Ma Jun and the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (A)

Abstract

This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. After joining an international environmental consultancy firm, Ma Jun, a journalist in the People's Republic of China, was increasingly interested in environmental issues. Wanting to do more than report on these issues, he started to consider founding a nongovernmental organization (NGO) focusing on environmental protection and relying on public participation to keep companies accountable. This idea became the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE). In the course of establishing the IPE, Ma encountered so many crucial problems and challenges that he wondered if he could still go on, and how he could do so effectively.

Excerpt

UVA-OB-1303

Giving Voice to Values

Mar. 3, 2020

Ma Jun and the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (A)

In June 2005, Ma Jun ended a one-year study at Yale University and returned to China. At that time he faced a major choice. Given the increasingly prominent problems of environmental pollution and ecological deterioration in China, what could he do to more effectively promote China's environmental and ecological protection? Was founding a nongovernmental organization (NGO) the best choice? How could an NGO interact with the government and enterprises in order to promote and improve China's environmental protection more effectively? Ma needed to think carefully and prudently.

Ten Years in the Newspaper Industry

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Keywords: information disclosure, check and balance, moral judgment, public participation, sustainability, NGOs, social enterprises, Giving Voice to Values, GVV, China, business ethics, social responsibility, value-based leadership, pollution, oversight, environmental protection