations, some factories are in compliance~ but the way they work with companies is helping them see what their company could look like in the future. In order to help a company, they look at one thing in the product line that the company can have an immediate impact on: then look at supply chain, and how communicate to consumers in the end.

They also gave me this fun fact 60% of young people are willing to pay more for greener products.

“It’s inspiring to us because we see it as necessary~ greening the supply chain. With the old model, where GM (for example) owns factories, than GM is responsible. But its harder when brands doesn’t own factories or have as much influence over the supplier. And its inspiring when you can inform the end consumer.

In addition, they launched a series of trainings with fair labor associations, educating about the environment and fair labor (companies such as Adidas have attended these trainings).
“To get factories interested, there needs to be incentive: pressure from companies about labor laws. Patagonia set standards re: transparency re: supply chain in China with the Footprint Chronicles”

The excitement was palpable when they started talking about Gecko, their environmental educational training program. By building trust between local educational protection bureaus they are teaching environmental education in schools across China. (And then having patience when the government creatws random new laws: such as no visitors allowed into schools during the World Expo.)

How is it received? I asked…

Flora, a 21 year old intern replied, “When I am done [teaching a workshop], people chase me and ask for signature. I feel like a pop star. Kids like it, and have an open mind to new ideas. Plus it is very experiential. Very different than traditional Chinese teachings. We make it personal, and talk about how they can make a difference, use stories, and get them to think.”

Greennovate found that one of the main challenges is that teachers don’t have the information and confidence to get involved with a field of information that they are unfamiliar with~ so then they created a teachers manual support the teachers so they would have additional content to share afterwards. They in the process of introducing an entirenly new way of viewing the government, given that Mao ordered the schools to teach the concepts “concur nature.” “Now we are rebuilding.” Mihela explains. “But the generation that is still in power, still has that value system in place.”

And it would seem that over time their message of a greener future is spreading: We started celebrating earth day: in our 1st year: 90% foreigners and10% Chinese were attendance: now in our 3rd year it is the opposite.

The main challenges they are facing is a quickly rising middle class: this upcoming generation will want to have things that identify them as wealthy, and so it is important for education system to understand how to start the communication and value systems now. The conundrum is that this rising middle class is now fully influenced by the Western consumerism~ how do you tell them that they can’t do what we have done? There aren’t enough hard core indicators that will speak to this rising generation about the ailment of over consumption…oh wait, there are, and China has already payed the price for our over consumption with their polluted air and water quality.

The challenges are complex and thick, but the opportunity to learn from another group’s past mistake is available. And cruel. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a rising 20 something and watch an old episode of Friends or Sex and the City and then be told I can’t do that (live that lifestyle) even though for the first time in history, I have enough income to consume luxury goods.

Meanwhile, enough of my thoughts, why not listen to a few youth speak for themselves? Below you will find a short interview with a few of Greennovate’s interns on the roof top discussing the one child policy and more.
Youth video

Well if you’ve made this far~ congrats and I won’t drag on any longer, if you would like to see part 1 of this day: Factories blowing up and public officials executed: Fact or Fiction?