Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

The Beijinger Recognizes 51Sim’s Efforts

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

the_beijinger

As COP15 begins, The Beijinger recognizes 51Sim as confident that despite the challenges the conference will face and the skepticism it is met with it will be a success. The Beijinger distinguishes 51Sim’s efforts and applauds the informative and exciting Q&A between Maurice Strong and the students present at the 51SIM press conference. Let us hope that 51Sim’s press conference was just the beginning of a great two weeks. We wish 51Sim’s Daniel Foa, Chinese Award-winning actress Li Bingbing (SISC’s ambassador), Maurice Strong (former UN Under Secretary-General), the winners of SISC and AIESEC as well as CYCAN student organizations a succesful trip in Copenhagen and hope the conference promises a brighter future.

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One more step towards sustainability: The success of the Sustainable Innovation Student Competition (SISC)

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

Winning Teams, SISC Celebrity Ambassador Li Bingbing and Maurice Strong

Winning Teams, SISC Celebrity Ambassadors Li Bingbing and Maurice Strong

This Monday, Beijing-based 51Sim successfully held the “Final Round” and “Award Ceremony” for its first Sustainable Innovation Student Competition (SISC), where 36 Chinese university finalists participated. SISC is a competitive program designed to encourage students all over the world to develop imaginative proposals for sustainable solutions to alleviate climate change. It is open to university students throughout China, generating interest in over 280 cities in China, and 30 different countries. During the CGI Asia Meeting in Hong Kong in December 2008, where SISC was selected as a key “commitment to action” by the Clinton Global Initiative Asia, Former President Clinton said that these initiatives “will bring real, measurable change to millions of lives in Asia and across the world” (See the speech here).

The competition was divided into 3 categories: Green Transport, Energy Efficiency, and Renewable Energy, the winning teams being C-Fingerprint, Green E and Green 4U respectively. The 12 winning individuals received substantial awards including RMB 100,000 seed funding to implement their projects, and travel to “COP15” — the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2009. In our next delivery, you will be able to have knowledge of what each of the winning proposals consist of.

SISC Celebrity Ambassador, Li Bingbing accompanied by former Under Secretary General UN, Maurice Strong, presented the awards for the winning teams. The judging panel consisted of Ken Yeung -CEO of TOM Group Limited-, Gao Yunlong -Deputy Managing Director of Camco International-, Wu Zhimin -Director of Sales & Marketing of Giti-, Daniel Foa -51SIM Co-Founder-, and Yuan Jinhong -Climate Change Officer for the State Forestry Administration-.

Winners

Winners

“The SISC aims to foster teamwork, creative thinking and increase climate change awareness,” says 51Give Co-Founder Daniel Foa. “51Sim’s ambition is to encourage everyone in China to be environmentally aware, to make eco-friendly decisions and to help find innovative solutions for sustainable development.”

SISC is a 51Sim initiative in partnership with 51Give, the British Council– the United Kingdom’s international organization for cultural relations and education opportunities (operating in China as the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy), and Camco — a global leader in the business of climate change and sustainable development. All of them were present during the ceremony as well as the rest of our major supporters: Camco International, PingAn Group, and Martin Bloom -Chairman of the UK-China Venture Capital Joint Working Group-.

The British Council, recognizes that young people will be the most affected by climate change and that they care passionately about their future world. “Climate change is a global problem, which requires a global solution,” says Rebecca Nadin, “and we help young people to work together across the globe to develop ideas that can help tackle climate change and provide a platform for them to voice their opinions to decision makers.”

51Sim Co-Founder Hiu Ng says this program demonstrates that a large percentage of young people want to drive innovation and a harmonious economy. “Young social entrepreneurs in the private sector can contribute to big topics such as employment and innovation in a country, and can play an effective role in delivering programs that can help with national social welfare,” she says. “We are working to encourage more government partnership and support for social enterprises that also contribute to improving the environment, reducing carbon, alleviating poverty and enhancing access to clean energies in China.”

The SISC Final Round and Award Ceremony will be screened on China Central Television’s “Green Space” program in January 2010.

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Economic Crisis and opportunity

Sunday, November 9th, 2008

In the last few weeks, much of the world has been concerned about the economic downturns and the end to the unsustainable.    The question is how will we move to become sustainable?

Traditional capital liberalism has shown that is also can have vunerablities and has not accounted for the world of limited resources. The limited resource of the land, sea, air and water, the impacts of the unseen pollution impacting us all.

However, on the otherside, charity has existed for hundreds of years with handouts for this cause or that cause.   In the last few years social entrepreneurship has emerged (both with for profit and non profit models) and made massive progress for humanity.

Charity does serve a purpose, but it will only account for a small percentage of the global economy.  Social entrepreneurship could realistically account for 30%  or more within our life times.

