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Planting biodiverse ideas in kids' heads

By Bao Chang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-07 10:21

Beijing - Gaspard De Roquefeuil, a member of staff with the procurement department of Airbus China, didn't negotiate with suppliers in the office as usual two Fridays ago but enjoyed two new experiences after he was transferred to Airbus China operations from Paris six months ago.

Students at the Airbus Innovation School in Mianyang work on an experiment under the guidance of Catherine Delmotte (third from right), vice-president of Airbus China. [PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY]

For the first time, the 25-year-old French man wore a Chinese young pioneers' red scarf and helped Chinese children plant flowers. "I got the red scarf as a gift from Zhang Qi, my planting partner. I'm so happy making friends with Chinese pupils," said Gaspard, with a grin on his face.

At least 26 employees from Airbus China and 200 pupils from Airbus Innovation School in Mianyang county, Sichuan province, created a new garden called "Airbus Garden" to celebrate "The Green Wave" established by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to encourage young people to engage with biodiversity on May 21.

"We are trying to raise the environmental awareness of pupils in the earthquake-stricken area to make them open-minded and offer relief from the disaster," Catherine Delmotte, vice-president of Airbus China, said.

Airbus Innovation School is located in Jinfeng Town, Mianyang county, Sichuan province, where the disastrous 8-maginitude earthquake struck in 2008. Last June Airbus donated 500,000 yuan to rebuild the school, which was shattered during the earthquake, and renamed it as "Airbus Innovation School".

The new school has an area of 1.67 hectares, four times more than the old one. It is surrounded by three buildings with decorated with blue and white stripes. The three structures are a teaching building, dormitory and student canteen. Pupils from 10,000 households in Jinfeng study and live there. Pupils will move into the new school in September this year.

The location of the Airbus Garden has been carefully planned, being sited between the canteen and teaching building. Xie Jiabin, principal of the new school, said: "Pupils will come to think about the protection for biodiversity when they pass by the Airbus Garden, which they established themselves between the teaching building and the canteen."

In the second half of this year, employees from Airbus China will make speeches about the protection of biodiversity and aviation knowledge for pupils on a regular basis. Meanwhile, the planned Airbus Corner displaying green-aviation technology will bring pupils closer to the "green-flight industry".

Related readings:  Airbus dresses plane as shark  Airbus jets out the tenth A320 from China  China gets tougher about protecting environment  Embrace nature on World Environment Day

All of these are part of "The Green Wave" activities enjoined by 52,000 Airbus employees around the world. They are aimed at raising environmental awareness.

The solution to tackling carbon dioxide emissions in the aviation industry is critical because unlike fumes from other vehicles, plane trails help make the clouds that can intensify the greenhouse effect.

At present, aviation contributes 2 percent to manmade CO2 emissions across the world. As a leading aircraft manufacturer, Airbus is making efforts to tackle CO2 emissions through its global network using its Green Wave activities.

This year, in Germany, Airbus set up hives for 100,000 bees at Finkerwerder Airport. In the US, Airbus held a biodiversity photography contest. In the UK, Airbus took part in the country's second annual "BioBlitz" - a 30-hour race against the clock to identify as many species of animals and plants as possible in one area.