Ingrid Vahland, special adviser to the Volkswagen Green Future Environmental Education Initiative, delivers a lecture on global warming to students at the Jining No 1 Middle School in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

awareness and build an environmentally friendly and conservation-based society by educating children through activities as part of the national green schools curriculum.

Part of the initiative is the Volkswagen Green Future Green Class, which began on International Children's Day in Beijing on June 1. Vahland gave a lecture on classifying rubbish for recycling at the Beijing Yanqing Yongning Town Middle School to kick off the nationwide program.

Early this month, Vahland taught a class on global warming at the Jining No 1 Middle School of Northwest China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

She introduced the concept of global warming, its effects and why it is happening, how it will change the world and what can be done to help.

She says she got the students discussing energy saving and what could be done to prevent climate change.

Reportedly an energetic and high-spirited teacher, Vahland plays down her role in the program.

But Molly Yang, director of corporate communications at VGC and in charge of the environmental education initiative, says Vahland lobbied hard to be involved in the project and teach classes.

"Given her huge interest in environmental protection and children and her rich teaching experience, we were keen to get Ingrid involved in the initiative," says Yang.

Vahland studied music and biology at university in Germany before she got her teaching qualification. She has taught in several schools in the country.

Although reluctant to talk about herself, Vahland is enthusiastic when conversation turns to environmental protection education in Germany.

She says green schools are popular in the European nation and students attend special classes devoted to environmental study.

"Students dig ponds, raise fish, grow grass and observe the small ecosystems they create. They take care of gardens, watch plants grow, and plant trees and grass to green the schools themselves," says Vahland.

Students are taught from childhood to respect the environment, she says, through activities such as visiting farms, raising poultry and riding bicycles.

"I think many German experiences can be introduced in China," she says.

The green school concept was launched in China by the SEPA and the Ministry of Education on the basis of successful environmental education programs in other countries.

The campaign encourages schools to give high priority to environmental education and management to instill ideas about conservation and environmentally friendly living in young students.

There are more than 34,000 green schools at the national, provincial and district levels in China, with 700 at the national level. VGC is the first multinational company to carry out a long-term initiative with the country's green schools.

After the Inner Mongolia leg, VGC's Green Class tour will visit green schools in Jiangxi, Sichuan and Guangdong provinces.

The lecture tour is one aspect of the initiative. A number of other programs will also be run, such as the Young Green Reporter journalism competition, the Campus Energy-saving and Emission Reduction design competition as well as exchange visits between green schools in China and Germany in the second half of the year.

The company will invest a total of 8 million yuan in the three-year green education project.

Volkswagen is the sole automotive partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and has been the top seller in China's passenger car market for years, with sales for 2007 expected to exceed 800,000 units compared with 711,298 last year.

(China Daily 07/23/2007 page8)