So when news came that the municipal government of Ningbo was looking for a developer of environment-friendly toilets, Bao Haiming didn’t hesitate to apply. As the company was required to provide a sample, Bao and his team conducted meticulous research into the latest technologies from Japan before building their own model, overcoming technical problems and making amendments over the course.

While the project was being carried out, costs ate away at the company’s funds and there was no revenue to fill in. Employees left one after another, and the company was on the verge of closure. Finally, the two leading engineers expressed intention of departure. Bao rushed to them, now deputy managers of the company, and pleaded with them to see the project through. “Please give me two more months, and let me have a try. If business still doesn’t show any turnaround, we’ll call an end to it.”

The wait was well rewarded. The water-recycling lavatory the company invented was approved by the local environmental and public health authorities, and the company received an order to build four of them in Ningbo’s rural area. Bao still can’t help getting excited when retelling the event, “I can never forget it: RMB 80,000, the first contract we had signed in the first ten months of our company.”

Since the Science and Technology Bureau of Ningbo gave its approval for the company’s eco-toilet in 2006, the technology has been used in scores of rural communities in the city and neighboring Cixi and Fenghua. It is also promoted by Ningbo’s environmental protection authority in its campaign to improve water efficiency and sanitation in the countryside.

For Bao, taking on rural development projects was a tough task. It was not easy to sell the idea of eco-toilets among farmers, and the trouble of digging up their yard to lay pipes alone could deter many of them from embracing it. But as the project went on, and the benefits unfurled – no more stinky sewage ditches at the doorway of homes installed with the new toilet, villagers jumped on it in hordes.

Bao detects tremendous business potential in China’s populous countryside. “Wastewater collection and treatment is vital to improving Zhejiang Province’s environment. Ningbo has set the goal of increasing its sewage treatment rate in its rural areas to 70 percent by 2015. There are 2,800 villages in the city. Even at the modest pace of building and renovating sewage treatment facilities in 10 percent of them every year, it would involve 280 villages. That’s a lot of work.” The opportunities in this market are huge, and capital is becoming available from institutions like the World Bank, which launched the Ningbo New Countryside Development Project last year. Government funding is also mounting up. In the year 2010 alone the central government earmarked RMB 30 billion for wastewater management in rural areas, and the money was supplemented by more inputs from local governments. This generous spending spawned business for companies like Bao’s.

Developing the Environmental Technology Business

“Environmental protection is costly. When government funds are insufficient, talking about the environment is fruitless,” explained Bao. “Look at the history of environmental protection in Japan, the U.S., and some other developed countries, you can see once their economies had developed to a certain level, their governments started to repair the environment. They all followed the same pattern: polluting during development and then cleaning up the environment. My impression is that the livelihood in Ningbo can be compared with that in Canada, but in terms of environmental protection, we lag far behind in technology, public attitudes and decision-making.”

During the last 20 years, however, environmental awareness has grown in both the government and the general population. There are huge opportunities for Bao’s company in the rapidly developing environmental protection industry, and efforts in this field are being recognized. Industrial wastewater treatment has brought fat profits for Bao’s company: the contract with one Inner Mongolian factory alone is worth more than RMB 50 million a year. In 2009 Bao Haiming was elected Ningbo’s Model Overseas Returnee, and was enlisted in the national Recruitment Program of Global Experts the following year.

The honor prodded him to rectify his planning of the company. “At first all I wanted was a regional business that could support myself and pay its employees. Nomination by the Recruitment Program reminds me of my responsibilities as a returned overseas Chinese. We are expected to help build the nation’s strategic industries. To do so I feel obliged to grow my company into a bigger and better one.”

The new vision of the future led to a turnabout in Bao’s attitude toward risks. In 2008, before he became more ambitious, he refused RMB 20 million from a prestigious investor. “I said no because the money would come at the condition of an annual profit of RMB 4 million. I was afraid that if I accepted it the pressure would lead to sleepless nights. But last year, we took in RMB 10 million in venture capital. We want to go big.”