Cleaner Greener China

During last week’s JUCCCE Conference, we were introduced to the new TV Series Red Hot Green China.

Greener People, Policies and Issues environment

In another sign of the media picking up on the eNGO story, the China Daily released an interview of Tsinghua University Professor Chang Miao.

With a background in environmental management and business, the Q&A higlighted some of the challendges that China faces going forward.  It is an interview that I suggest taking the 5 minutes to read as there are some interesting bits that add color to the overall picture.

Q: Although Green GDP has been regarded as an important index for local economy, it has in fact failed. What is the great difficulty when implementing the policy?

A: Green GDP is a good idea, which can reflect the local governments’ consideration of the environment and an assessment of their performance in environmental protection. The problems are, first, there are some different approaches in the research field for green GDP. Different research institutions have different statistics. No creditable or authority statistics exist. The research methods themselves still need to be studied. It is not mature in terms of research.

Second, revealing the information may put pressure on local governments, as it may reflect their efforts on environmental protection. The statistics are fairly sensitive.

It’s possible to change the pattern of the green GDP, for example, by the Quantitative Examination System on Comprehensive Renovation of Urban Environment, which is promoted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The system includes many indexes.

Greener People environment

For those of you who are following the cleantech scene, then you will know that this week is the week for cleantech conferences in China.

First came the JUCCCE conference (which we covered), and today kicked off the US China Clean Tech Summit in Shanghai.  Hosted by Bay Area council, Yangtze Council, and Asia Society this conference is drawing the majority of its population and presentation from the west coast of the United States and will have a much more VC/ investment focus.

Early on, I can already tell this conference will be different.  Some 400 people packed into the Hyatt conference room (cold enough to refrigerate meat in) at 8 am to hear the key notes from Shui On Chairman Vincent Lo and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

There is a tangible difference in the air between what I just experienced in Beijing, and what is here and over the next few hours, I will be posting my notes.

Biggest dicernabel difference.. a lot more investors in the crowd, a lot fewer government officials.  Feeling a bit lopsided, where as JUCCCE felt more balanced in terms of stakeholders.  Only time will tell, and perhaps having more of an investment crowd will leave the politics behind and flush out the real hurdles.

so stay tuned, and if you would like to follow along, you can download the agenda here.

Greener Companies, Greener People cleantech, events, investment

Wang Mengjie, Director of China Centre for Rural Energy Research and Training, in 2002 submitted the 4 page article Biogas Technology and Ecological Environment Development IN Rural Areas Of China (PDF Download Here) at the First International Conference on Ecological Sanitation

While not a technical paper, Wang gives some nice support for the use of biogas in China’s rural areas.

Included in this paper was one of the best illustrations of what a courtyard biogas system would look like (see above)

Greener People, Greener Tech biomass, cleantech, Energy

Steve Papermaster - Powershift Ventures - President Council of Advisers on Science and Technology

US Energy issues 2008/ 2009
- volatility in oil markets has highlighted the concept of “global markets”
- investment oil exploration and production resumed, but many projects have been delayed
- ethanol drove food prices up

Trends that are historically not predictable on the short term, have been.. expectations for 200 USD became common.

Demand drivers
- fundamental supply constraints / growing demand
- oil deman in 1960 20mm/ 2008 87mm/ day
- US imported 2008 11.3mbd

US peaked in 2005 from transportation efficiencies

Key drivers going forward:
- Demand growth (GDP/ population)
-Supply growth (resources, infrastructure)
- environmental constraints (local pollution/ climate Change)
- security of supply (import dependence/ competition)
- in the middle of all these is technology

2008/9 policy
- energy independence and security act
- 2009 federal energy policy
– 150 billion, 10yr proposal for energy technology
– 1 million PHEV cars by 2015
– accelerate smart grid
– cap and trade policy
– renewable energy plans
- clean coal and nuclear

Technology Developments
- biofuels
- PHEV plug-in hybrids
- Electricity production (nuke, smart grid, renewable energy)
- electricity generation
- next generation solar, wind, geothermal
- energy storage

Greener Companies, Greener NGOs, Greener People, Greener Products, Greener Tech, Policies and Issues

Just want to take a minute to let everyone know that the NRDC has put together a blog for China called GreenLaw (h/t China Environmental Law).

Greenlaw is a joint service of the Natural Resources Defense Council ( NRDC ) China Project and the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association ( CECPA ).

