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CBR May-June 2008 - Healthcare

Cultivating Environmental NGO-Business Partnerships

Moving beyond simple philanthropy in the environment and the market

by Jennifer L. Turner

In industrialized countries, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector tend to interact in one of two ways: NGOs gratefully accept funding from businesses or the two face off as enemies. But over the last 15 years, a few pioneers in both sectors have begun to move beyond these two options to share expertise and resources, with the goal of setting a common agenda for sustainable development.

NGOs and businesses intertwined

Successful environmental NGO-business partnerships are truly collaborative, with a jointly defined agenda that focuses on a clearly measurable goal. But such collaborations are often fragile. Corporations will sustain their participation only if it either benefits them financially or improves their credibility in environmental stewardship. NGOs working with businesses are often criticized even by supporters and accused of being co-opted by "the enemy." Thus, such partnerships must show concrete results to reassure stockholders and NGO members alike. Fortunately, these goals can be combined. Environmental NGOs can increase the impact of their work by helping corporations transition to cost-effective, environmental practices. Some environmental NGOs that have forged successful partnerships with the private sector include

  • TRAFFIC-Hong Kong, one of the 22 offices of an NGO network that monitors wildlife trade globally. TRAFFIC-Hong Kong partnered with Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. to improve the airline's ability to stop the smuggling of rare plants and species on its planes. TRAFFIC trained baggage handlers to recognize signs of illegal flora and fauna in luggage and boxes. Halting illegal shipments helped Cathay Pacific avoid fines and strengthened the airline's environmental reputation.

  • Environmental Defense (ED), a leading US-based environmental NGO, which is working with Citigroup to increase the recycled content in copy paper used by Citigroup, reduce the company's paper use, and develop environmental evaluation criteria for its paper suppliers;

  • Fairtrade Foundation, a British NGO, which launched a pilot project in 1997 to work with companies in the United Kingdom to develop codes of conduct for purchasing from suppliers in developing countries; and,

  • World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which helped set up a new global system for endorsing products from properly managed forests--the Forest Stewardship Certification (FSC) scheme. Instead of waiting for governments to impose regulation, WWF and a coalition of NGOs and corporations spearheaded the creation of the FSC, which has helped move the timber industry toward more sustainable forestry practices.

A young generation of Chinese NGOs

Such examples are much more difficult to find in China, where environmental NGOs are a relatively new phenomenon. NGOs emerged only in the mid-1990s after the central government clarified regulations granting such social groups legal status. The NGO registration processes are still complex, and many green activists opt to take the easier route of registering their NGOs as for-profit business enterprises, even though these enterprises must pay tax. Many registered and unregistered environmental groups in China depend on funding from international sources, such as the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Blue Moon Fund (formerly W. Alton Jones Foundation), Global Greengrants Fund, Blacksmith Institute, Energy Foundation, and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Green NGOs in China likewise depend on government goodwill for media coverage and political support. Thus, most Chinese NGOs focus on environmental education and hew closely to the government's environmental agenda. A handful of China's environmental NGOs push the envelope by providing policy recommendations to the government, empowering pollution victims in the courts, and working with local governments to give rural communities more voice in protecting natural resources.

Difficult but fruitful collaboration

In short, despite the growing dynamism of Chinese NGOs, few have developed the technical or management capacity to monitor or partner with industry. One rare example is Friends of Nature, China's first legally registered NGO, which began discussions in 2000 with Beijing hotels to gather input on creating a green hotel certification program in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. Another exceptional NGO is the Yunnan Entomological Society, which advised tea plantations in Yunnan on developing nontoxic pest control methods. Teaming up allowed the plantations to gain entry into European markets, which have banned many pesticide-heavy tea products from China.

Collaboration between Chinese NGOs and businesses more often occurs within bilateral or international NGO initiatives. Though also few in number, these NGO-business collaborations are groundbreaking because they build the capacity of Chinese NGOs to work with businesses to improve manufacturing processes and set business practices and standards. Chinese NGOs can play a crucial role in building better communication between businesses and local communities. Businesses thus benefit from improved production processes and better relations with local communities. These international initiatives are also building cooperation among governments, NGOs, and industries in China, which should help to increase acceptance of NGOs in China's environmental sector. Notable international NGO initiatives working with industry in China include

  • Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a well-established, US-based NGO, whose China Clean Energy Program brings government, business, and NGOs together to improve energy efficiency. In its Initiative for Taipei-Shanghai Cooperation on Fuel Cell Vehicles and Sustainable Transportation, NRDC worked with the South-North Institute for Sustainable Development (a Beijing-based NGO) and the Taiwan Institute for Economic Research to bring together business partners and representatives from the Taipei and Shanghai municipal governments to set up joint technology and market research for fuel-cell powered scooters.

    NRDC has built similarly diverse partnerships in its efficient buildings projects. NRDC has been working with the PRC Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Construction, and the California-based Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to set energy-saving building code standards that will reduce energy consumption in Chinese buildings. In Chongqing, NRDC not only assisted the municipal government in revising its clean building codes, but also succeeded in pulling Chinese private sector participants (such as developers of construction materials and equipment manufacturers) into the standard-setting process.

