SDGs：8，12，13，15
Key Words: Tea Industry, Tourism, Green Economy, Ecological Environment, Sustainable Development of Ancient Villages
Today (22 May, 2023) is International Day for Biodiversity.
We would like to introduce a real case of a group of “SDGs explorers” exploring and protecting ecosystems with their own actions. There is a little stinger of ESG at the end of the article!
As everyone knows, village is a complex region that integrates the dimensions of ecology, economy, and society. With the strategy of “Rural Revitalization” being implemented in more and more regions in China, how to address the challenge of ecosystem degradation and climate change bringing pressure to food system and achieving coordinated economic and social development, has received sustained attention from the entire society.
Suzhou, as a new first-tier city in China, always has an outstanding performance in economic growth among the cities in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Belt. In terms of green development, Suzhou still retains excellent traditional culture – from silk to tea, from soup dumplings to the Eight Immortals in Water. In the haze of early summer, on Xishan Island, the largest island of the Lake Tai, the fragrance of fruit and the essence of Dongting Mountain, all gathered in the fresh green of Biluochun gardens.
Do you know how to achieve sustainable cultivation of tea trees in order to achieve both targets of increasing economic income and ecological development?
Do you know when the picking period for Biluochun is? After the sales season of Biluochun, how can local villagers create more income other than the income from Biluochun?
Do you know where loquat, the fruit with a widespread fame in China, come from?
On 13 May, A group of “SDGs Explorers” from PayPal, with their curiosity and wish of exploration, paid a visit to the Xishan island of the Lake Tai and started their exploration of the “Green Economy” in Xishan, and provided suggestions for local sustainable development.
Tea Mountains Bring Wealthy to the Local People and Promotes Decent Work for the Local Elderly
The gentle breeze of May is blowing the ribbons and making sounds, which is the ending song of Biluochun season in Xishan.
In the tea garden, SDGs explorers followed the footsteps of tea farmers, carried bamboo baskets and shuttled between tea trees and tried to pick the tea-leaves that satisfies them the most.
Tea farmers kindly shared with SDGs explorers, “Every household in Xishan has a tea garden of their own. With the efforts of the local government, the brand of Xishan Biluochun has become well-known, allowing the elderly in the villages to get decent jobs and achieve income growth without leaving their hometown.” This precisely verified the concept of “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”.
Freshly picked tea-leaves were quickly stir-fried by SDGs explorers and the color of tea-leaves was gradually turning from fresh green to dark green. After the stir-fry, the tips of tea-leaves were slightly curled and the shape of tea-leaves showed a spiral shape. After 50 minutes of stir-frying, when the tea-leaves start to emit aroma, a good cup of tea was made.
Meanwhile, according to the observations of SDGs explorers, in most of the tea gardens in Xishan, the job of tea picking is mostly completed by women, while in tea factories, the job of stir-frying tea is mostly done by men. Each process of tea making contains advantages of different genders!
After the season of tea harvesting, in order to preserve soil fertility in the tea mountain after spring, tea farmers will cut down two-thirds of the tea trees in order to nourish the new buds of the next year. At the same time, tea farmers are also ready for the ripening of loquat! In the process of SDGs explorers exploring tea mountains, they also found loquat, chestnut, oats, Chinese elm and other cash crops along the way.
In the greenhouses at the foot of the mountain, villagers were carrying seasonal vegetables and fruit.
In April, Biluochun will be on market for sale, and in May, loquat will be on market. In the latter half of the year, sweet peach will be on market. For hundreds of years, the unique tea and fruit complex planting in Xishan formed a traditional and resilient ecosystem, and created a landscape of “Flowers bloom in every month and fruit ripen in every season” and brought variety sources of economic income to the villagers, and protected the soil fertility and water and soil balance of Xishan island.
