A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a review of the Dell CSR report, and the subsequent announcement of its “carbon neutrality”, that resulted in a few emails/ comments expressing I had set a bar too high.

Well, fortunately for my defense HP has recently released a new Eco Solutions program that exceeds a number of the things I was hoping to see from Dell through their sustainability programs.  to be fair, the products do not match apple against apples, however I think that through HP’s programs there are lessons for others that should be followed:

the core pf the program consists of 4 points, as per the announcement:

• an enterprise printing assessment service and a carbon calculator that together comprehensively address energy and paper use, related carbon emissions and projected cost savings for optimized printing environments;
• a global paper policy governing the sustainable manufacture and use of paper HP sells to customers and uses for packaging, collateral and its own office printing;
• a new HP inkjet printer made almost entirely from recycled materials; and,
• an HP Eco Highlights label that will help customers identify environmental attributes of a given HP product or service.

For me, #3 is something that I was hoping of Dell. Particularly in its towers and laptop casings.  Both firms highlight their strong recycling programs, but where HP goes one step further is that they point out the following about their new product:

Finding new uses for recycled materials, HP introduced the HP Deskjet D2545 Printer, the company’s first printer made almost entirely from recycled plastic material. Eighty-three percent of the printer’s total plastic weight is made from recycled plastics and it uses HP 60 ink cartridges, which are molded from recycled plastic resins. Additionally, the overall packaging for this printer is 100 percent recyclable.

One of a few new products, my hope is that this becomes a standard for HP, Dell, and others.  that when designing the products for next year, they are not just looking at how to use recycled parts from previous models.. but that they are developing designs that can be leveraged in futher generations as well.

It is a system that is win - win - win for the company as it reduces waste, it reduces materials spend, and it reduces energy consumption

Just after the Opening Ceremony, the UNEP announced that China’s Yao Ming will be its first Environmental Champion.

In the press conference, Yao had this to say about his new role:

“As a sportsman, I believe sport has a major role to play in promoting environmental issues,” Yao said in a statement. “I will work with young people across the world and try to inspire them to plant trees, use energy-efficient light bulbs, harvest rain water and become environmental champions in their own communities.

With previous campaigns against shark fin soup and the protection of exotic speacies, it is clear that Yao ming looks to stick with the environment as his issue, and personally I think that will only add further to his cause to protect the environment.

We will have to hope that Beijing will look at the results of the car controls during the Games and come up with some ideas for how to further reduce the pollution from transportation. Unfortunately much of the focus in the news has been that Beijing does not want there to be a decline in automobile sales. I am not sure exactly why this is the case: is it because China needs more and more consumption to drive its economy and create jobs, or is it just due to pressure from oil and automobile companies?

I see nothing wrong with trying to reduce sales of cars in China. Just because USA has so many per person, does China need to ‘beat’ the USA at number of cars and size of automobile market (only #2 at the moment, globally). This is the kind of attitudes that need to change; and these assumptions (we need consumption, for example) also need to change, as they are just not sustainable.

Over the last few months, Greenpeace has grown not only in size.. but in confidence.

They have set up some public campaigns surrounding chopstick usage, water contamination, energy usage, and during the last few weeks of reporting on the air quality of the games it was Greenpeace who were giving daily briefings.

However, in a sign of their growing strength and another sign that they are building credibility, they have just published a report that lays out the case that the firm Golden East Paper company should not be allowed to IPO

According to the coverage at China.org:

Greenpeace China yesterday called on the Chinese government to reject paper manufacturer Gold East Paper’s application for a domestic stock market listing because of what the environmental lobby group calls the firm’s “shocking” environmental record.

Greenpeace China alleges that Gold East Paper and its subsidiaries have committed eight serious environmental offenses since 2005; in the past two months, according to the lobby group, Gold East subsidiaries discharged illegal black effluent in Hainan, and exceeded legal pollution limits in Suzhou.

Why this is an important step, and a sign of progress, is that while it was reported that 100 firms earlier this year had their IPOs shelved from pollution, this is the first time an NGO has initiated a public campaign

To read the full report in Chinese, you can download it here.

Chen Zhili, head of the Beijing Olympic Village, received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold award on Wednesday presented by the US Green Building Council.

more here. Gold is not bad, though there is 1 level higher -Platinum.

Interestingly, the LEED system which originates in the USA, has been taking off much faster than the BEAM system, which originates in Hong Kong. Either way, both are making headway (more here on BEAM’s progress).

LEED, though, seems to be much more popular than BEAM with various important US organisations and individuals championing it. Further many Multinationals who have received LEED certification elswhere are persuing it aggressively for their new office space in China. In fact, for some, it is an explicit target as part of their Sustainable Development goals.

Free condoms have been offered to athletes in the games since Barcelona in 1992. Provided by the China Reproductive Health Industry Association, this is the first time the Olympic condoms have been made in China and quality checks have been carried out to certify the condoms meet international standards.

As CSR advocates in China, that sounds great

Always On will be hosting the Going Green conference San Fransisco from September 15 -17, and you will find Crossroads there.

Perhaps the best lineup of speakers we have seen of any “green” conference, this conference is a sure success for those looking to meet the leaders in cleantech and learn about technologies and applications.

