“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?

I wake up contemplating the concept of near and far. I am on one side of the planet, and I feel close to this place even with all of it’s foreign ways. Yet the my people on the other side of the planet also feel close. I am realizing the more we see and experience, the closer we are to understanding what separates us.

Thanks to my host, Mihela, the sustainability community is welcoming me with open arms. Already I am consumed with excitement and invigorated by this place. Mihela asks me what I think of her city, and I say with genuine excitement, “I LOVE IT!” She laughs and tells me to answer that question again next week.

There is a pulse to this city that I find irresistible. I am reminded of the Chinese characters I have tattooed on my hip, “Change is for the better.”

Little did my 19 year old self realize what that meant in China. As a friend would say at dinner, “I have lived in many cities around the world, and no city has kept me running like Shanghai.” But it’s not just busy…they are busy changing things, even if they aren’t always for the better.

The trees tell the story: They brought in trees to create a park like feeling at the World Expo. Large, fully mature trees were uprooted, transported, and replanted in the city. The result is the experience of living with fully grown mature trees, but they are covered in bandage-like material reminding you of the effort and energy put into making things look good on the surface. One one hand you say, “Genius!” On the hand, you question the quality of the foundation. I digress.

Today’s itinerary is packed with back to back interviews. My eyes blur just looking at my schedule, and I am curious to figure out how the heck I am going to get around with my whopping vocabulary of “Ni hao” (hello) and “Xièxiè (thank you).

First stop: Skype.
I am still trying to get a lay of the land regarding how to go about writing about the eco city phenomenon, so I video call (have I mentioned I LOVE Skype?) a trusted and respected colleague who has been doing environmental work in China. I’m going to allow him to be nameless, because there is an important point to be made between what he shared with me based on his experience of visiting and working in China, and what others who have been working and living in China had to say about some of his comments.

He gave me the quick crib notes and intro to the greening of China:

Fundamentally, the government is green. The primary goal is economic stability, and they see pollution as a destabilizing source, and so makes it a threat to their goal. They have created aggressive green targets. The great challenge, is implementation.

But one of the issues is that it is such a massive country, and a large portion of the pollution comes from the East, far away from Beijing. There is a saying, “The mountains are high, and Beijing is very far away.” Meaning there is an inherent challenge in enforcing laws when the distance is so great between the capital city and the provinces.

“If ministers in far counties break laws, they are publicly executed. When they find
factories that are breaking rules, they blow them up. The government is sending a message.

Now if I were on the radio, I’d play that back so we could listen to that last line again. I asked everyone I met with about that last statement, and here are the crib notes on their comments:

+The main issue is that the local politicians don’t know any better. The education level going west is lower and environmental solutions suffer from this.

+There are known accounts of factories being temporarily shut down when they are not in compliance with environmental laws. And there are stories about a factory that produced fireworks that blew up, but no one would tell me accounts on or off the record that supported the above statement.

+ Political leaders have been prosecuted for major issues that have made it into the media, the public milk contamination being a prime example.

+Many officials have been removed/ fired for their roles in covering up environmental issues and not complying with national policies.

Meanwhile, my skype call provided a few good resources and people to follow.

Evan Osnos wrote a series of pieces for the New Yorker.

The Green Leap Forward

China Green Beats

Hmmm…this was a long day, and this is also a long post, so I’ll let this dog lie for now…and write Day 4 Part 2, 3, and 4!