MENU

About the Organization

The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) is a non-profit organization based in Beijing. They have developed pollution databases to monitor corporate environmental performance and to facilitate public participation in environmental governance. IPE provides a wealth of information about the state of pollution in China, and the companies and factories responsible. Their website allows users to search the environmental records of Chinese manufacturers, locate the companies on a map, and view the status of air and water pollution in their regions. IPE’s aim is to expand environmental information disclosure to allow communities to fully understand the hazards in their surrounding environment, thereby promoting public participation in environmental governance. The IPE is a member of a coalition of Chinese NGOs that promotes a global green supply chain by pushing large corporations to pay attention to the environmental performance of their suppliers. This ‘Green Choice Alliance’ consumer initiative considers the environmental performance of manufacturers and calls on consumers and brands to use their purchasing power to make green choices.

https://staging.skoll.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ipe-sl1.jpg

Economic progress in China has come at a cost – serious pollution and degradation of air, water, and land.

https://staging.skoll.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ipe-sl2.jpg

IPE analyzes data on environmental violations and makes it accessible to the press, investors, and citizens.

https://staging.skoll.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ipe-sl3.jpg

Ma Jun's experience as a journalist convinced him that transparency and disclosure are more urgently needed than additional regulation.

https://staging.skoll.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ipe-sl4.jpg

1,400 factories have taken steps to reduce pollution as a result of data transparency.

Ambition for Change

Information on sources of pollution pressures multinational companies to force their subsidiaries and suppliers to clean up factories, and helps the central government hold local governments accountable for enforcement.

Path to Scale

Citizen Engagement in Policy Action Web-based platform makes pollution information widely available. Partnerships with grassroots organizations encourage dissemination and action. Partnerships with companies and governments identify practical and reasonable solutions.

Skoll Awardee

As an investigative journalist traveling throughout China, Ma Jun saw the dark side of his country’s economic growth – polluted rivers and lakes, foul air. His 1999 book,China’s Water Crisis, was the first major publication on China’s environment, often compared to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as a call for massive action. His research showed that despite good intentions, government capacity to enforce environmental standards was weak. Polluters often found penalties and fines less onerous than the cost of compliance. Convinced that public engagement was crucial for better compliance, he founded the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in 2006. IPE gathers and analyzes hard-to-find, public environmental data on water and air quality and environmental violations records across China. IPE makes this data accessible and easy to use, so that the press, investors, and citizens can hold suppliers, multinational corporations, and local governments accountable. IPE’s Corporate Information Transparency Index ranks multinational brands by their environmental impact. Its Pollution Information Transparency Index ranks 120 Chinese cities according to their level of environmental information disclosure. A mobile app called the Blue Map allows users to see air quality by location and which nearby companies are polluting. And through its Green Choice Alliance, IPE partners with grassroots NGOs who pressure factories and help publicize environmental violations to inspire local regulatory action.

Impact & Accomplishments
  • Due in large part to IPE’s efforts the public is now able to access  roughly 70 percent of violation records as a growing number of major Chinese cities (334 out of 338 in 2019) are disclosing their list of polluting entities.
  • In 2018, the number of factories that communicated with IPE to address their environmental violations or disclose environmental data reached 2,598, which is 80 percent more than in 2017, showing that increased transparency can lead to real change.
  • IPE’s work has driven many influential companies to serve as catalysts for environmental sustainability through supply chain management, as evidenced by initiatives such as the Green Choice Alliance. The Green Choice Alliance engages 370 domestic and international companies, which include some of the world’s leading brands, such as Apple, Levi’s, Samsung, Target, Walmart, Primark and Huawei.
In the News
Related Content

How Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs Harnessed Big Data to Map the Pandemic

The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), a 2015 Skoll Awardee, is a pioneering NGO that developed the first public database of water pollution information in China and brought…

How Big Data Helps Ma Jun Fight for Blue Skies and Clean Rivers in China

Long before he founded the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), Ma Jun was a trailblazing investigative environmental journalist in China. His groundbreaking reporting on the mounting environmental crisis…

The Skoll Foundation Approach to Visual Storytelling

Invest. Connect. Celebrate. That’s the Skoll Foundation mission in a nutshell, and the ‘celebrate’ part of that triad is where Skoll’s storytelling resources take center stage with the medium of…

See All Awardees