想要拯救中國環境的商界母女

While the US-China climate deal grabbed headlines this week, a mother-daughter team on the ground in Hong Kong were mounting their own ambitious vision: To inject environmental protection into the ethos of China’s business and consumer community.

上週，中美氣候協議登上了新聞頭條，與此同時，香港的一對母女也在講述自己的宏偉願景：爲中國企業界和消費羣體注入環保風氣。

“We want to make a little Aspen [Institute] where people can discuss a sustainable development model 2.0,” Marjorie Yang, chair of the textile giant Esque, told me on stage at the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

上週二，在香港舉行的《財富》“最具影響力女性國際峯會”（Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit）上，紡織巨頭香港溢達集團（Esquel）董事長楊敏德在臺上告訴我：“我們希望做一個小小的阿斯彭[研究所]，人們可以在此討論可持續發展模式2.0。”

In discussions of China’s mounting pollution and waste problems, Yang is emerging as a power player. Over the past decade, the Harvard MBA (who also happens to sport an MIT math degree) has applied sustainable practices to her factories, which produce shirts under labels like Ralph Lauren [fortune-stock symbol-, Banana Republic and Tommy Hilfiger. She’s also instituted worker-friendly practices for her 59,000-person (mostly female) workforce. Now she’s bent on taking that thinking beyond her own industry. But more on that—and Yang’s “little Aspen”—in a minute.

在關於中國日益嚴重的污染和廢棄物問題的討論中，楊敏德正成爲舉足輕重的一員。作爲哈佛的MBA【同時還擁有麻省理工學院（MIT）數學學位】，楊敏德在過去十年將可持續做法應用於自身工廠。其工廠生產拉爾夫o勞倫（Ralph Lauren）、Banana Republic以及Tommy Hilfiger等品牌的襯衫。楊敏德還在其5.9萬名員工（其中大部分爲女性）中推行了員工友好實踐。如今，她決心將這種思維推廣到自己的工廠之外。不過，我們待會兒再來講這個以及楊敏德的“小阿斯彭”。

First meet Yang’s daughter—32-year-old Dee Poon, whose father is Harvey Nichols retail tycoon Dickson Poon. Hers was a youth in Esquel factories and Harvey Nichols stores. When her mother recently asked Poon if she had read Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In, Dee confessed she hadn’t finished it—she’d already grown up in that life.

我們先來認識下楊敏德的女兒——現年32歲的潘楚穎。潘楚穎的父親是Harvey Nichols百貨公司零售巨頭潘迪生。潘楚穎的青春期是在溢達集團工廠和Harvey Nichols百貨公司門店中度過。楊敏德不久前問潘楚穎有沒有看謝麗爾o桑德伯格的大作《向前一步》（Lean In），潘楚穎承認自己還沒讀完——她自身的經歷正是書中描寫的那樣。

But Poon studied philosophy, not business, at Harvard. She spent her 20s doing everything from making a short film to opening a pop-up store before returning to Esquel to revitalize the shirt brand her mother founded. The brand is called PYE, a combo of symbols reflecting Marjorie’s passion for math, profits, and fashion. (Note to shoppers—Dee is currently shopping for retail space in Manhattan.)

不過，潘楚穎在哈佛學的不是商科，而是哲學。她20多歲時嘗試了很多事情，拍過短片，開過快閃店，後來纔回到溢達集團，着手振興其母創建的襯衫品牌。該品牌名爲PYE，字母組合反映了楊敏德對數學、利潤以及時尚的激情。（買家們注意，潘楚穎目前正在曼哈頓尋找零售空間。）

Poon told me that taking over PYE “in some ways saved my life. I need a constraint or I want to do everything.” Now her focus is building a brand around classic white shirts, mostly for men. The mother-daughter duo showed up on stage in matching PYE white shirts, joking they had never had a chance to dress alike when Dee was growing up.

