BEAN volunteers receive GECKO training in our green office

This Saturday, Feb 27th, we were excited to have members of the Shanghai volunteer network BEAN visit our office to receive training on the GECKO program! As part of their commitment to community service in Shanghai, BEAN will be visiting a series of migrant schools for environmental education days, starting on March 20th.

Greennovate and BEAN have worked together before, and the time has come to take our partnership to the next level. We strive to grow our existing partnerships and find new ones, creating self-sufficient teams outside of Greennovate who can bring GECKO to local schools themselves to help us expand our program.

Good luck, BEAN! Click here for more photos!

Shanghai Coolbike participants celebrate the end of a great ride!

This year sees Coolbike is furthering its creative appeal and partnerships with high-profile environmental groups in Shanghai, plus rolling out events to other major urban cities in China – next stop, Beijing!

GoodtoSH 01 Coolbike launched on December 5th, 2009, with a fun bike ride around Shanghai to encourage residents to use bikes as a regular transport option in their daily lives in order to stay healthy, reduce air pollution, and enjoy life. Tying in with the launch of the Copenhagen UN Climate Summit on December 7th, this cool bike event aimed to show that in Shanghai we care about these issues, too!

To see a short video of the first Shanghai event, click here.

The next Shanghai event will partner up with Shanghai EcoDesign Fair, with another city bike ride on April 18th at 2pm in downtown Shanghai. Mark your calendar, bring your bike and your friends, and show you care! For more info, please contact susanevanskelly@gmail.com.

See you all soon!

Chris Pothaar presents to a diverse group of YCIS students in Shanghai

This Monday, our GECKO team got back in action with the first event of the new (Chinese) year! After Yew Chung International School’s younger students visited our green office early this month to learn about Greennovate and gain some insight on how to run their new riverside development projects, our team was invited to the international school to present GECKO to the older students. Stay tuned in March to learn about our events in Moganshan!

This is the second time GECKO will visit beautiful Mogan Mountain.

We’re excited to be gathering teams of Chinese university student volunteers to bring the GECKO program to schools in Moganshan, starting with a “Big Litter Pick” on March 8th! In collaboration with the eco-resort naked Retreats as part of their naked Green Initiative Month, we will be training 4 different teams of 4 student trainers to run cross-cultural environmental workshops with participating local schools (Moganshan and Paitou Middle Schools), as well as international schools in the Moganshan area. This second installment of our partnership with naked Retreats will run throughout March and April with the goal of reaching out to over 1,000 high school students.

Interested Chinese university students, please contact Winnie at gecko@greennovate.org!

Schuyler introduces Greennovate to YCIS 5th-year students

Early this week, we were thrilled to have several fifth grade students from Shanghai’s Yew Chung International School come to our office to learn more about Greennovate and what we do. The students are currently working on “building” and “selling” their own riverside developments, and were looking for some insight from our team on how they can consider the environment and reduce their carbon footprint in doing so. Developing is one issue, but selling is easy: green is cool!

GECKO volunteers explain the "Power of One" in Yangshuo

2009 was a big year for GECKO! We would like to share with you some of our most significant accomplishments last year – managing to finalize our curriculum, expand the GECKO program, get recognition from the central Chinese government, and enlarge our core network of interns and volunteers. Click here to learn more!

AIESEC's Michael Zhou starts the day off with an interactive quiz game

AIESEC Volunteers Michael Zhou and Fini Arifin last week brought the GECKO program to Dong Chang South School attached to East Normal University, reaching out to 300 students. Using our training and materials, the New Zealand volunteers have made a great contribution to our program, having already reached out to nearly 300 students from 3 schools. Great thanks to our Green Ambassadors!

Click here to learn more about our partnership with AIESEC.

Fenfa Primary School, Minhang

After a short break, Greennovate is back in action for 2010! We start off the new year with great news – we are pleased to announce that, with the generous help of supporters like you, we successfully surpassed our donation goal! So far we have raised nearly $4,500 from 69 donors! This means we have become a permanent member of Global Giving, which will help us gain recognition from a greater number of contributors in and outside China.

On behalf of the Greennovators, I would like to thank you for your support. Check back on our website to follow us throughout the year or subscribe to our newsletter above! To donate, visit our campaign site today.

Happy New Year – stay green in 2010!

AIESEC Volunteers Engage Students at Shangde Experimental

The partnership between Greennovate and prominent international student group AIESEC continued to grow this week as AIESEC volunteers Christina Liu and Michael Zhou used our GECKO training and materials to present at two Shanghai high schools – Hua Shi Da No 2 High School and the bilingual Shangde Experimental School. The New Zealand student volunteers, who work together with us in order to extend AIESEC’s Green Power Now Program, have reached out to over 150 students so far.

To learn more about the Greennovate/AIESEC Partnership, click here.

Greennovators Present on Waste Separation

GECKO teamed up once again with BEAN volunteers on Saturday, December 5th, for a day of environmental education at Zhen Hua Primary School in Pudong, Shanghai. The workshop involved engaging activities including presentations and videos on environmental issues, learning about waste separation and decorating recycling bins to be placed throughout the schools classrooms.

To see photos from the event, please click here.