Having worked closely in the past, we here at enoVate are familiar with the ideals and practices of Greennovate. For those unfamiliar, Greennovate is made up of a group of creative thinkers from around the world. Their goal is to promote greater environmental awareness in China through both social and business platforms.
Having already launched two successful campaigns with eno, Greennovate have already started to raise eco-awareness amongst young Chinese. enoVate got in touch with Greennovate founder Mihela Hladin to get her opinion on eco-awareness and the Chinese youth.

Can you give us an overview of Greennovate and your work within the eco-friendly product space?
We are a social enterprise, developing ideas for sustainable future. Our projects are focused on raising environmental awareness and sustainable development for businesses and communities in China. We are following the trends in eco friendly products from the consumers, retailers and manufacturers perspective. We encourage businesses and consumers to see the big picture of each product including raw materials, their source and production process. Calling a product green or eco friendly is getting more sensitive as consumers are getting more curious on environmental related topics and they are speaking out on social media. It’s a challenging time where it is important for companies to strategize beyond one product line or sustainability part and really start incorporating environmental and social principles into the whole business model.

What can brands do to encompass a greener perspective whilst remaining relevant to ever changing youth trends?
We think that most important thing is to educate the consumers. With all the ‘greenwashing’ going on I think consumers will go for honest approaches, even though they might look like smaller steps. Every brand should develop a long term sustainability strategy and be transparent in how they are getting there, rather than popularizing one or two ‘green’ actions and calling themselves green.

greennovate x eno - neti charms

What ways does Greennovate work to target and communicate with the Chinese youth? What is most effective in getting your key messages across?

We started partnering with designers because we believe that fashion is a good communication channel for environmental education. It is a way to build awareness and get young consumers encouraged to go and learn more themselves. We are also building up the capacity on Chinese social media, having a lot of interesting content available which is spurring ideas and calling out for participation. We found it very exciting with the amount of young people coming back to us and discussing what they are concerned about and how willing they are to live more sustainable lifestyles.

What is the biggest challenge for companies looking to create and source eco-friendly product in China?
I think access to the relevant information and where to source is the first challenge. Then pricing is usually right after that as there is a constant struggle on how to justify the higher price on eco products. The real challenge as we see it is how to get consumers to understand why to pay more and relate to it on their rational and emotional level. Most of the feedback that we get is that they buy eco products because they are cool, and only after that, because they are eco friendly. This has to do with young people not really seeing the real connection between the eco friendly product and the size of the environmental challenges that they know of.

What is the most surprising or interesting thing you have learned to date through working with the Chinese youth?
For me it’s always so amazing how they are willing to learn if information is presented in fun and engaging ways. The Chinese young people that we are working with, in different places around China, are always asking: “What can I do, what can I do?” We think this is a great opportunity for the companies to build loyalty for their brands, through transparent environmental commitments and initiatives.

To commemorate Earth Day, eno partnered with Greenovate to launch the NETI campaign. You see, NETI is a yeti. NETI the Yeti lives in the wilderness and survives off the land. The environment is NETI’s home. However, their home is in danger along with the rest of Earth. Something must be done to save it!

NETI has four colorful personalities to express his thoughts about planet Earth: Orange NETI feels the Earth is too hot, Blue NETI thinks that clean water is important, Green Neti strongly believes that trees are essential to life, Black NETI feels everyone should recycle and properly throw our their waste. Taking part in these four actions will help save planet Earth and NETI’s home!

Along with developing the NETI concept, eno designed eco-friendly T-Shirts and bio-degradable, cellulose cell phone charms that can be purchased on World Earth Day, June 5th to show your support for Neti and the enivornment. These are available in the four NETI colors, orange, green, blue, and black. Special hang-tags are included with the t-shirts that provide 3 ways to make a difference in the environment.

eno had a great presence and turn out yesterday at Greenovate’s Earth Day event. It was great to see both the local and foreign community of Shanghai interacting with NETI and creating their own personalized Neti messages.

eno and enoVate are extremely excited to promote their eco-friendly message to the youth of China. China’s youth has the ability make a huge difference in environmental change and we hope the NETI campaign is one of many steps in this process!

This is not a one time only event. eno is committed to their eco-friendly message and will be introducing additional eco-friendly products every few months. These products will be environmentally friendly and appeal to China’s youth.

Head over to enovatechina.com and eno.cn and greennovate.org for more exciting NETI information!