Veolia Environnement, a world leader in environmental services, is playing an active role in China's environmental protection efforts in order to promote sustainable development.

These projects include the Environment and Sustainable Development Leadership Programme intended to help Chinese officials understand and meet the challenges of sustainable development.

Launched by Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering of Tsinghua University, the programme has been given sufficient core funding for three years by Veolia Environnement and its divisions, Onyx Asia and Veolia Water Asia.

In another development, Onyx Asia - Veolia Environnement's subsidiary in charge of waste management - entered into a partnership and sponsorship agreement with Shanghai's Tongji University in November 2002 to develop a training programme for local students to support the company's future growth in China.

The first batch of 12 students were sent to France in October 2003 for an eight-month classroom training and a six-month internship; two of them received a scholarship from Onyx Asia. The agreement is for five years.

Veolia Environnement launched its "streamer around the world" campaign this year, involving more than 30 countries, including France and China. Under the campaign, teams of primary school students, aged nine to 11, have the chance to participate in an international discussion campaign on environmental protection and its relationship with health under the patronage of UNESCO's French National Committee.

Participating schools have worked on the design of a symbolic streamer which reflects the theme "The environment is my nature... and my health." Children have been asked to draw their visions of health and the environment on the streamer.

A Chinese national winner was selected in April in Beijing and the victorious team was invited to redraw their design during the national ceremony. This message was sent to Paris together with submissions from all the other countries.

The final selection of the worldwide winning streamer took place on World Environment Day, June 5, in Paris. The messages on the children's streamers have since been duplicated and are now floating in all corners of the earth.

(China Daily 09/20/2005 page4)