Fragrant Tea Drives Local Economic Growth Since Ancient Time, While Tourism Contributes to Local Economic Growth in Modern Time
Mr. Dai, a local tea merchant from Xishan who has been running tea business for generations, talked about his experience with ease while twisting a piece of tea leave, “Before the tea got the name Biluochun, it was known as ‘Xia Sha Ren Xiang (Scary Aroma)’, which named since the locals exclaim in Wu Dialect that ‘the tea emits a type of scary aroma’ after the aroma emitted by steeping tea. When the Emperor Kangxi visited Jiangnan, he thought that the name of tea was not elegant, so he named it Biluochun, according to the green color of the tea and a shape resembling a snail.”
The reason why Biluochun, as a major local traditional agricultural product and one of the tribute teas of Ancient China, continuously generating economic income for local people, is the careful care of this precious land by local village committee and villagers. The unique natural scenery, the fruit being praised unanimously and the tea with aroma attract thousands of tourists, and contribute to the rich historical and cultural resources.
Dongcun, as an ancient village, has a history of over 2000 years. It is one of the important historical and cultural resources of Xishan. Although the tourist resource of Dongcun is not as famous as Mingyuewan, which is the place of Fuchai, the King of Wu Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period, and Xishi, his concubine, admiring the moon. However, Dongcun has preserved the most original lifestyle of local residents in Xishan. The villagers earn their livings with tea and fruit. Each family hangs a “tea flag” on the horse-head wall. Several Chinese rural dogs were sitting on the ground, wagging their tails and observing the unfamiliar passersby. Farmland near the house planted fresh vegetables and the fruit trees and flowers filled in the fences, created a harmonious and beautiful rural scenery.
The unique environment of Xishan has shaped the current economic development structure that combines ecological agriculture and sustainable cultural tourism. The development goals of efficiency, harmony, and sustainability have replaced traditional inefficient, conflicting, and single development goals.
Protecting Life on Land through Ecological Agriculture, Promoting Climate Action with Zero “Food Miles”
Xishan vigorously develops ecological agriculture and maintains the biodiversity, structural stability, and functional sustainability of the local ecosystem through scientific and effective means. SDGs explorers are also practicing carbon reduction actions of their own through planting hollies in Xishan. As a hedge in cities and gardens in Jiangnan, hollies are green and shiny all year round, with a high air purification effect. Hollies can absorb carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and formaldehyde gases in the air. Also, hollies can add a new piece of green to the local area and convey vitality.
Every type of food has its best taste period. Choosing seasonal and local food can greatly shorten food mile, reduce carbon emissions, avoid adding preservatives, and reduce the loss of nutrients and flavors during refrigerated transportation. May is the season of harvesting fruit and vegetable in Xishan. SDGs explorers brought the vegetables and watermelons picking by themselves to the dining table, and enjoyed the delicious food and the beautiful scenery of Xishan.
Knowledge Popularization: Food Miles refers to the distance between consumers and the origin of the food. With the food miles increasing, the transportation process would be longer, and the materials used for food packaging and preservation, the gasoline consumed by transportation along the way, and the resulting exhaust gas would be increasing, which could cause the increasing of the burden on the environment. SDGs explorers encourage public to pay more attention to nearby farms and supermarkets and purchase local food!
Environmentally Friendly Reuse of Wheat Straw & Sustainable “Plastic Reduction” Consumption
The harvested wheat will accumulate a large amount of straw, and seemingly useless wheat straw actually has a lot of reuse values, and environmentally friendly tableware is one of the reuse values. SDGs explorers using reusable and degradable wheat straw tableware during the exploration process is a typical behavior of reusing raw materials. Such behavior not only reduce environmental pollution caused by burning straw, but also reduce the use of disposable plastics.
Enterprise vs Village Committee, A Seminar on Strategies of Green Economy
With the increasing demand for Biluochun, the economic income of local villagers continues to grow, and more and more villagers are joining the team of planting Biluochun. Although Biluochun is good, the tea mountain may face the risk of excessive cultivation, which would lead to local soil erosion, environmental degradation, and ultimately affect the development of the tea industry and tourism. So how do local enterprises and local village committees ensure sustainability of Xishan while meeting the demand of development?