潘楚穎向筆者表示，接手PYE“在某種程度上救了我一命。我需要約束，不然我什麼都想幹。”現在，潘楚穎的工作重心是打造一個圍繞經典白襯衫的品牌，主要是針對男性客戶。這對母女檔上臺時都穿着PYE牌白襯衫，並開玩笑稱，潘楚穎從小到大，他們母女都沒有機會穿相似的衣服。

Like her mother, Dee Poon relentlessly talks sustainability. “We want a shirt brand that shares our life philosophy,” she said. Her commitment to customers: “Promising we can be as green and ethical and sustainable as we can be.”

同其母親一樣，潘楚穎大談可持續性。她表示：“我們希望我們的襯衫品牌能分享我們的生活理念。”潘楚穎對客戶的承諾是：“保證我們會盡己所能的踐行環保理念、道德標準以及可持續性。”

Now, though, this mother-daughter focus on sustainability—which they say dates back to Yang’s industrialist grandfather—is about to ramp up beyond Esquel. Next week, Yang is hosting a conference with academics and other business leaders to launch an initiative called “The Integral.”

不過，如今這對母女最注重的是可持續性，並即將擴展到溢達集團之外。他們稱，可持續性可追溯到楊敏德從事實業的祖父。本週，楊敏德將主辦一場由學術界和其他商界領袖參與的會議，推出一項“The Integral”的倡議。

Named for the Buddhist concept of a continuous pursuit of perfection, Integral seeks to get business leaders to focus attention on how to produce a more balanced model of growth in a country notorious for its damaging pollution and rapacious resource hunger. Yang’s effort comes at a time when China is moving toward urbanizing 300 million people in the next 30 years. Half of the buildings needed to house that population have yet to be built (one estimate has China building 20,000 to 50,000 new skyscrapers)—with 220 cities breaking the one-million-population mark.

Integral意指不斷追求完美的佛教理念，力求使企業領導者將注意力集中到如何在嚴重污染和掠奪式資源開發的中國，發展出更平衡的增長模式。楊敏德此舉正當其時，未來30年，中國將有3億農村人口遷徙到城市，而現有存量房只夠容納其中半數人口（有人估計中國將新建2萬到5萬座摩天大樓）。中國有220座城市人口將突破百萬大關。

Yang has plans to remodel a factory in the picturesque city of Guilian (a town that brings to mind classic Chinese landscape paintings, as Bill Clinton once noted.). In its textile production, she wants a focus on natural, plant-based dyes and zero discharge into the surrounding waters. The facility would also feature a museum, pavilions—and a “little Aspen” to mimic the Aspen Institute’s position as a home for influential thought leaders. The complex would stand as a showcase for how Chinese companies can pursue sustainable economic development, she said.

楊敏德計劃在風景如畫的桂林市（比爾o克林頓曾表示，桂林如同一幅經典的中國山水畫）重新打造一家工廠。在紡織品生產方面，楊敏德希望專注於採用天然植物型染料，對周圍水域實現零排放。該工廠還將配建一所博物館，多個展覽館——以及一所“小阿斯彭”，以效仿阿斯彭研究所，成爲具有影響力的思想領袖的大本營。楊敏德稱，該建築羣將成爲一個櫥窗，展示中國企業如何實現可持續經濟發展。

In our MPW interview, Yang confessed that it had been difficult for her when her own daughter declared the PYE brand she founded was out-of-fashion and in need of revamping. “It hurt,” she conceded, adding that she still thinks of herself as young and fashion-forward. “I hang out with my 88-year-old mother. I do yoga with her.”

在我們的最具影響力女性採訪中，楊坦陳，當女兒宣稱自己一手創建的PYE品牌已經過時，需要改造，她心裏很不好受。她說道：“這很傷人。”她補充道，她認爲自己仍然年輕，而且時尚前衛。“我與88歲的老母親一起玩。我們還一起做瑜伽。”

But forward-thinking comes in other forms, too. Yang’s plans for Integral—and the impact it could have on China’s future—show that this industrialist is still a cutting-edge visionary.

不過，楊的時尚前衛還有其他表現形式。她對Integral項目的計劃——及其可能對中國未來的影響——表明，她不僅是位實業家，還是位前衛的有識之士。

This time, though, she’s thinking bigger. Much bigger.

只不過，這一次她的理想更爲遠大。