Peggy Liu has only been a green crusader for two and a half years, but she has already been named as a Time magazine Hero of the Environment 2008. A go-getting American-born Chinese business woman, in 2007, she stepped out of the business world and started an NGO, JUCCCE, which stands for Joint US-China Collaboration on Clean Energy.

Her organization has a decade-long plan to accelerate China's use of efficient and green energy by providing a high-profile platform between the US and China.

Asked where the impetus came from to start such an ambitious project, Liu says that after she helped MIT to organize a meeting in 2007 about green energy, she was persuaded that this was an issue of vital importance for the future of the planet. And as a mother of two boys, aged 4 and 6, Liu also feels that her mission is personal.

Liu is an astute networker. Former business experience and contacts have helped to attract an A-list cast of environmental campaigners to her cause. Listed in JUCCCE's committee are some high-powered names from the business and entertainment worlds, and the International green movement such as Richard Branson, the Brit who founded Virgin Group, Rob Watson, the American who founded the LEED green building certification system, and famous Chinese actress Li Bingbing.

Pictures of Peggy Liu standing next to Bill Clinton, speaking to Chinese mayors, and together with Chinese super model Du Juan are displayed next to each other on JUCCCE's website. It seems impressive to have achieved so much in a relatively short time, but Liu is driven to succeed.

Her family background has helped: Her father, Dr. Liu Yingwu was a household name in American IT circles, and is remembered as an industry legend. Originally from Hunan Province, Dr. Liu graduated from Princeton, and went on to help develop global computing brands like IBM and ACER. Liu's passion for hard work was certainly encouraged by her father: Even in his 70s, he started Augmentum, a leading software developers in China.

"I was taught by my father to think ahead, think forward, and plan how to get there," says Liu. "He told me that being smart is not enough. There are always smarter people. To be successful, I must work harder than others."

Energizer bunny

JUCCCE's speedy success and Liu's ambitious dreams may naturally provoke an image of a superwoman, but she doesn't come over that way in person. She is funny, relaxed, and understanding. "People call me the energizer bunny," says Liu, laughing out loud.

"JUCCCE's work is like a big party," says Liu. "We call for the action and collaboration of people of different backgrounds and resources, and this is like inviting people to come to a dinner party with their dishes and personality. How successful the dinner party is depends on whom you invited to the party and how delicious the dishes are."

"To host a party all by oneself is very demanding: Too much time, expense and effort. But to work as a group, the party can be put together quickly and a gala is ready to go."

And Liu is the master gourmet who guides the party. A look at JUCCCE's website will show how many projects they are involved in, from training mayors from China's biggest cities, to more grassroots campaigns like providing 10 million low-energy light bulbs for Chinese students.

There are tips and hints on how to go green and live sustainably, both for businesses and regular families. And some rather alarming environmental statistics about how much electricity our regular home appliances use and the fact that Chinese offices throw away enough paper to build a new Great Wall, 4 meters high from Shanghai to Urumqi

Valley girl

Raised in Silicon Valley, near San Francisco, US, Liu's childhood dream was not connected to the environment. Rather, she wanted to be an engineer and make robots. "I wanted to design robots and help improve people's living standards through technology," says Liu.

A bit different from most girls, her favorite toy was not Barbie, but the world's first personal computer. So it was not a stretch for Liu to end up at MIT studying computer science. After graduating, she worked in California as a software programmer, as a McKinsey consultant, as an Internet entrepreneur, and later helped her husband start a venture capital fund in Shanghai.

When she organized the MIT conference on the future of clean energy in China, her life took a new direction. "I was convinced by the US and Chinese government representatives that we need to move beyond just talk of cooperation, to start real programmatic collaboration on clean energy," she says.

With their support, she launched a series of dialogues between experts to understand how to accelerate the greening of China. And JUCCCE's key strategy was formed out of this process.

Liu started to take on a new identity: A de facto green Ambassador, carrying the message of understanding and cooperation between the two countries. To spread her message, she flies around the world, speaking at events to politicians, business leaders, activists, and scholars. Her goal is to introduce a real picture of China.

Most recently, she participated in a 2-week long Economist online debate to defend China's role as a world leader in trying to solve issues related to climate change.

Multi-tasker

Largely due to Peggy's extensive Rolodex and mature business skills, JUCCCE showed vigorous life signs from the beginning, and is becoming a high-level informal dialogue platform between the two countries. Liu has identified the urgent need to bring Chinese voices to the American media to foster communication on the green issues going beyond just national politics.

"American-born Chinese living in China, like me, and returnees can navigate between both cultures," she says. "We are naturally raised in a combined cultural background, and are well-informed about both countries' traditions, mentality, and situation. More importantly, we are inherently linked with both."

Liu is a ferocious multi-tasker. In addition to her green campaigning, she is a wife and mother with all the attendant responsibilities that entails.

Almost as precise and reliable as an alarm clock, Liu starts networking on Skype every night around midnight. "I begin a new round of working every day after my two kids go to bed," she says. "I designed JUCCCE as the type of organization that suits my life and I work for it 24 hours a day."

No matter what Liu is doing, crusading, partying or hanging out with her kids, she constantly absorbs information. She wants to inspire as the leader of JUCCCE, passing on and circulating the knowledge and vision JUCCCE holds.

"I will commit 10 years of my life to doing green work, so that our children may have a better future," says the campaigner. Like every mother, Liu desires to make a better and healthier world for her children.

Source: Liu Xian for Global Times