Responsible Roundup: Yao Ming the champ, costly clean air, a new library, sustainable Olympics, green dragon, and fancy footwear

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Responsible Roundups

By Erica Schlaikjer ⋅ August 23, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

A roundup of this week’s interesting and important stories, brought to you by ResponsibleChina.com.

YAO MING IS A CHAMPION IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.
Sure, he’s China’s most famous superstar athlete. But did you know he’s also the UN Environment Programme’s first-ever Environmental Champion? Found this scoop via China Crossroads. Maybe that cute little kid Yao walked with during the opening ceremonies will follow in his reduced-carbon footsteps one day, too.

BEIJING’S CLEAN AIR IS ANOTHER CITY’S NIGHTMARE.
Found via China Digital Times: “the massive cleanup effort for the Olympic Games has come at a cost to the local economy of some nearby industrial cities, whose factories have been forced to close down temporarily,” NPR reports. And Shanghaiist tells how the mega-event sucks for local businesses, too. Spectators, however, party on.

THE LIBRARY PROJECT IS GROWING.
Tom Stader, the nonprofit’s founder, wrote me a message on Facebook alerting me to the new library at Hou Wan Elementary School. This is just one example of a string of successes the educational organization has experienced over the past few months.

SUSTAINABILITY IS A MAJOR FORCE IN THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT.
China’s been calling for a “green Olympics” since it won the bid in 2001. But this ain’t a flash in the pan. Sustainability is here to stay. This week, All Roads Lead to China points you in the direction (via Earth2Tech) of some clean tech firms that are benefiting from this year’s Games.

“GREEN FUTURES” WROTE TO ME WITH A BLAST FROM THE PAST.
Lindsay Travis, business director for U.K.-based Green Futures, a “sustainable solutions magazine,” wants you to read a special publication about “Greening the Dragon,” published in September 2006. I encourage you to read it and see what’s changed since then.

OSPOP STEPS INTO THE NEW YORK TIMES.
Rob Walker, “Consumed” columnist for the New York Times, writs about Ospop, a China-based shoe company with a purpose. Ben Walters, the founder, told me he’s been really excited about some short documentary videos he produced that describe the people, the process, and the perks of his Tianlang canvas sneakers. You can also read about his oldie-but-newbie kicks here and here.