Since founding Broad Air Conditioning in 1988, CEO Zhang Yue has gone from being China’s original tycoon – he was the first Chinese person to own a private jet – to one of its most prominent environmentalists. Broad sells non-electric chillers powered by clean, recyclable energies to over 60 countries. And the boss asks his workers to follow his “22 Principles of a Virtuous Citizen of the Planet”. — mz

Some of Zhang Yue’s ‘virtuous citizen’ principles:

01 Life: Be concerned about the big issues facing the planet; be determined to keep up with the modern tide; think about your way of life for future generations and change behaviours that create waste and pollution, as they are habits that do not truly bring happiness.

02 Family: Only have one child. (In terms of CO2 emissions, not having a second child is the equivalent of planting 270 trees.)

03 Simplicity: Honour frugality.

04 Keeping cool: When it is not too hot, use ventilation and fans to replace air conditioning.

05 Re-using things: Do not quickly throw away extra food, used clothes and paper, which has only been used on one side.

06 Disposable income: Use extra money to buy organic foods, durable goods with low resource costs, art and other products that make for a healthy life; do not use it to buy a bigger house.

07 Using your brain: Observe, learn, think, create, make friends and do house-work to enrich life. Do not use shopping or travel to far off locations to fill the void in life.

08 Waste: Every day have the family record how many kilogrammes of goods it buys and see how this total weight compares to the total weight of the family. At the end of the year, make a total and compare year-on-year statistics, and tell other people how your family did in reducing waste.

Here is a PDF of the original article as published in the November issue of Monocle magazine: