Blue App: Oak partner wins prize

Ma Jun, the leader of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) has been awarded the highest honorary Royal Dutch Prince Claus Award.

The Dutch Royal family designed the award to honour outstanding individuals contributing to cultural and social affairs. In December 2017, Ma Jun received the award for his work on using social media to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in China.

Ma Jun was selected from 143 candidates for the IPE’s Blue Map App (supported by Oak) which empowers people and promotes public engagement in pollution information disclosure for the benefit of the people. The Blue Map App is a mobile phone application that allows anybody with a smart-phone to monitor hourly factory emissions all over China, with links to report violations.

Thousands of people use the Blue App which is being continually improved and updated by Ma Jun’s team to help consumers make greener choices and to encourage brands to be cleaner.

Established in 2006, the Beijing-based IPE belongs to a coalition of organisations in China participating in the Green Choice Alliance. This is a consumer initiative that looks at the environmental performance of manufacturers and calls on shoppers and well-known brands to use their purchasing power to make green choices.

This work fits in under our Climate Change sub-Programme strategy of our Environment Programme, which supports organisations that protect clean air, build healthy and resilient communities and create jobs in the clean energy sector around the world.

Congratulations to Ma Jun on this recognition from all of us at Oak!

Read more about this here.