Trends and Topics
The Green Energy of Tomorrow Batteries Water Supply, Storage & Treatment Photovoltaics The Green City Growing Biofuel Alternative Fuels - Landfill Waste, Animal Fat, Plant Fiber Organic & Biofuel Impacts on Global Agriculture Global Warming Challenges Water Entrepreneurs Wastewater Treatment Opportunities Distributed Energy Infrastructure The Virtual Utility Wind Power Fuel Cells vs. Batteries	Green Consumer Products The Next Generation Automobile Biofuel Refining The Green Home Waste and Pollution Treatment The 500,000 Year Timeline Green Energy Companies Mega-Projects - Watering & Cooling the World Big vs. Small - Synergies for Green Civilization Fuel Cells Public & Private, Who is Greenest? What are the Most Lucrative, Transformative Green Technologies?

For my part, this is the only conference I have seen to date that has packed in so much, and I will be spending a lot of time learning about how the ideas and technologies presented in the conference can translate into China initiatives.  There is a lot of talk, and it is thorugh events like these that I see tangible probabiliteis for there to be action.

If you are interested in learning more, you can go to the Going Green website here to see the full lineup of speakers and topics.  Then, when you are ready to reserve your seat, come back to Crossroads and click on the icon in the right sidebar to save 50% off the ticket.  Organizers are planning for a maximum of 500, and with speakers like Vinod Khosla and partners like Scientific American and Morgan Stanley, tickets are going fast.

Hope to see you in SF, and if you are going please let us know.  I hope to put together a China table at the conference to ambush and interest people… and I need some support!

Researchers and residents have given a guarded welcome to a government regulation to curb pollution of the Songhua River, which took effect on Friday.

It gives Jilin provincial and city authorities the power to suspend the production of polluting factories.

They also face fines of between 100,000 (US$14,600) and 200,000 yuan for failure to meet environmental protection requirements.

“Sheer punishment is not enough. Factories need to be made aware of the harmful effects of pollution. Education is one way,” Bing Zheng, president of Jilin provincial academy of social sciences, said (Chinagate)

Actually, I would have said that it is the other way around. Education is not enough and factories need to be punished more oftena nd more severely. Anyway, good news that local governments are getting more power to solve environmental problems. Whether they will or not is another matter.

Last Wednesday, the folks behind Nest brought together their 2nd panel discussion on on sustainable design, and it was a nice evening where the audience learned about why the designers took the paths they did.

Speaking first was of Lin Wen (Bonita) of Brown Rice who spoke of the path she took to not just starting Brown Rice, but she also spoke of all the good things she has done through it

Next was Jamy Yang of Y Town , and unfortunately do to the poor quality of the video I was not able to capture this portion in full, but for this design shop they were motivated not just by designing something new and cool.  Finding ways of using existing materials and finding ways of reducing materials when they designed was one way they look to design products to serve multiple functions and to have longer lifelines as a way to reduce waste.

The final speaker, Rachel Speth - Cofounder Bambuhome and Nest, spoke about her path from a member of Nike’s design team, to their environmental team, to her decision to leave the corporate life to start Bambu home 5 years ago with her husband. Modest to the nth degree, Rachel spoke about the process of developing the products, the process of creating her products, and how they continually look to reduce waste/ reuse materials/ and operate as cleanly as possible (transportation is an area they struggle with).

Next month, on the last Wednesday, Nest will be holding their third and final event and I suggest you check it out. Typically they announce through their Facebook page, but you will also see an announcement here.

To visit Nest (Shanghai’s first artison co-op), go to the website. you will find profiles of their 9 artisen (several of which we have interviewed as part of our video series).

Last summer, China was in the middle of a labor shift. The third and final draft of the labor policy was under consideration, McDonald’s and Yum were suspected of paying college stagg below market rate, and a slave labor scandal had just passed.

It was a perfect storm of event that 12 months later can be seen as another one of China’s turning points. China’s only labor union got a huge boost, enforcement of labor violations increased (a boost to labor), and even labor lawyers were promoted to the front of the line as well at the time.

No doubt, it is still a time where things can be touch and go, but progress is coming in a number of steps.

Two of the most recent examples that show some of the forward progress can be found in the recent news that Wal-Mart has agreed to collective bargaining with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). It was a well covered event (Businessweek, Forbes, the Economist, China Daily, and others), and through these negottiations was an agreement to raise wages 8% this year and next,

However, for me, a more interesting story was in the financial times this week.  Chinese factory workers gain recognition for their grievances chronicles the labor movement that had traditionally be seen as outside the lines, but in the last year has made progress in their efforts to defend others abused at the workplace.

Stories we know well, the role of associations - much like the role of environmental NGOs and volunteering groups after 5.12 - have gained support at the central level from leaders who have come to understand that these needs have to be addressed and at the citizen level by those who are beginning to develop a sense of the costs associated with economic development.

from my perspective, I view both of the examples about as strong steps forward.  They are steps that should not be over celebrated, rather they should be seen as a foundation for the next steps, the steps that will lead down a path where NGOs, the community, and agencies all work as one to then take the next steps forward.

Maybe that is a bit utopian in thought, but in my experience in China.. that is the way that things have gone in other developing sectors of civil society in China, and it is perhaps the most stable/ sustainable way forward.  There are surely going to be flareups that occur short term, but ove rhte medium and long term we will see a real movement towards better labor conditions.