Making green dreams economic realities

Twenty-one private enterprises from China will join the China Going Green Dialogues - part of the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20 - in June, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Chinese enterprises include such real estate giants as Vanke and Vantone, Hong Kong textile company Esquel Group and the community-supported organic farm Little Donkey in Beijing. They were selected by the Chinese environmental NGOs the SEE Foundation, the Shan Shui Conservation Center and the Greenovation Hub.

The China Going Green Dialogues are hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme. They are a series of events to answer the call for a global revolution toward green and sustainable development models.

The events are expected to fuel substantive breakthroughs in supply-chain management, greenhouse gas quantification, eco-friendly technology and clean manufacturing.

At the Rio+20 Conference, world leaders and thousands of participants from governments, the private sector, NGOs and other groups will come together to make plans to reduce poverty, advance social equality and ensure environmental protection to secure a livable future on our ever-more crowded planet.

Representatives from the UN and international and Chinese NGOs will join some of China's key enterprise leaders in forums on June 17 and 18 at Rio+20.

Discussions will offer views on the present and future state of China's green economies.

Shan Shui Conservation Center executive director Shan Sun says: "The growth of China's green economies has just started. We hope Rio+20 will offer the international community a window into how China is taking action from the ground up."

The events will also profile the diversity of Chinese grassroots organizations after 20 years of development. They'll also show the innovative green practices emerging from China's economic and social growth.

An increasing number of companies are taking interest in Rio+20 and looking for ways to deliver on their commitments to help China go green. Rio+20 will present an opportunity for Chinese businesses and entrepreneurs to exchange experiences with peers from around the world to share expectations of green economies.

The first UN Conference on Environment and Development was staged in 1992 in Rio - hence, the current name, "Rio+20". China sent a government delegation to participate in the first conference.

Now, Chinese NGOs will represent the country's new face at Rio+20, which will be the first global summit on sustainable development attended by Chinese entrepreneurs.

In addition, China's rapidly growing philanthropic sector and its nonpublic funding foundations are creating more possibilities for Chinese NGOs to engage in environmental issues and expand corporate-sector partnerships.

"Our purpose is not only to learn but also to give something back, to step onto this global stage at Rio and carry home, back to China, a commitment," says Feng Lun, chairman of Vantone and chairman of the SEE Foundation.

Feng pledged the foundation would help 500 environmental NGOs with no less than 500 million yuan ($78.8 million) over the next five years.

wangru@chinadaily.com.cn