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For social entrepreneur Joe Oliver, showing the world you are
environmentally conscious is not just about symbolic gestures like
saving trees. When it comes to a sustainable lifestyle, "people always
talk the talk, but do not always walk the walk", Oliver says. Oliver,
28, can fall neatly into the category of young idealist trying to save
the world. He believes he can help individuals and companies to "walk
the walk" - and he is trying to do that from East and West.
The Briton is the co-director of We Impact, a social enterprise based
in Beijing and London. Its mission is to "develop and promote
opportunities to realize sustainable lifestyles around the world through
the dissemination of knowledge, cultural engagement and responsible
business" - much like a business and social consultancy offering green
solutions.
Its goal in some parts correlates with the general concept of most
environmental NGOs, but Oliver says that being environmentally conscious
does not mean you can only work as a volunteer in environmental
organizations.
And with the Chinese government pushing ahead with its environmental
policies, there are a growing number of Chinese companies either
willingly or inadvertently wanting to go "green".
Oliver says this is where his team comes in. We Impact is more like
the upgraded version of his former UK-based Bash Creations, touted as
the world's first eco-entertainment company that he launched in 2006 to
offer services to companies that want to become carbon-neutral by making
the entertainment business environmentally friendly.
This time, China is the center stage for all that to happen, Oliver says.
"I am not here to tell people how I think. I am here to show what is
to be done. And also help people to facilitate their means to create
their own stuff," he says.
"At a certain level, people know what's right for them. Also in terms of traditional culture, it is embedded in there".
Oliver has already won a string of accolades to that effect. Having
worked with more than 50 household brands, he has received an array of
industry awards and appeared on CNN, BBC and in numerous national
publications.
He organized green events and nationwide campaigns for the Royal
Society of Arts, the Department for Culture, Media and Sports, Vodafone
and other prominent government agencies and corporations.
In 2008, he was selected by the Mayor of London as a London Leader, a
position awarded to those who have shown excellence in their fields.
During a stint at an advertising company in China a few years ago, he
met his current business partner Ann Wang. They talked about what they
had done previously and what they were interested in doing, and decided
it would be great to set up something similar to what he had been
working on in Britain.
"We worked out how to change people's perspectives on environmental
issues through good communication and ways to approach the challenges we
will face", he says.
Oliver subsequently found many people in China who were interested in
sustainability issues and social enterprise, but the support needed for
them to learn more about these were inadequate here.
He is now trying to equip them with the tools to "start their own adventures" in these areas.
These "green models" need to be built, refined and owned by Chinese people themselves, he says.
"Some people call it the localization process. It is really about
parenting people to understand what the content of their life is within
the global situation."
In China, there are specific cultural connotations of what that
means, he says. So in terms of social enterprise, elements of
sustainability lifestyle are very different from how they would be for
the rest of the world.
His team is currently working with the Chinese social networking site
P1.CN to help it integrate sustainability and good social habits into
its business and branding models.
P1.CN is considered to be China's largest invitation-only social
network for affluent Chinese, with more than 1 million members.
"This ongoing project involves conducting a rebranding process of
P1.CN that integrates sustainability and social good into the very core
of the company's identity and culture, while simultaneously designing
engagement strategies for sustainability and social good to be embedded
into the company's products and services and the operations themselves,"
Oliver says.
His own workplace is touted as a 588-square-meter, multi-function
space that includes a Knowledge Center, Organic Kitchen, Green Bar,
Wellness Center and Events Space. In December, his team also hosted the
"GtB Sustainable Product Design Showcase" at which 12 sustainable
products designed by students from the 3D department of Raffles-BIFT
International College were displayed for a real living and working
environment.
Oliver believes such practices should be incorporated into the Chinese economy.
"With China's huge economic rise onto the global stage, GDP and other
economic indicators must not be the only benchmark for progress - we
have other things to address, like happiness.
"I am here to help unlock the potential within Chinese society, to allow people to see what they already have inside."
source: chinadaily.com
