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34 CHILDART GLOBAL CREATIVE LEADERS JAN-MAR 2021 35

CHINA’S Headquartered in BROAD Town, near Changsha, that private airplanes are not environment-

the capital city of Hunan Province in southern
friendly, he gave up the privilege of using them
China, the BROAD Group is a global leader in
and has kept one helicopter for emergency use.
GREEN industrial climate control, air purification systems, Local media in China compare Zhang Yue to
and prefabricated construction technology that
Steve Jobs’s. “I think I’m more like Thomas
enables tall buildings and skyscrapers to be
Edison because my inventions cover a
PROPHET built at three floors per day, and winner of the wider range than Steve Jobs’. I have invented
Champions of the Earth Award by the United
mechanical products, electrical products, and
Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).
complete systems. I think my talent is in creation.”
The BROAD Group’s chairman and co-founder building materials, from a single product to
Zhang Yue grew up in a small town in Hunan and
developed his interest in art in kindergarten. His art In this era of global warming, environment
teacher in school taught him all she knew, and as deterioration, and ozone depletion, BROAD
he gained admirers, his self-esteem grew. He was specializes in CFC-free and energy efficient “non-
the best artist in town and almost everyone in that electric air conditioning” and cooling solutions
little town knew him. His art led him to develop for commercial, industrial, and institutional use,
business communication skills through including use in Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
commercial art paintings and advertisements. applications. Zhang stresses that “environmental
At 18, he purchased a secondhand Japanese protection is more important than profit. The
motorcycle and soon enough he began repairing reason why I continuously pay attention to
environmental protection is that technology
it. His family had a secondhand piano which was
totally broken down and no one could play it. development can help with energy conservation
When the repairman came, Yue helped him for and reduction of carbon emissions. I see that
an entire month until the piano was fixed. Soon the more prosperous our world is, the more
thereafter, he taught himself to become a dangerous the living environment is. I can’t
mechanical engineer. do very much in changing the living attitude of
human beings, and I don’t have enough power
“These experiences improved my hands-on skills. to change their conventional thoughts. But what I
I think the education for young people should can do is to concentrate on technologies, to use
focus on how to make stuff by hand, be it in my technologies to bring about change. I have
a factory, a laboratory, or an agricultural field. great determination in this, because I can clearly
Through painting I developed the ability of see that if we do not make changes right now, our
observation and expression which helped planet does not have a future.”
teach me mechanical engineering. I developed
this habit of creation, to create things. During He is passionate about environmental education.
this process I can find the meaning of self- “I think that all these things cannot be totally
changed by adults, so we must lay our hopes
satisfaction, self-fulfillment and accomplishment.
All of our products in the BROAD Group are in the next generations. I think that we need
developed and created by ourselves. We have a revolution in the education system. People’s
never copied any technologies from others. That mindset can only be changed while they are
is the thing that I feel most proud of.” Using his young. I think that’s why we should develop
new curricula for schools and universities. The
$3,000 in savings, he started a company in 1988
to produce-non-pressure heating boilers based pursuits of consumerism and economic growth
on his patented design. His ethic of hard work should change. Otherwise, within 100 years I can
and his penchant for inventions and innovation see that there still will be frequent environmental
disasters happening. By that time, we won’t
ZHANG YUE grew the company into the privately owned have a livable planet.”
BROAD Group, a global business with BROAD
FOUNDER USA headquartered in Hackensack, New Jersey. He discusses the progress he has made. “Last
At that time, the BROAD Group was the largest
year I had some discussions with former UN
BROAD GROUP taxpayer to the Chinese government and Yue was Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. We discussed
the first Chinese citizen to own a private airplane.
the textbooks for primary and middle school
CHANGSHA, CHINA He came to own seven, but after realizing students in China, North Korea, South Korea

ZHANG YUE CHINA’S GREEN PROPHET https://icaf.org