Starbucks College Student Environmental Practitioner about to Start

Anchor: The China Soong Ching Ling Foundation and Starbucks Corporation have launched a project to promote environmental awareness and innovations among college students in the country, while environmental protection initiatives on campus are believed to have long hampered by monotonous contents and the lack of funds. Wu Jia has more

The collaborative project is expected to last three years after a fund of six million Yuan is raised for college students to carry out environmental activities.

According to Howard D. Schultz, chief executive officer of Starbucks Corporation, since the company came to China, they have committed to cultural exchanges in a way that's not only about business but also about giving back.

"Now we're gonna do something with the environment by creating scholarships for kids who can perhaps develop innovative ideas to help environment's sustainability here in China. I think for us, it's not about doing this for public relations. It's about the conscience in the heart of the company and also to make people who work for Starbucks proud."

Under this program, a total of 300 environment related innovations in some 20 universities will be subsidized every year. Li Xiaofeng, deputy chief of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, points out that the project is more about establishing a platform for the universities to exchange ideas and evaluate their achievements.

"Every participant is also a judge on this stage, so that each one will know his advantages and weak points in comparison to other universities. This is actually what we want the project to be. It's not just that we offer money and students do the work. Instead, we hope that all the students really get into action and experiment."

According to Li Xiaofeng, each university can nominate 15 innovations, and each program will receive 5000 Yuan of aid.

He says that the students may carry out different environmental activities depending on where they are, what they study, and what problem they have around them. But the important thing is to be innovative.

"Compared to students in elementary and middle school, college students have certain social experiences and richer knowledge in store. Therefore, we may review their schemes against a higher standard."

The fast economic growth in China has put more stress on the environment. And it is now essential to mobilize the public to get actively engaged in its protection.

Yet, because of a lack of resources, environmental protection activities on campus are usually short of diversity.

To address the problem, the sponsors of this program will hold exhibitions and symposiums so that the participants can learn from and exchange ideas with other environmental organizations, related government departments and experts.

For CRI, I'm Wu Jia.