  • ED, which is working with the Beijing Environment and Development Institute (BEDI), a Chinese NGO focused on energy and economics, to help the two medium-sized cities of Nantong, Jiangsu, and Benxi, Liaoning, develop sulfur dioxide emissions-trading pilot projects. In partnership with the city governments and local industries, ED and BEDI are applying market mechanisms to help industries reduce pollution emissions. China's State Environmental Protection Administration and industrial ministries are studying the success of these projects for possible replication.

  • The Institute for Environment and Development (IED) is a nine-year-old Beijing-based Chinese NGO that aims to help raise public awareness of environment and development issues through public education, information dissemination, research, and community involvement in sustainable development projects. With its strong network of environmental experts and experience in community education, IED was a natural partner for the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID), which started a three-year project in 2000 to improve production processes within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Liaoning and Sichuan. IED acted as a liaison to help SMEs understand the concept of corporate responsibility and help the DFID consultants and the SME managers develop plans for industry communication with local communities.

An industry-wide approach

While NRDC, ED, and IED focused on NGO-business partnerships in certain cities, the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC) undertook a project to change the standards setting process in an entire industry.

IIEC worked from 2000 to 2002 with the Chinese motor industry, the Ministry of Finance, and central agencies responsible for motor production as well as other industrial sectors to create energy efficiency standards for the Chinese motor industry. Since the project's completion, other industries in China have requested IIEC's assistance with the development of energy efficiency standards for their own technologies. IIEC's success in the motor industry initiative provided an important example of how an international NGO can help Chinese businesses improve their energy efficiency and save money. IIEC's Beijing office succeeded in creating this unique NGO-business-government collaboration by interviewing government and industry stakeholders early in the project about their opinions on priority sectors for promoting energy efficiency technology in China. These discussions revealed that government regulators and industrial participants believed the motor sector had a need that foreign NGO expertise could fill. This local interest in the project, even before it formally began, helped its chances for success.

The above examples illustrate how domestic and international NGOs are helping to train and encourage government and industry stakeholders to improve energy efficiency and green production. Such initiatives are still limited in China because Chinese NGOs have insufficient capacity, most international donors and NGOs do not consider NGO-business partnerships a priority, and local governments and industries are unwilling to institute green production processes.

In fact, many Chinese local governments tend to shield companies in their jurisdictions from environmental regulations to protect their revenue base. To counter this tendency, for the past three years, the US-based NGO World Resources Institute (WRI) has been carrying out an extensive effort to infuse environmental concepts into Chinese business school programs with the goal of training future business leaders to run more sustainable enterprises.

Tending a stronger environmental corporate culture in China

International businesses operating in China already have engaged the Chinese environmental NGO sector for several years by giving grants or awards. Since the early 1990s, some multinational corporations (MNCs) or their foundations have been supporting environmental projects in China. For example, Shell Foundation has given grants to Global Village Beijing, a Chinese NGO, to create environmental education materials for children and environment-focused films for Chinese television. Shell Foundation has also helped farmers in Yunnan construct biogas greenhouses to protect forestry resources. Shell Foundation and Ford Motor Co. have been giving annual awards to Chinese environmental activists, NGOs, and university student green groups, which not only gives these organizations a short-term financial boost, but also raises their prestige among the general public. Intel Corp., Johnson & Johnson, and IKEA A/S also have begun some environmental assistance or award programs in recent years.

Web of NGO Work in China


— Jennifer Turner

MNCs could also support the domestic and international organizations that specifically focus on expanding the capacity of Chinese NGOs. Support could take many forms:

  • Direct support of key Chinese NGO-building groups (such as PACT China, the NPO Network, and IED) particularly through bilateral programs (such as those with Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) that have included NGOs in project implementation or have created training programs;

  • Sponsorship of Chinese environmentalists working and training in international environmental NGOs; or

  • Aid to groups such as Pacific Environment, ECOLOGIA, and Global Greengrants that distribute seed grants to small grassroots groups to help promote green activism.

International businesses working in China, particularly those in joint ventures, could also play a role in strengthening environmental corporate responsibility by seeking opportunities to create partnerships with international or Chinese NGOs. As the above NRDC example illustrated, such partnerships can offer businesses local connections and knowledge, and also unite them with local government and research communities to develop and market environmental technology products. International companies can also promote environmental corporate culture in their joint ventures with Chinese partners by supporting initiatives akin to the DFID-IED partnership with small businesses.

Chinese environmental NGOs possess considerable freedom of operation, but currently lack the skills to expand their range of activities to work with businesses in China. Continued international partnerships with Chinese NGOs and training of environmental activists could play an important role in strengthening the capacity of Chinese green groups to shape a stronger environmental corporate culture in China.

Jennifer L. Turner coordinates the China Environment Forum and edits the China Environment Series at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.

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