Photo courtesy of Liz Voeller

My friend and Northwestern University classmate Liz Voeller is doing some really interesting research in Lijiang (southwestern China) to examine the impact of tourism on the Naxi people’s ancient water supply system, and how this relates to China’s development as a whole. It’s a fascinating look at the balance between culture and technology and its impact on the natural environment.

You have to check out Liz’s blog, Cultural Impacts on Infrastructure, to learn more. She says:

I want to know:

A. How did the Naxi DESIGN and USE their ancient supply system so that it successfully provided them with clean water for centuries?

B. How can these factors be REPRODUCED in new water supply projects–so that these new systems can better MEET the Naxi community’s needs?

Liz, who studies environmental engineering and cultural anthropology, struggles with some language barriers, which limits the depth of her ethnographic and scientific research, but she definitely has some great ideas and insightful questions. Her blog is  worth checking out if you’re interested in the cross-sections of modernization, environmentalism, tourism, natural resource management, and community development in China.

Steve Koon

Last March I connected with a global team from Kaospilot, a group of mostly Danish students from the international school of new business design and social innovation.

One of the projects they were developing during a three month stint in Shanghai focused on social innovation. I was sniffing their trail, tracking down the same social entrepreneurs to talk with about their work in China.  They saved me a lot of the brunt work by passing along their virtual Rolodex a.k.a. putting me in touch with some of the best and brightest social innovators they had come across in Shanghai.  Steve Koon was one of them.

Photo courtesy of Carla Fernandez

Steve, originally from Hong Kong, spent years working in the investment field before reorienting his career towards social responsibility.  While taking a class on social entrepreneurship at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Public Policy, Steve and some classmates were inspired to adapt the curriculum for classrooms in the developing world.  Hence AvanteChange was born. The organization puts students from the Philippines and Thailand in charge of engaging government officials and professionals to create socially responsible for-profits.  Steve invited me to sit in on the course he was teaching at Shanghai’s Fudan University which is, as far as he knows, the first formal class on mission-oriented business in Mainland China.

So one Sunday in May,  I headed out to Fudan to meet Steve, to learn more about his perspective on social enterprise in China and to sit in on the discussion with students as they fleshed out their own socially responsible business plans.

Twenty five undergraduate and graduate students trickled in to the lecture hall, taking a seat for the voluntary course that meets every other Sunday.  I later learned that participants were from many different academic departments, having heard the buzz of Steve’s course through friends and student groups on campus.  Steve entered with his wife and partner Sammi, and jumped right into things.

Steve began his lecture with an explanation of what a social enterprise exactly is,  offering a clear definition of a new concept to first-comers.  He differentiated  between a not-for-profit that depends on donations to operate and a social enterprise that has market-based mechanisms for generating a profit while being committed to a social mission.  After updating each other on the major donations made by CSR programs for relief efforts after the Sichuan earthquake and aftershocks (along with the political undertones of who gave how much and why), the students broke up into teams to resume conversations about their own schemes to start a social enterprise.

I jumped around, listening to and participating in some of the days discussions. Here are a few of the projects his students were developing:

• A dating service that organizes volunteer opportunities for singles,  covering costs of operation by charging an annual fee for subscribers of the service.   Not only would this help younger Shanghainese students meet a special someone, but it would provide volunteer coordination services and helping hands to needy NGOs in the city.

• A service that would help elderly people rent out their homes and relocate to an assisted living community, offering an additional source of income that could support their transition.

• A job placement Web site for not-for-profits, accessed by students who have recently graduated and are unsure about their career paths (or for those students who are sure they don’t want to enter the corporate world, but don’t know what their next step should be.)

When the class reconvened, student delegates from each team explained the progress that was made during the session and described their plan for the upcoming two weeks.  Steve listened carefully to the presentations, interjecting with bits of advice and reality checks that students quickly jotted down, taking to heart.  Steve started making connections between the different brain-children, joking about ways they could collaborate, encouraging each other to offer feedback and remarks.

The class ended with each group ready to move to the next phase, which included drafting a formal business plan.  Steve let his students know that he was recruiting for his own social enterprise, Ebay for Kids, and a group of open ears gathered around the chalkboard after class to hear their professor’s offer, all eager to learn from and work alongside Steve.

