--- title: Our Digital World Can Deliver a Greener Industrial Future description: Ma Jun, director at one of China's most dynamic environmental NGOs, discusses how tech can be used to hold industries to account on climate. canonical: https://time.com/5953419/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions/ author: Ma Jun article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-04-14T21:42:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:50:49.677Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Our Digital World Can Deliver a Greener Industrial Future og:description: Ma Jun, the director of China's most dynamic environment NGOs, on how tech can be used to hold industries to account on climate og:url: https://time.com/5953419/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt361bd0364ca5506a/698a18b516d8849189c39479/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: ma-jun-technology-track-emissions og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Our Digital World Can Deliver a Greener Industrial Future twitter:description: Ma Jun, the director of China's most dynamic environment NGOs, on how tech can be used to hold industries to account on climate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt361bd0364ca5506a/698a18b516d8849189c39479/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Our Digital World Can Deliver a Greener Industrial Future > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent.  by [Ma Jun](https://time.com/author/ma-jun/)  ## Ma Jun Apr 14, 2021 9:42 PM UTC  A pedestrian walks in Beijing, shrouded in smog, on March 5, 2021. A pedestrian walks in Beijing, shrouded in smog, on March 5, 2021. Qilai Shen—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Ma Jun](https://time.com/author/ma-jun/)  ## Ma Jun Apr 14, 2021 9:42 PM UTC The globalization of manufacturing has transformed some of the world’s poorest nations to unprecedented levels of economic prosperity. But the resulting increase in poorly controlled emissions and eco-degradation has caused unsustainable levels of local [air](https://time.com/tag/air-pollution/) and [water pollution](https://time.com/4989641/water-air-pollution-deaths/), destabilizing the climate and [threatening biodiversity](https://time.com/5629548/almost-30000-species-face-extinction-new-report/). Just as the vast development of technology hastened this cycle of boom and doom, it can also help break it. Automated environmental monitoring, electronic reporting and web-based disclosure systems now available in the digital age create the possibility of new levels of accountability for environmental performance. Technology allows the public to scrutinize factory pollution problems, governments to make more efficient enforcement efforts and companies to hold their supply chains to account. To check pressing [industrial pollution](https://time.com/4493973/industrial-pollution-aerial-photos/), for example, corporations in China have been driven to install automated online monitoring and report their emission data to the public in real time. These kinds of innovations are having a real impact in China, the manufacturing “factory of the world.” The [Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs’](http://wwwen.ipe.org.cn/) interactive [Blue Map Database](http://wwwen.ipe.org.cn/appdownload30%5Fen/pc/index.html) gathers private- and public-sector data to collate critical environmental performance information, monitoring and recording air and water pollution as it is happening. Many factories have begun self-reporting carbon emissions into the database as well. Hundreds of local and multinational corporations now make routine use of the database for remote supplier oversight, receiving push notifications the instant a violation occurs. Applying digital solutions to environmental problems has delivered new levels of accountability for [industrial pollution in China](https://time.com/5935138/chinas-environment-economic-recovery/), with more than 10,000 factories rectifying problems and more than 20,000 electing to participate in these improved oversight programs to give their clients and customers peace of mind. China is becoming more informed and more open with its environmental data. That should give us great hope that our electronically connected world can deliver a greener industrial future. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5953419/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5953419/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions/"},"headline":"Our Digital World Can Deliver a Greener Industrial Future","datePublished":"2021-04-14T21:42:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:50:49.677Z","description":"Ma Jun, director at one of China's most dynamic environmental NGOs, discusses how tech can be used to hold industries to account on climate.","url":"https://time.com/5953419/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions/","keywords":["climate change","TIME 2030"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt361bd0364ca5506a/698a18b516d8849189c39479/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ma Jun","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ma-jun/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt361bd0364ca5506a/698a18b516d8849189c39479/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ma-jun-technology-track-emissions","caption":"A pedestrian walks in Beijing, shrouded in smog, on March 5, 2021.","creditText":"Qilai Shen—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5953419/ma-jun-technology-track-emissions/","name":"Our Digital World Can Deliver a Greener Industrial Future"}}]}] ```