THE CHINA-U.S. CENTER
FOR SUSTAINABILITY

In September 2002, the first meeting was held in Beijing of the Board of Councillors of the China-U.S. Center for Sustainability, which intends to launch many bold initiatives for sustainability within China, including wind power and solar power projects. I was delighted to be asked by the American Chairman to join the Board. He is Professor William McDonough, one of America's most inspired designers and architects, and co-author of the seminal book "Cradle to Cradle", which enunciates a new 'total design' philosophy for sustainability called 'eco-effectiveness'. The Chinese Chairperson is Madame Deng Nan, Vice Minister of Science and Technology, who is the daughter of the late Deng Xiaoping. Under her jurisidiction is the Department of Rural and Social Development, which includes all environmental activities of the Ministry. It was at my suggestion that the Board agreed to have a regular coordination with the Spark Programme of that Department. The Spark Programme ('a little spark starts a great fire') was set up to use technology to improve the lives and activities of the inhabitants of rural China, and Madame Deng Nan agreed that we could expand its activities to embrace the 'cradle to cradle' philosophy and implement sustainability projects with its assistance.

Here are some photos taken in Beijing during our first Board meeting.