Steve is determined to see one of these ideas develop into a real-life case of social enterprise,  so that future semesters can have a go-to example of how effective students can be.  “My plan is to really focus on one of these projects, and see it happen, so that students have a success story to look up to. I hope to expand the class to over a hundred students, from different universities next fall.”

In the meantime, his Fudan students already see Steve as a role model.  While still hesitant to dive head first into an innately risky socially responsible start-up, they are inspired by the idea of improving their nation without having to sacrifice financial stability.  They see Steve and Sammi as a team to look up to.  One of his students that I chatted with on the way out confessed to me that his “parents would probably never let me take a job that wasn’t secure or traditional.  But Steve’s ideas ares so exciting, and can make so much money, that it is hard to turn down.”  Steve is not only planting the idea of social entrepreneurship in young, bright minds, but is offering the logistical support to make these ideas happen, a combination that will certainly be making waves in the near future.

To contact Steve, e-mail him at skoon[at]mac.com.

Have you noticed this little button in my sidebar?: 

It means ResponsibleChina.com is now being hosted through DreamHost, a “carbon-neutral” Web host.

When we learned that running DreamHost generated as much carbon dioxide as 545 average-size homes we realized we had to do something to neutralize our emissions.

With a bit of research we found the most effective approach begins with resource conservation: turning off the lights, reducing travel, printing on both sides of the page. Efforts are being ramped up here daily to do what we do with less. The next step is to use clean, renewable energy. Without the option to put up solar panels or connect with a green power utility for us this means purchasing Renewable Energy Credits. Finally, to neutralize those unavoidable emissions we’ve invested in Emission Reduction Credits (a.k.a. “offsets”) which guarantee our remaining impact is effectively erased. A third-party-certification? Never fear. The credits we use to green our energy consumption and neutralize the rest of our emissions meet the highest standards in the industry. Click to view our up-to-date Certificate of Carbon Neutralization.

We’ve mentioned them before (thanks, Mark) in our post about social entrepreneurship in Sichaun, but in case you didn’t hear the first time around, Wokai.org is raising loan capital for microfinance institutions in China.

A big thank you to co-founders Courtney McColgan and Casey Wilson for referring to ResponsibleChina in their recent blog post at Wokai Adventures.

A message from Courtney:

Wokai [is] a non-profit dedicated to alleviating poverty in China one loan at a time. Wokai achieves this goal through a user-driven microfinance website that connects contributors around the world with borrowers in China. Users choose borrowers to support, watch repayments, and pick who to fund next. Users also consume and share user-rated and user-generated content on China microfinance. Through information and capital exchange, Wokai aims to grow the microfinance sector in China and increase opportunities for the poor.For more information, check out our website at www.wokai.org.

Check out my recent post on WorldChanging.com about the NEST collective, co-founded by Jeff Delkin and Rachel Speth of bambu, a renewable bamboo kitchenware and utensils company based in Shanghai. Stay tuned for an upcoming ResponsibleChina podcast about bambu’s vision of “responsible manufacturing.”

Proudly Made in China: NEST collective
WorldChanging Team
May 27, 2008

A group of foreigners doing business in Shanghai recently hatched a new idea to bring “design with a conscience” to the China market. NEST, as the retail collective is called, aims to unite “intelligent design” with “responsible manufacturing” through collaboration among eight different brands selling sustainable products, including Wobabybasics organic baby clothes; AOO recyclable furniture; and Jooi Design home decor and fashion accessories. The project is sponsored by Hu & Hu, a Chinese antiques company, and Arabica Roasters, suppliers of organic, fair-trade coffee.

The aftermath of the earthquake will continue to cause suffering for millions of people, and the full scale of environmental damage remains to be seen, so I know this won’t be the last time I report about this terrible disaster.

But while help is on the way and China maintains the recovery process, I thought I’d highlight some coverage by fellow bloggers and journalists, who have done their duty to spread awareness about relief efforts and other news:

China: Environmental Fallout After Sichuan Earthquake
By Kelly Proctor
Global Voices Online
May 26, 2008

A week after China’s deadly earthquake killed nearly 56,000 people, environmental and other costs of the 8.0 magnitude earthquake are becoming clearer. On this post we examine posts related to the environmental fallout of the earthquake, and also the plight of animals in the earthquake area.

Where is the China Earthquake Donation Money Going?
By Robert Vance
The China Teaching Web
May 29, 2008

“I don’t think that the donations are getting to the earthquake victims,” a friend of mine somberly told me recently. “A few of my friends came back from Mianyang recently,” he explained, “and they told me that the earthquake survivors were not being given enough food and water.” It was feared, he said, that the much of the money was being pocketed by local officials or being used to fund activities that were unrelated to the tragedy in Sichuan.

