Center for Social Innovation

The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, led by prominent Chinese environmentalist Ma Jun, was a small non-profit organization with an outsized mission. The Beijing-based group aimed to “green” China’s manufacturing facilities. The IPE operated a public, online databases of air and water violations by factories throughout China, creating a groundbreaking “blacklist” of polluters. By mid-2009, IPE had compiled databases with more than 47,000 air and water violations. To get off the list, 22 multinational corporations took corrective actions and accepted IPE-supervised environmental audits of their Chinese factories. Ma was a champion of increasing access to environmental information, which he believed could bring public pressure on companies to operate more responsibly. Ma also was a well-respected voice on China’s environment and a leading advocate of public participation in managing China’s environment. IPE's story presents the surprising contributions that a non-governmental organization can make in bringing about environmental change, and highlights the role that information transparency and supply chain improvements can play in reducing pollution.