Today's topic was sustainability and our group traveled by bus to the other side of Shanghai for our meeing at the Aurora Plaza in the Pudong area (the financial district of the city).

First to speak was Rich Brubaker who is the Founder and Managing Partner of China Strategic Development Partners, based in Shanghai. Rich gave an overview on a range of topics, speaking to the environmental impacts of China's rapid expansion to how the country is experiencing a shift in mindset toward how the environment should be better protected. Rich used examples, such as a lake in the region that has experienced algae blooms due to the chemicals running into the water supply, to highlight how pollution is directly impacting the livelihood of those in China. These events, Rich mentioned, have caused the Chinese population to demand better standards. Even though some improvements have been made, Rich mentioned there is still a long way to go.

This theme was continued by Jim McIlvenny, President, Asia Pacific & Greater China for The Dow Chemical Company. Jim echoed many of the same topics Rich discussed, but was able to show how business is not as usual for new developments in manufacturing and chemical processing plants. Jim said that the Chinese government is now demanding much more stringent regulations on where plants can be built and is enforcing some regulations now. However, again Jim mentioned that this is still much more room for improvement. One of the benefits of Jim's talk was he provided insight on what Dow is doing to ensure that is contributing to sustainable practices in China. Their new factory being designed is targeted to have zero discharge in its operations. Though they still have some more work to do to achieve this goal, Jim used this as an example to show that much progress is being made by muti-nationals that are operating in China.

The afternoon session was on our own and a group of us ate lunch at a local Chinese restaurant right across the street from our hotel. It was fun to have everyone order a dish or two and then be able to sample all the different foods. If you have ever seen the opening scene to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, there is a scene where Indiana Jones is at a nightclub sitting around a table that has a spinning circle in the middle. Most of the Chinese restaurants we have dined at have this same spinning circle, which makes it easy to pass around the different dishes. Overall, it had great food and we found ourselves eating at this restaurant again for dinner.

After lunch, we walked to the Shanghai Museum, which houses Chinese art and artifacts. Many of the artifacts dated back over a thousand years, so it really put in perspective how long the Chinese culture has been developing. The walk through the museum also provided us the opportunity to see many of the traditional masks, which were housed at the museum.