I have been taking graduate students to China for a few years now. It is not uncommon for hear the following from a trip alumni, or something like it, upon the return from China.

“Man, China sure is polluted. Yuck. I would not want to live there. Those people are disgusting for living in that soup, and they had better get their act together on this environmental stuff. I can’t understand why they won’t do so. China is doomed. China is doomed. China is doomed.”

Fair enough.   Been there.  I get it.  I understand why people say this.

But the problem with such statements is they don’t dig terribly deep, and, they can be intellectually lazy … more is expected from people that society has invested in and helped subsidize their education who hold graduate degrees in fields such as law, business and medicine — they are expected to give back, by among other things, offering society and clients solutions to complex problems. Not just complain. Anybody can do that.

Thus, a further statement along the lines of, “And here is a business idea I have for how to help and become a part of the solution,” is one of the reasons we load up on the plane and travel to China. We seek to see with our own eyes and separate myth from reality, to get a true feel for what is happening on the ground and how good and bad it is, to see how we can be a part of coming up with a solution, whether it’s here in/from the US or in China itself.

But let’s be honest — the reality is that it is sooooo much easier said than done. It is easy to return from China and just hop back into our gas guzzler cars (often an SUV or big truck, which is one of the two or three cars we may or will own), click on our MP3 player (made in a Chinese factory, by the way; see also this recent post by the China Law Blog, E-Waste is China Bound, And That Is Not An Entirely Good Thing), and drive back to our existing or soon to be purchased 2,000 plus square foot American “green” home (by the way isn’t a 2,000 plus foot “green home” an oxymoron?).

Thomas Friedman rightfully pillories this facet of our “feel good while we tinker with the problem to make things a bit better, but completely miss the elephant in the room” approach, in his op-ed piece, Doha and Dalian. Check it out. A must read.

And the danger with all of this and our American consumption model is that we set ourselves up for the Chinese to sanctimoniously lecture us rightback — see, e.g., this Wall Street Journal article, Why China Could Blame CO2 on West. While I could easily counter the primary argument of this WSJ article (we all can), the purpose of this post is not to go there, as where would that get us? Get ready for such questions if/when we are able to visit English Corner this year.

But this last article made me think of the following:

I recently returned from a conference in Beijing where I was on a panel and hardly any of us got to say a word because two CCP plants in the audience hijacked the microphone during the Q&A session, and both went on for about 20 minutes (each) with their tirade of:

“If a gadget is made in China by an Western company and exported and used by consumers from the West, why should China be held responsible for the carbon released in manufacturing it?”

[By the way, their tirade corroborates prior posts on this blog that have alluded to how and why the Chinese feel victimized by the West as a result of being sliced up like a melon by colonial powers 100 to 200 or so years ago - but that, too, is a different topic and post.]

While their approach was less than polite, I could see where they are coming from. Again, I could have stood up and counterpointed, but again, where would that get us? Let’s get beyond the finger pointing and move on.

So I have thought a lot about the following:

How can we make a difference that is more than the usual fine tuning in the West re: environmental issues and progress?

How can be pull out of this “all we do it bitch” spiral that we seem to be in?

What concrete business examples and models can we offer young people to learn from and emulate? (As there is little doubt that China has to get its environmental problems solved, or at least headed in the right direction, and soon, or we will all be in a world of hurt).

Here are several examples I can suggest you consider:

See and read about Jill Buck’s Go Green Initiative.  Click HERE to read an interview of her.  Jill gets and understand that China is all about sustainability opportunities and how it is in our best interest to partner with the Chinese to try and solve today and tomorrow’s environmental challenges.  I.e., she does not just bitch.  She is actually doing something about it.  Jill live just up the road from us in the Bay Area and she does a fair bit of work, speaking and consulting in China.

When I say she is a businessperson who “gets it,” I mean the following:

1. She is big picture and practical enough to know and understand basic Economics 101 theory — people act in their self interest, and if that basic human drive can be tapped into for the benefit of sustainability, so be it and let’s stop splitting hairs over why they are doing it.

2. She understands that sustainability initiatives, in order to survive over the long term, MUST be profitable, or they will not last long. I.e., you gotta make money cleaning up all the “crap” in the world, or your efforts will be anything but “sustainable” (pun intended).

3. Relatedly, she rejects, in my view, the traditional approach that tries to move the market by making people feel guilty.

4. She also clearly understands marketing and how to capture the market at the right time (grade school kids) for the good of society.

And, she did not even go out and get an MBA to appreciate these points. Nor do you need an MBA or other graduate degree to gain such wisdom. Much of this is common sense and she has it.

See also my prior related blog post on this subject, Those Beautiful Blue Bins on Your Curb (discussing how the contents in those big blue bins you roll out to the curb each week in SLO winds up in  … China).

See also this just 3:30  minute YouTube feature, China:  From Red to Green.

As a final example of creative sustainability and thinking coming out of China check out this Linked Hybrid housing development in Beijing, recently voted by by Time magazine as one of the top 10 Best (and New) Architectural Marvels of the world.

Questions and Your Challenge:

Got a a better idea than Jill’s (and one that will last more than 6 months) and/or want to ‘pooh-pooh’ it? Fire away.

In your view is business in the driver’s seat to solve these problems, or, do you (really) believe that governments and the politicians will step in and solve this mess for us?

Do you have the stomach to fight, to the death, issues of sustainability? To win, it is likely to get bloody, and personal. Are you ready and willing to take that on and do so for the long term?

Relatedly, will you be that person who gets off the plane when you arrive back home in the US that continues to bitch and complain about China and the rest of the consumption world, or, will you take this business experience and try to use it to create and offer solutions to your own business, the public, customers, clients, taxpayers and greater society, whether it’s here in the US or back in China?

No doubt, business has helped create many of these environmental problems we are not facing, but not all of them. But I hope you are passionate about business. After all, you are an MBA student, right? If you feel guilty about business and/or making a (reasonable) profit why are you here?

I hope you feel proud that with your MBA education, you will have some powerful weapons, relevant skills and contacts at your disposal to try and make a difference. You find yourself smack in the middle of this important time and place in our world’s history.

What an opportunity! You are alive at the right time in human history. Not the wrong one as the doom and gloom crowd likes to obsess over.

2010 … the year of optimism and where anything is possible!