Citizens’ Groups Step Up In China - Wary Rulers Allow Role in Quake Aid
By Maureen Fan
The Washington Post
May 29, 2008

Grass-roots organizations and informal networks of private citizens are playing a vital role in getting supplies to rescue workers and survivors of this month’s devastating earthquake in China. The government, in a notable shift, appears content to let them do so.

Rebuilding Wenchuan -an opportunity?
May 29, 2008
China Crossroads

Although the disaster in Sichuan has affected so many, the flip side of this is that the rebuilding efforts could also affect so many. What an opportunity exists to rebuild sustainable, community-centred, successful communities. However, will this be the case? Though it is not a direct trade off, to build such communities is likely to take longer and be more expensive than the alternative options. But how do you tell IDP (internally displaced persons) that they need to live in a tent for longer, in order to have a ‘better community’ -if that can even be defined?

New Earthquake Situation Map
China Bystander
May 28, 2008

ReliefWeb has posted an updated situation map (pdf), a snapshot of which is below. This one concentrates on the barrier lakes, which threaten a “slurry tsunami” if they burst, and on dams at risk….

An estimated 700,000 people are threatened by the possible bursting of earthquake/landslide-caused lakes, according to the authorities.

Three R’s for surviving environmental change
By C Paskal
China Dialogue
May 12, 2008

No country is ready for natural disasters. In fact, some of the world’s richest nations are the worst prepared. C Paskal presents a guide to mitigating the huge human and security cost of our changing climate.

A round-up of responsible blogging about China, the environment, and CSR:

• “East China Province Gives Ultimatum to Polluters Before Olympics”
  All Roads Lead to China
  April 7, 2008
  “Xinhua has just released an article that I think everyone should pay attention to: East China province gives ultimatum to polluters before Olympics…”

• “China Loses Control of the Games”
  Spiegel Online International, via China Digital Times
  April 8, 2008
  “China had been hoping to show itself as a worldly and tolerant host of the Olympic Games. But the sporting festival has already become a PR disaster for the country. Repression in Tibet and ongoing crackdowns have revealed the extent to which the country remains a police state….”

• “China sacrifices rain forests in Yunnan Province to produce more rubber”
  Reuters, via China Environmental News Digest
  April 8, 2008
  “Rain forests have been reduced to patches of protected zones in Xishuangbanna, one of the top rubber-producing regions in China, as double-digit economic growth has caused increasing encroachment on China’s last remnants of uncultivated land…”

• “China’s New Labor Law Means Tenure For Everybody”
  Danwei, via China Law Blog
  April 7, 2008
  “The [new China labor] law was a government response to increasing public concern that employers were mistreating employees, especially in failing to pay proper wages….The law has several components, but the main effects are the requirement that employees have formal term contracts, and that employees can only be terminated with cause….”

And from a newcomer on my blogroll (thanks to a tip from the guys at the China Law Blog!):

• “China’s Media Coverage of Environmental Issues“
  China Environmental Law
  April 9, 2008
  “While the Chinese media tend to act in a reflexively defensive fashion to any external criticisms of China’s environmental situation (particularly Beijing air quality), its internal coverage of environmental issues is fairly candid…”

I know many of you have found the links on this site very useful, but I want to make sure the blogroll doesn’t get too cluttered.

You’ll notice that I’ve removed/added some stuff.

Hopefully this helps keep everything up-to-date and relevant.

Guy Kawasaki wrote me and some other fellow bloggers an email this weekend:

I am the CEO of a company called Nononina. We recently released a website that is a collection of “single-page aggregations” organized by topics such as Fashion, Celebrities, Sports, Gaming, Macintosh, Science, Green, and Autos. You can think of Alltop as a “digital magazine rack” for “all the top” stories.

Your feed is included here:

http://china.alltop.com/

Thanks, Guy!

A question from the PACE listserv:

“We see a lot of attention is on urban air pollution in China these days with Beijing Olympics around the corner. Do you know, officially or unofficially in the papers, roughly how much they are spending on air pollution control per year in China (in some of the cities like Beijing)? What are the major activities that they are funding? Has anyone done such an estimate?”

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For more info, go to the PACE Web site.