So far, their first couple weeks of reporting have been strong, I have added it to my RSS reader, and I suggest you do as well.

Greener People

Greener NGOs, Greener People Greener NGOs, water

While attending the Time Warner Principal Voices event last year, Wang Rongfeng of the development firm was on the panel discussing the importance of the Dongtan Eco-city project. What was interesting for many was the grandeur of the plans, and the fact that little had been done at that time. When I asked him what technologies they were using on the island that had been adapted for China’s second tier market, it was apparent that there was little learning going on.

6 months later, with Hands On becoming an official partner of the WWF Dongtan program, we began to learn that while the wetland project was going well… the eco-city was not.. and to hear that the program is now on hold is a bit of a shock given the fact that this was China’s model eco-city project.

Makes you wonder what will happen to the eco-city projects in Tianjin, Changsha, and elsewhere

Greener People, Greener Products urban planning

I just finished reading the 1997 re-release of Vance Packard’s book The Hidden Pursuaders,  a fascinating book about how through the addition of psychology and sociology, adverting firms were able to become more effective at placing products in the consumer minds.

One section focused on how children soaked up advertising, and through this process, the children could become a huge force in the way their parents spent their money..

So, when reading the recent Stanford Social Innovation Article Cultivating the Green Consumer, I once again found another excellent article on how we need to begin greening the consumer minds.

focused more on the US market, this article is equally adaptable to the Chinese market, and at its core the authors suggest that at the core of the problem there are 5 barriers in the way of consumers choosing “green” products over “brown”:

• Lack of Awareness
• Negative Perceptions - many environmentally friendly products suffer an image problem
• Distrust - Consumers doubt not only the quality of green products, but also their very greenness
• High Prices - The largest barrier
• Low Availability - They can’t find them

All of which I would agree with, however I think it would have been nice to have seen this study broken out a bit more as there are certainly parts of the US (and China) who are going to be more aware, more willing to pay the premium, and be able to find the products.

to break down the barriers, the authors suggest:

• Educate Consumers - Because consumers are largely unaware of green alternatives, businesses first need to think of themselves as educators, not salespeople.
• Build Better Products - companies must create ones that are equal to, or better than, conventional alternatives.
• Be Honest - companies must inform the public about their true environmental impact, as well as about their attempts to reduce that impact.
• Offer More - companies must make sure that consumers understand the returns—both financial and environmental—on their investment.
• Bring Products to the People - Companies cannot sell their products if consumers cannot find them.

Again, all good points, however I would say first and foremost that it is not necessarily as important to build something better than it is to make sure that consumers are aware of how their current consumption patterns and expectations are simply not sustainable…. and like Vance PAckard’s book suggests, we need to get them young by amping up the environmental science curriculms in primary schools.

Teaching children the basic laws of the environment, how they have an impact as individuals and as a collective, and then how they can talk to their parents are all cruical elements of this. Fortunately in China, we already have groups like Roots & Shoot and Gecko that are doing this, but the scale of their operations is far behind where we need it to be.

At the same time, public education campaigns need to be developed, funded, and executed.  A save the Yangtze dolphin day at the zoos in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, and HK should be organized to happen on a single day, water consumption and conservation events on Nanjing and Jianguomen roads, and energy conservation activities in the metro stations…. and so on.

Access to products, a given anywhere, will be particularly important in China, and with China currently in the middle of a food scandal that is rocking the system, I cannot think of a better time than now to get started with pushing organic foods and rooftop gardens.  Putting together a strong awareness campaign with the partnership of the government is essential, and doable!

As James Kunstler said during one of his TED presentations, “we need to stop being consumers, and start being citizens”, and through the steps that SSIR recommends (and a few of my own), I think China can turn the corner.  It is still very early on in China’s development, and we need to get them while they are young.

Greener People, Greener Products, Policies and Issues education

Van Jones, author of The Green Collar Economy , through this Poptech clip introduces us to a new way to think about how people view global warming. That rather than one definition for all, we need to look at how people (separated into 4 quadrants) view how global warming affects them.

For me, it hit a cord as I have watched Chinese people, corporations, and government officials act in a very different manner than those same people and entities in the United States… so, with that, I am interested to learn about how these quadrants would change for these people, companies, and officials

One of my favorite clips to date, I highly suggest readers take their laptop on their coffee break to watch it.

Greener People, Uncategorized education, global warming