(Photo/YSI China)

Imagine a new type of ink made of vehicle exhaust and PM 2.5, or a fancy notebook which can be reused thousand times. These futuristic ideas are not from a sci-fi novel. They are part of efforts by Chinese youth to promote sustainable development.

Youthful but ambitious and confident, China’s younger generation, with their innovative startup projects, exchanged their knowledge at this year’s Young Sustainable Impact (YSI) China summit, co-hosted with Lingang International Innovation Center, in eastern China’s Shanghai in late July.

Such green products are commodities traded on a platform built by EnvironChoice, one of the creative startups at this year’s summit. The company is determined to sell useful products that are novel, practical, and sustainable. By providing more alternatives for its consumers, they hope to foster a new consumption conception that benefits the ecosystem.

After China implemented the garbage sorting system in Shanghai, how to sort trash has become a daily puzzle for local citizens. An application developed by Lü Jue could help people identify types of garbage more quickly and easily. Meanwhile, people could win coupons by accurately answering questions related to garbage sorting, said its director at the summit.

Another project under the spotlight is a series of antifouling agents extracted from natural products to prevent algae and mollusks from attaching to hulls. Developed on the basis of a research by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the coating introduced by SeaSafe could replace the existing heavy metal ones with its higher efficiency and zero-pollution materials. The technology has already been approved by government and will be introduced to the public soon, according to its team members, who shared their achievements at this year’s YSI China summit.

About 650 individual applications and 101 project ones were received this year, which shows Chinese youth enthusiasm towards startups and the world’s sustainable development, Dai Kai, the CEO of YSI China told People’s Daily Online.

Established in 2016, the Norway-based organization aims to promote sustainable development and achieve the UN sustainable development goals as incubators for startups. It expanded to China in 2018 and now a conference is held annually in Shanghai.

“We hope to attract more young entrepreneurs and industrial representatives to voice their insights on sustainability and take actions,” Kai said.