Cleaner Greener China

If I had to sit down and think about the one thing that angers me more than anything else, I think I would have to say it is when people who willingly put themselves in a position of social responsibility abuse that power.

It is not strictly a CSR issue. or a China issue. It is an issue that one can take to a much higher level.

However, as I am in china, I have to point out a few recent cases that are really burning me.

1) Wang Panpu, the former secretary-general and legal representative of the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association (CECPA), as pointed out by Charlie at CELB has been caught taking bribes and diverting funds. Without much to go on, one can only guess as to what he did, but I am guessing that like the former SFDA, it involves turning a blind eye to the crimes he was mandated to investigate and act on

2) Green China (h/t China CSR) is apparently looking to mimic Baidu by taking hush money. A media publication on environmental issues in China, it appears that even it was not above taking 10,000RMB from a coal mine where an accident had occurred.

Why is it important to highlight these issues and then excise them like a Stage 1 cancer?

Simple, for there to be real progress on an institutional level where all the parties (NGO, citizens, corporate, agency, and regulations) can work together there must be trust and credibility. the steps that are bring taken now are some of the most difficult that require a lot of coalitions to be built, and those that are corrupt cannot be rewarded for their efforts to cover up issues that are in need of repair.

When the Wuxi algae blooms broke out in the summer of 2007, I was meeting with an agency that had been working hard to address the very issues that were at the root cause of Wuxi, and they were visibly angry. Their efforts to build consensus, to move forward, and to build a process had essentially been undermined by a few. They understood the gravity of the issues, and the hurdles, and for them it was a huge setback.

I only hope that the two cases above do not provide an excuse to take steps back, but provide a catalyst to remove the dry rot in the core and move forward. short term, it may be easier to sweep issues under the rug, but as we are seeing in the US right now… the issue will only get larger, and the solutions more difficult.

Uncategorized

In what seems to be another one of those “Damn I thought we were making progress” articles, it appears that the lure of a recent coal reserve discovery has entranced the writers at the China Daily in their article Coal is the Goal.

A resource that China has a really hard time over the last 2 years managing logistically, I must admit that the recent find will help to alleviate the short term energy crunch that China faces.

However, that doesn’t mean I would not enjoy a nice piece on how buildings can be designed at a super high efficiency that would actually reduce the need for coal fired energy in the first place!

Uncategorized Energy

Perhaps one of the most exciting things about living in China is seeing the speed by which it is willing to leapfrog old technologies and invest in new.

and, if true, the article China prepares $29 billion for green car projects, is just another example of how fast leaders in China are willing to react while others do not.

No means a silver bullet in itself, the plan calls for:

Initially the money will be used to subsidize development, promotion and maintenance of new energy vehicles in public transportation, public services & facilities and postal services, and then it will be expanded into private car sector, said Wang Baoan, Director of General office of the Ministry of Finance.

The country has already decided to put 60,000 domestically made new-energy vehicles on trial run in 11 cities in the next few years, as reported by medias.

Wang said the ministry also plans to offer preferential tax policies for automakers who develop fuel efficient cars and consumers who buy low-carbon green cars will get more subsidy than those who choose less efficient cars.

Perhaps the US government and Big 3 automakers will take this as a sign.  A sign that if regualtions are not improved, incentives not given, and support not provided, it will be someone else holding the keys to the future of the automotive industry.

More over at the Shanghai Daily

Uncategorized

A recent article at the People’s Daily reports that desertification causes yearly loss of 54 billion yuan in China.

Realistically, given the various unmeasurable costs this number is vastly under reported, and where I would like to direct your attention is to the passage:

China’s desertified land accounts for 18.1% of the country’s total land area.

The nationwide area of water and soil erosion covers 3.56 million square kilometers, while desertified land amounts to 1.74 million square kilometers.

Over 90% of natural grassland has been degraded. Meanwhile, dried-up lakes, an increasing amount of airborne dust and frequent sandstorms caused by desertification have severely affected the health and quality of life of people in northern regions such as Beijing and Tianjin.

For anyone who follows climate change, and the impact of human beings, it does not require a lot more information to understand the size of the problem that is being faced in China’s Northern territory.

With tipping point perhaps being passed for some areas, what is scary is that the Gobi is only a few hundred km from the capital city, and that while replanting efforts are underway, there are a lot of experts who question whether or not the effort may be too late already.

going forward, many who look to understand the issues of sustinability, are going to quickly nee dto get past clean energy and clean cars and quickly focus on land, water, and people management.

These are the issues that China will face going forward, and without strategies that will effectively manage these three resources, water and food contaminations/ scarcities will prove to be a game changing challenge.

Scary stats and analysis aside, there are successful models in China and in other areas of the world that suggest things can be turned around, and I for one hope that the lessons of the World Bank Loess Plateau project can be scaled out.

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h/t to Go Kunming for introducing us to this recipe!

Ingredients
100g of rubing*
1 medium sized floret of broccoli
1 large tomato
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tsp salt
Oil for frying

See the full preparatoin at the Go Kunming site

Uncategorized

With dozens of cities in China urbanizing all at the same time, and at a pace matched at no time by anyone else, making sure cities are planned and built properly is a must.

