On November 22, 2014, the awards ceremony of 2014 RGE National Children’s Environmental Protection Art Competition: “Our Environment-Friendly Behaviors”, organized by the Center for Environmental Education & Communications (CEEC) of Ministry of Environmental Protection and co-organized by Youth.cn and RGE, was held in Beijing.

This is the inaugural RGE National Children’s Environmental Protection Art Competition. It was launched in June 2014 and by the closing date in September 2014, the local CEEC centers in the 24 provinces had received entries of over 10,000 primary and secondary school students. After several rounds of selection, nine overall Outstanding Winners were chosen and more than 100 First Prize, Second Prize and Third Prize Winners in the various categories were selected. In addition, through the online poll, 10 Most Popular Prize Winners were chosen by the internet users.

Children’s wishes for a green and beautiful China painted on the scroll

At the awards ceremony venue, more than 10 children painted the scroll under the theme of “Environmental Behavior Creates Beautiful China” to express their understanding of and expectations for environmental protection.

Environmental protection begins with the small things and with me

The ceremony was followed by a robust discussion on environmental behaviors, with participation by deputy director general of the CEEC center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection Jia Feng, President of Youth.cn Hao Xianghong, EVP of RGE China Lv Jianzhong, a student from Shandong Rizhao Xin Ying Primary School cum participant of the painting competition Dou Yubo.

“What about creating a personal virtue record? Behaviors that harm the environment, such as drivers throwing litter out of the car window, should be filmed by the monitoring camera to be punished in the annual inspection, either by fine or by points deduction. What’s more, it can also be entered into the personal virtue record just like the credit record kept by banks.” Although he was only 10 years old, Dou Yubo is already an environmental protection activist with a strong sense of responsibility. His advice was appreciated by director general of the CEEC center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection Jia Feng.

Jia Feng said: “throwing litter out of a driving car has caused wide public concern. It creates environmental pollution and what’s worse, threatens the traffic safety. Through legislation, punishment, public supervision and non-compliance record combined with personal virtue record to eliminate behaviors against environment protection, Yubo has proposed a very meaningful suggestion. ”

The participants answered various questions raised by Dou Yubo on how to protect the environment, what they had been doing to protect the environment, and how to continue to promote environmental protection in the future. Dr. Lv Jianzhong thought that environmental protection affected the sustainable development of the country, the society and the enterprise.”Asia Symbol of the RGE Group seeks sustainable development and has invested in a lot of projects to protect the environment.” Dr. Lv gave the example of the municipal sewage treatment system built by Asia Symbol with an investment of 68 million RMB. It could treat 40,000 cubic meters of municipal sewage of Rizhao City of Shandong Province per day and save 28,000 tons of clean water every day by recycling the treated water back into the production process. He also suggested from his personal perspective that every adult should protect the environment in both ways: first, protect the environment in every little detail; second, set good examples for youths by imparting their values towards environmental protection to shape their lifestyles.

After the meeting, the organizing committee invited prize winners to visit China Science and Technology Museum. The students were excited to see the model of the urban renewal economy, and many said that environment protection starts from the small things and begins with themselves. They would not only protect the environment and promote environment protection in the everyday life but also study hard to make more effective contribution to the environmental protection cause through science and technology.

Click here to read about the Asia Symbol Chinese Chess Competition.