We are on the way around the world for social lending to expand, for communities to grow and to regenerate and for “Finance for our Future”

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51Give Support for earthquake relief

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

51Give.com is looking for volunteers to help develop www.51give.org to help orphans and rebuild schools after the Earthquake, please email volunteer@51give.com

For immediate relief, one of the best things to do is send a few SMS to the China mobile number to donate. The simplest way to do that is to send ‘1? or ‘2? by SMS to 1069999301, to donate 1 or 2 RMB to the Red Cross Society of China. The number of SMS donations is not limited and China Mobile users can send up to ‘30′ in one message. Other ways to donate here.

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What happened to all the Schools?

Saturday, May 17th, 2008

We all know about the devastating earthquake in Sichuan, China. But why did so many schools collapse? So far the estimates are near to 7,000.

This is a question being asked by many in China and has got a rapid response from the government.

“If quality problems do exist in the school buildings, we will punish those responsible severely and give the public a satisfactory answer,” Han Jin, head of the Ministry of Education’s development and planning department, said on Friday’s state-run forum.

Also state ran People’s Daily is keeping a pretty open policy with lively debate on the subject on their discussion forum. Users are freely pointing out corners must have been cut on the school construction.

On the international media -Time Magazine’s online edition:

“It was built out of tofu,” says Hu Yuefu, 44, of the school building that collapsed in the magnitude 7.9 quake and killed his 15-year-old daughter Huishan. He believes local government officials and the building contractors are responsible. As he speaks, a crowd gathers around to listen and offer their support. “I hope there is an investigation,” Hu says. “Otherwise, there are a thousand parents who would beat them to death.”

Other media praised Wen Jia Bao for moving so quickly, something that doesn’t always happen in other countries, remember Katrina.

Following on from my previous posting, now Nortel China employees have raised so far 320,000 rmb fully on their own backs and now Nortel has agreed to match this figure up to 100,000 USD (700,000RMB).

The challenge of survival is today, however soon the even bigger challenge of rebuilding lives, business and homes will begin.

Today the Red Cross ww.redcross.org.cn can help with immediate needs.

Soon when the rebuilding begins 51Give will to take an active role, we are currently in talks with partners on the next steps to make a difference.

51Give team

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Earthquake Disaster - We are all the same

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Earthquake Disaster - We are all the same

I am amazed at the generosity of people in China. For example, in 2 hours the Nortel Beijng employees gave 135,000 RMB to this cause and they are expecting more to be given this week.

Many gave 200-500 RMB each which would be like an average employing giving 150-300 USD each.

Open the attached slide pack, it reminds us after all the talk we are all the same.

Daniel

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Earth Day 2008

Thursday, April 24th, 2008

April 22nd 2008 marks the 38th anniversary of Earth Day.  Started in 1970 in the US as a way to demonstrate public concern for the environment, Earth Day has become an international celebration.  It is the only holiday unconnected to a single religion, person, culture, or country and serves as a platform by which citizens of the world can come together united in a common cause that we all can agree on: the protection of our shared home.

John C. Whitikar  has an excellent article that sheds insight into the forces that came together to cause the first Earth Day.  He served as president Nixon’s Cabinet Secretary and relates what happened to cause the creation of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the US as a result of the first Earth Day celebration.  At that time in the US there were few laws specifically pertaining to the environment.  Businesses were given free reign to push the economy forward and little thought was giving to industrial by-products such as waste water, smoke, car and factory emissions, or types of pesticides and fertilizers used.  All was considered appropriate if it helped to enrich America.  Then a ground swell of public opinion, fanned by scientific research and increasing awareness by the news media, began to make people realize that pushing America forward could not be the only priority, especially if it led to such a lower quality of life and the pollution of their homes.

Balancing economic growth and environmental protection has long been a difficult task for not only the US, but for every country.  Public opinion polls show that most people are concerned about the environment, and most report they are willing to pay a little higher taxes if it means it will protect the environment.  However, everyone also wants an increased standard of living.  We all want to provide a better life for our children and provide them with the opportunities that we never had.  Unfortunately we can’t have both of these at the highest possible level.  We can’t have the highest possible economic growth while still creating the greenest and most pristine earth imaginable.  A balance must be struck between the two, and that is where the arguments begin.  Some would favor a greener earth and reduced economic growth while others feel that for them economic growth is currently slightly more important than creating more environmental regulations.   Both sides agree that both are important, but the balance between them is frequently argued.  This disagreement extends beyond people to cities, regions, organizations, governments, political parties, states, countries, and continents.  Each has a different experience with their surrounding environment and each is in a different stage of economic growth and so each has their own opinion about what the perfect mix is and how to achieve it.

