With China becoming the “Factory of the World”, the manufacturing enterprises in China are producing numerous industrial left-overs everyday, which have become one of the biggest sources for environmental pollution, and recycling them consumes more energy.
Unlike recycling, upcycling involves using something in a new way without doing anything to reprocess the material it is made from. As well as being more energy efficient, another major benefit of upcycling is that it makes it possible to reuse items made of materials which could not be dealt with by conventional recycling methods.
Low Carbon Design, also known as Sustainable Design in UK, is regarded as the best approach to realize “upcycling” through innovative designs. Since 21st century, based on the three principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, various approaches such as ecological design contests, experiments and commercial innovations with the aim of achieving sustainable development, have become important means for low carbon economic development across the world.
The Low Carbon Industries Association of Guangzhou is supported by Guangzhou Municipal Development and Reform Commission. It has a wide network with industrial enterprises and educational institutions around China while it also owns rich experience in organising industrial design related programmes such as Guangzhou International Design Festival.
The School of Innovation Design, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, is one of the universities who introduced the course of Industrial Design into China. It has nearly 30 years’ experience in both the education of industrial design and the international collaborations in related areas. It is one of the key organisers of the annual international event of Guangzhou Design Week and has long history of cooperating with the Cultural and Education Section of British Embassy in China.
Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS-China) is a network composed of 6 top Chinese design schools sharing common orientation and sense of mission on the promotion of design for social innovation and sustainability. They are College of Design & Innovation Tongji University, Academy of Arts & Design Tsinghua University, School of Design Hunan University, College of Design Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design Jiangnan University, and School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Guangzhou Valuda Group Co. Ltd, one of the leading enterprises in the area of recycling of resources, was founded in year 1994, with accreditation from the Economic and Information Commission of Guangdong Province. With over 17 years’ efforts, it has grown into an enterprise which provides services ranging from re-collecting, reprocessing and recycling of both industrial wastes such as plastics, iron, steel, other metals and non woven materials and city wastes. With 16 branch companies, an area of 300 mu for production and another area of 150,000 square meters of standardized plants, Valuda is doing its business with the core area of Pearl River Delta and the extended areas of Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu Region and East China. Valuda has also built strategic relationships with many world top enterprises which have branches in the Pearl River Delta.
UK is in the leading position in the world on industrial design. Some universities have already shown interests in international collaboration programmes with Chinese universities.
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