Eco Entrepreneurship Training Program

Project Background
China’s Reform and Opening-Up policy has helped the country’s economy grow exponentially over the past thirty years. It has greatly improved the material lives of Chinese people. However, the environmental pollution and depletion of natural resources brought about by this development are of growing concern among Chinese people. Environmental and energy problems not only threaten the health and well-being of the country’s citizens, but could also cause a bottleneck in the country’s economic development over the long term. The Chinese government has taken a number of far-reaching initiatives in response to these serious environmental challenges, including setting up specific pollution and energy reduction targets for its industries during the nation’s 11th Five Year Plan. Meeting these goals requires industries to make substantial changes, such as switching to cleaner sources of energy and upgrading their growth patterns. Actions need to be taken so as to address the root causes of energy intensity and pollutant emission. Therefore, talented and environmentally conscious entrepreneurs are greatly needed to lead the industry to make these changes.

Entrepreneurs have played an important role in the growth of China’s economy. Now there is a call for them to direct their energy and creativity towards the nation’s environmental protection and sustainable development initiatives. However, many entrepreneurs have not come to realize the country’s environmental challenges and the business opportunities to be found in addressing these challenges. Thus, GEI’s Eco-Entrepreneurship Training Project (EET) has been launched to help bridge these gaps.

Project Objective
With the support of the Asia Foundation, GEI launched the “Eco-Entrepreneurship Training Project” in November 2008. The aim of this project is to provide cutting-edge training for entrepreneurs to develop innovative and environmentally friendly businesses and to find common ground between environmental protection and economic development through the introduction of business opportunities in the environmental field. We hope that these efforts will help entrepreneurs create businesses that are both economically and environmentally sustainable.

Training Plan
The EET will focus on the most pressing environmental issues facing China today. The curriculum includes modules on Water Resource Utilization, Energy Saving and Clean Energy, Sustainable Agriculture, Circular Economy, and Green Business: Financing and Investment. A total of six sessions will be held. Each session will last for one day and will include two courses and 2-3 case studies.

The EET is designed as a center for the sharing of information and experience. Lecturers are drawn from China’s top environmental experts and veteran business leaders who will not only help the trainees gain a better and more systematic understanding of China’s environmental challenges, but will also introduce existing market-based solutions to those challenges. At the end of the program, trainees will be required to submit a Business-plan. A formal session will be organized to evaluate the business plans.

The program will recruit a total of 25 trainees. Formal training will begin in March 2009, in Beijing. We welcome anyone interested in the environment and/or in starting up their own business to attend our training project.

Module Overview
Module 1: Water Resource Utilization
Module 2: Energy Saving and Clean Energy
Module 3: Sustainable Agriculture
Module 4: Circular Economy
Module 5: Green Business: Financing and Investment
Module 6: B-plan Evaluation
Deadline for application: January 15, 2009

See more at http://www.geichina.org/eco-training/index.html