Uncategorized building materials, Buildings, design, Transportation

For a firm looking to “green” itself, the traditional model has been the costs of brown vs. the costs of green. A simply apples to apples comparison that many used to determine whether the time and money should be invested to develop a product (portfolio or products) that were more environmentally friendly.

In areas like the automotive industry or construction though, the main impetus came from regulators who would mandate the standards.  Firms who exceeded the standard by going LEED or developing a hybrid were of course forced back into the old equation of brown vs. green as going the next step was not required.

But, as we are seeing in many areas around the world, consumers are starting to push firms into taking steps that are neither mandated by a law, or are the most cost effective… and they can do this because money talks.

In essence, consumers have become the new force for change, as Brita, Starbucks, Dell, and others have learned the hard way.  We are now witnessing where the big 3 auto firms in America are at risk of failing as a result of the past product decisions…

Where this is important for those operating in China, is simply that consumers in China are showing just how active they will become when a shared concern meets the right medium.

Starbucks in the Forbidden city. Dell Laptops with Flaws.  Underpaid workers at McDonald’s.

More importantly though, by taking a step back and looking at the recent Kappa Girl story, by looking at the recent taxi strikes, and by seeing the response of average citizens last year during the Shanxi labor crisis, we were are able to see just how fast things can get out of hand in cyberspace.  how fast, once activated, young internet users can spread a message, build support, and act.

Interestingly enough, if you were to poll this group, you would more than likely find they are very similar to the target audience of many brands.  Young, lot of time on their hands, educated, and it is their young minds that marketers are trying to mold.

So, within this context, companies need to begin understanding that sustainability will no longer be an issue of finding the cheapest materials, or meeting a regulation, it will be meeting the expectations of consumers.

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http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=550&ArticleID=5978&l=en

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Attending 2 cleantech conferences in a week will provide many opportunities to learn,

There was a lot to take in, a lot of people to meet, and a lot of issues to face… and work through.

Not a specialist in clean technologies, my interest in attending these events was to see the latest and greatest in solutions.  Like many, I have been following the markets and announcement surrounding solar, wind, and electronic cars… but my interests in urban planning , transportation, and water have been my driving force lately.

In the land of clean tech, the primary concern by the vast majority of people involved in cleantech was still the profitability of a solution… that for a firm to bring a produt to market, it must raise 100s of millions of USD… and that no one is seemingly using the right cost basis by which to develop the apples to apples comparison.

Why I say this, is that while I listened to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and policy makers make their pitches, they never once mentioned the word “citizen”.  That in assessing the role of a technlogy, or describing the reason for going green, the catalyst was either from consumer pressure, regulatory pressure, or profit motive.

1. Ira Ehrenpreis ( Partner at Technology Partners), offered his 6 drivers for advancement of clean technology awareness and investment as government/ politics, consumers, diversity of cleantech sector, corporate seachange, human capital, and globalization
2. .. and when Duke energy was proudly announcing that as the 6th largest carbon emitter in the world, they were beginning to change their ways to meet the needs of their customers using energy (Wal-Mart)… they were not saying anything about the needs of the citizens who lived downwind from their coal-fired plants.
3. and when the CEO of Vista Solar and the head of China’s Renewable Energy Society were arguing over whether or not the cost of solar energy would be 1RMB/ KwH or 2RMB/ KwH… no one was asking what the health cost per KwH … surely more than the 1RMB/ KwH that they were squabling over.
4. and it was all confirment when I asked Mayor Newsom whether or not he was measuring his decisions to green SF and his expeinditures for health…. no he wasn’t.  He said that it was a good question, that it was needed, but he wasn’t doing it as it was still too early..

In essence, there was a gap in the system.  That while “Cleantech” and green technologies are about developing products, polices, and technologies to reduce the impact of industry, of consumers, of our buildings on the earth (and those that live on it), no one was actually driven by the impacts on the earth or humanity when developing their products, technologies, and policies.

That the primary driver was, and still is, a profit motive.

Uncategorized

In the Business Green coverage of Climate Change Capital’s plan to enter into China, the China MD Ka Keung Chan made the statement:

“There are a lot of cheap assets lying out there,” he told Reuters. “If you see the right company, this is the best time to negotiate.”

followed by founder James Cameron

“Out of necessity comes opportunity,” he said. “We now have a chance to rethink our relationship with money, to realise that it matters how we create wealth as well as how much of it we create.”

It is a statement I have heard over and over in China in my time here, but in the current environment I would have to agree. After all, for most of 2006 and 2007 as P/E ratios were reaching 30-40, many P/E firms were simply unable to compete with their offers for 12~15.

With the IPO market off, this is just added ammunition for fund managers.

The only question now is whether or not they will be able to find the deals… will they continue to get on the same bus as other fund managers and simply visit the same companies that have been visited by others?  Or will they break away from the pack and identify deals in places (with companies) that were previously not idenitified or considered by the other funds who thought China was ripe for the picking.

Greener Companies, Uncategorized cleantech, investment