With a long plait and always smiling eyes, Yuan Rishe, the energy-saving star of 2007, is just a common middle-school student. Her smiling face can now be seen all over Beijing on public advertisement boards advocating saving energy.

With the development of living standards and increasing consumption levels, people are wasting more energy than ever before. Saving energy has become a huge concern in modern China. Data show that saving 1 kw of energy per hour is equal to reducing the emission of 10 grams of sulphur dioxide or 15 kg of carbon dioxide. Yuan has made her own calculations too: saving 0.125 tons of water, or 100 pieces of paper, or riding a bike for 1 km is equal to cutting the emission of 10 grams of sulphur dioxide and 15 kg of carbon dioxide.

"This shows that saving energy and reducing emissions can be easily achieved through the petty things in our daily lives," she said.

Yuan started her "career of saving energy" in 2001 at the age of 8. Seeing some students throwing away paper with only one side used, or even not used at all, Yuan organized the "piece of paper team," an environmental protection group that advocated using both sides of a piece of paper. With the support of the school, the activity quickly swept through the pupils and even the enterprises around the school. The members of "piece of paper team" also collected and sold used paper to raise money for tree planting.

Now, the team's activities have spread to Baotou, Chongqing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Harbin. Yuan said that her team is gaining more supporters and has 1.36 million members all over the country.

The "piece of paper team" was just the starting point of her energy-saving career. As a girl growing up in Beijing, Yuan eagerly wants to contribute toward the 2008 Olympic Games.

"I am too young to be accepted as an Olympic volunteer," she said, so she decided to prepare a gift for the Olympics by planting 2008 trees.

This is undoubtedly a huge and hard task for just a middle-school student. "One kg of wasted paper is worth 1.1 yuan, while a seedling costs 10 yuan, which will be exchanged for almost 10 kg of waste paper. How about 2008 trees? Even this problem can be solved, where to find a place to plant 2008 trees."

When Yuan ran into difficulties, Wei Guiying, an environmental protector from Yanqing County, 74 km northwest of Beijing, who has already voluntarily forested 367 hectares of barren hills, offered ground for the 2008 trees.

With Wei's support, the planting activity started on March 12, 2004. Yuan also established an environmental protection website to raise funds. It asks for pledges of 10 yuan for one tree, with the donator's name hung on the tree.

Tan Linyue, an 11-year old girl in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, called for the pupils of several local elementary schools to support Yuan's program by collecting and selling waste paper and pop cans. "They donated more than 10,000 yuan and brought us closer to our goal," said Yuan.

On March 12, 2007, the 23rd Tree-planting Day in Beijing, Yuan presented the 2008 trees to the Beijing Olympic Committee as a gift and named them Young Pioneer Woods. The seemingly unachievable goal was finally fulfilled.

Yuan's story calls for everybody's participation in saving energy."I learned Yuan's story from a public advertisement, and really admire her in reaching a goal that cannot be achieved by even adults," said Zhang Shaoting, a Beijing civil servant. She said previously she had thought saving energy was simply the business of the nation and companies, unaware of an individual's role in it.

Actually, individuals can have an effect. Take lamps for example. If all their light bulbs were changed to energy-saving ones, it would save 60 billion kwh, which would cost 30 billion tons of coal to produce. Coal is an unregenerate resource and its exploration and transportation consumes lots of manpower and material resource as well as accelerates toxic emissions in producing electricity.

"From Yuan's story, I learned the importance of accumulation," said Zhang. "From now on, I will save every bit of electricity, every drop of water and every piece of paper. Only in this way can we expect to improve the environment."