One thing that is commonly agreed upon is that it will take more than just one action to solve the problem.  There is no one law to enact or no one action that will result in all types of pollution being cleaned up and all people benefiting economically.  It will take a variety of actions across many areas to more our world in the right direction.  Actions that have the power to both lift people economically and also protect the environment are especially helpful as they serve a dual purpose and benefit everyone. This is precisely what microfinance is able to do.  By providing people with small loans they are able to enrich their own life as well as their family’s without the bad environmental effects opening a large factory might have.  Often they are even able to begin environmentally helpful businesses such as farming local food, starting recycling facilities, harvesting wild medicinal plants, or creating jobs where they can work from home.  This is why we stay committed to the principles of microfinance. It has been proven to be an effective way to create economic gains and also to provide green jobs that can benefit the earth at the same time.

If you know of a micro-entrepreneur who’s been able to start a green business because of a micro-loan then please comment below and tell us about it, or post it in our forum to begin discussing it with other members.

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Safe water provided to 127 million more rural people since 2001

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

Through the joint efforts of the central and local governments (each contributing about 23 billion Yuan) the number of rural people in China with access to safe drinking water has reached 340 million.  By 2010 the aim is to provide safe water to another 160 million people and eradicate the problem by 2015.  Current estimates are that approximately 200 million people remain without a safe supply of drinking water.

For more details see the report in the People’s Daily Online

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What were you doing on Saturday March 29th from 8-9pm?

Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

If you can’t answer that question off the top of your head then odds are you weren’t participating in Earth Hour ‘08. Last year in Sydney for one hour in the evening more than 2.2 million people and 2100 businesses turned off their lights for an hour to show their commitment to taking action against global warming. By turning off lights on the Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and at local residences and businesses they caused a 10.2% energy reduction that night.

Their success led to nearly 30 cities joining them this year, along with many individuals around the world, to make Earth Hour ‘08 a global event. Perhaps you’re wondering why with only 2 Asian cities officially participating, Bangkok and Manila, and only about 300,000 people joining, this really matters. Perhaps your thinking to yourself, turning off the lights for one hour, while leaving the fridge, computer, or even TV on, is a pretty pointless exercise. To be honest your probably right as far as the immediate impact this event had on lowering the amount of fossil fuels burned. Even if each of these people could turn off all the electricity in their home for the year, walk everywhere, give up their jobs, and only eating twigs, the sad fact is they wouldn’t change much of anything directly.

But that was never the point. And that’s why Earth Hour ‘08 was in fact successful. The point is to draw attention to a problem that’s far bigger than any one person’s consumption. The resources of the Earth are growing scarcer and without government intervention and business interests’ being aligned with our changed individual consumption there is no way it’s going to get better. Unfortunately governments and businesses have yet to be convinced that change is what we really want. They may hear us asking for for it, but they watch as we continue to consume more and more everyday and are convinced we really aren’t so excited about making changes if it means a little sacrifice on our parts.

Earth Hour ‘08 was a success because it begins to show governments and businesses that we are willing to change and that we do care. But one hour is not enough. We need to make these changes every day of our lives, and we need to make sure that others take notice. Let’s start now to spread the word about Earth Hour ‘09, plan activities with our friends to celebrate, and do our part to contribute to the betterment of the whole world.

Sign up for the WWF’s Earth Hour ‘09 and see pics from Earth Hour ‘08 at http://www.earthhour.org/

If anyone has pics of themselves celebrating Earth Hour ‘08 in China let us know by posting a link!

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Turn off a Monitor, Change the World

Friday, March 7th, 2008

Turn off a Monitor, Change the World

From an energy saving and cost effectiveness perspectives, we strongly recommend that you turn-off your monitor/PC after daily working hours, stop using screensavers, instead use the automatically turn off for your monitors and also set the PCs on hibernate mode during breaks/meetings!  The following information and figures may surprise you.

At RMB1 per kilowatt hour (kwh), turning off a 75-watt monitor outside the 40 hr work week saves RMB41 (6USD) a month . This saves 750 lb. of CO2 (greenhouse gas emissions) by burning 450 fewer pounds of coal each year! LCD monitors consume about one third energy, compared with CRT.  A mid size office with more than 800 desktops/monitors will consume 36164 KWH per month during night time, which will increase operation cost by RMB36, 164 per month (5k USD).

If all fortune 500 corporations could do this,  it will be great help in energy saving and environmental protection.  Just start today, turn off your monitor to save energy when you do not need it!

More information

Some typical power consumption for various monitors:
Desktop computer: 60w
CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitor: 75w
LCD monitor  25w

FAQ

Screen savers save energy FALSE

Screen savers don’t save energy

2.    It’s better to leave a monitor on because continually turning them on and off uses more energy

FALSE

A PC monitor only consumes one seconds energy worth of running time when being started up or closed down. As monitors account for 70% of the PCs energy use, it’s always better to turn them off when at lunch or at meetings.

3.    Monitors automatically go in to sleep mode

FALSE You need to activate the PCs energy saving functions.

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