We hope you are enjoying your summer and the Olympic season. Our office turned into a competition field with Canadians, Serbians, Croatians, Chinese and Slovenians counting medals each morning. Feel free to bet on the winner in our case ;)

As we are getting ready for a busy September with  the GECKO team heading to Hubei, we are busy fine-tuning our materials, activities and projects for the kids. After many requests we have now prepared a series of Green Sessions designed for Shanghai companies who would like to add environmental awareness programs for their employees in their CSR plans.  

From all the nationalities represented by our office, it might seem that we have half of the world covered, but we are not nearly enough people to make all of our ambitious plans a reality. In order to keep the quality of the programs, we are expanding our network and partnership with other  compatible environmental organizations who share the same objectives. Our goal is to share our experiences in China, add new educational approaches and get valuable feedback for further development.

We have met super cool and creative people from Go Green Initiative and 350.org, both US based organizations and we are excited to work together with them in the future. We also had a chance to have volunteers, Valerie and Erin, two high school girls from the US and Dubai, working with us on GECKO materials during their summer vacations in Shanghai (thank you both, very much). 

Keeping it simple and positive - that's how we do it. You are welcome to join us if you feel the same way.

Cheers,

Mihela

Green Business Forum

On June 12th 2008, Greennovate joined a panel of experts to discuss Green Business opportunities in Shanghai. The Green Business Forum, organized by Next Step Shanghai, was designed to bring together local businesses and a panel of experts with insight on green business practices. 

One of the most anticipated speakers at the event was Bill McKibben, the author, educator and environmentalist. As an environmental activist, Bill McKibben has appeared in "The 11th Hour" and has recently joined with www.350.org, to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million.

Be sure to check out www.greennovate.org to hear more about how we will work with 350.org in the future!

GECKO's Eco Team at Jiu Du High School

Letter from JiuDu Student in RenHuai City

Hello!
I am a student from Renhuai Jiudu Highschool and one of the Eco Ambassadors.

Before joining your activities, I didn't know what is environmental protection and where environmental protection is needed. But after joining your classes, I came to know that our surrounding environment is being so damaged. I feel very worried about it. I found a lot of human beings doing a lot of things damaging the environment. Everywhere I go, if I find some rubbish, i would pick it up and throw it into the rubbish can. But I have very small strength by myself and it's far from enough. Also this action is too tiny. I really want to do more for the environment but I don't know what to do. So please tell me within my ability, what shall I do? And how shall I do it?

Yours, sincere environmental protection volunteer,

Yu Xiaomin