After experiencing the whole field trip, SDGs explorers from PayPal shared their feelings and achievements from the perspectives of entrepreneurs and village committee members, providing a lot of suggestions and strategies for the sustainable development of tea economy in Xishan!
Enterprise Group 1: Carry out step by step inspection from production, planting, processing, distribution to retail in order to achieve the ultimate in products.
Enterprise Group 2: Take various internal measures to enrich the variety of cash crop, improve energy utilization, promote usage of organic fertilizers, strengthen internal awareness, while strengthen industry communication and scientific research cooperation externally.
Village Committee Group 3: Consolidate the tea industry in Xishan and discover the beauty of Xishan and attract and retain talents.
Village Committee Group 4: Innovation is the first driving force for development!
Enterprise Group 5: Form the combined industrial structure of tea, fruit, and poultry farming and promote the idea scientific planting and management, while develop the surrounding industries.
In the end, the nine explorers of Enterprise Group 2 were awarded the title of “The Outstanding Explorer of SDGs” for their outstanding logic, feasibility, innovation, sustainability, and aesthetics.
This field trip fulfilled with the elements of green economy came to an end in the sharing of SDGs Explorers.
“Before registration, I was required to fill a questionnaire and one question is ‘Do you know what the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are?’. I can easily google the answers and write it down. However, I chose to experience and understand what the SDGs actually are through a real field trip. I did it!”
“I love outdoor exploration very much. During this field trip, everyone achieved the goal of bringing their own water cups, slippers, toothbrushes, toothpastes, and towels, etc. to reduce the use of disposable items. After we return to the company, we also look forward to seeing a deeper paperless office through company’s top-down management…”
One person’s power is very weak. However, if one person’s power could affect ten people and continue to circulate like this, it could affect millions of people, families, communities, even whole society. Just like the Sponsor of Community Impact Team, Ms. Lili CHEN expressed in her affirmation to this green economy field trip and expectations for every participant, “The two-day SDGs field trip is a starting point. The power of the Community Impact Team will continue to grow. Community Impact Team will continuously leverage the wisdom and power of linking different community resources to jointly create a social environment suitable for sustainable development.”
As the content planner for this green economy field trip, Ms. Huan NI, founder of Green Light Year, stated, “I am very pleased to see every participant’s thought and feeling about the development of Xishan’s green economy during the process of tea picking, tea stir-frying, hiking, and tree planting. The deep thinking of employees from different departments of PayPal on ecological and economic sustainable development cannot be separated from the influence of corporate culture in daily work…There are still 7 years left for China to achieves its goal of “Peak carbon dioxide emissions” by 2030, and there are also 7 years left for the United Nations on it propose to achieve Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. The youth of enterprises play a crucial role in promoting Sustainable Development! Green Light Year is very much looking forward to creating or leveraging opportunities for more young people to experience and create together.”
One person can walk quickly, while a group of people can walk far!
Acknowledgement
Here, we would like to express our sincerely appreciation to Ms. Lili CHEN, Sponsor of Community Impact Team, Mr. Mingqing TANG, Chairman, Ms. Ying LU, Project Leader, and Group Leaders Ms. Peiying XIONG, Mr. Zihang WANG, Ms. Lili BI, Ms. Yin SUN, Ms. Hui ZOU, for their strong support for this field trip!
Time for the Stinger!
In her final comments, Ms. Huan NI specifically mentioned the natural empathy and concern of SDG explorers of PayPal for multi stakeholders, which overturned her stereotype of employees in Information Communication Technology (ICT) companies. Therefore, she found that PayPal ranked 25/150 (2021) and 15/200 (2023) among 200 global ICT peers under the Digital Inclusion Benchmark of World Benchmarks Alliance (WBA). The ranking is formed entirely through independent research by a third-party non-profit organization. Congratulations to PayPal Global and Local Teams!
Author: Hanchun ZHANG, Nannan Xie
Translator：Mingchuan CHEN
Photographer: Mingxuan CAI, Shiming OU
Editor：Xiajing SHENG