On Sep. 29, the honorary citizenship titles were presented to Klaus Toepfer, the Chief Professor of UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD) and Richard Yorke, President and Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank (China) Co Ltd, member of Board of Trustees of Tongji University. Germany's Klaus Toepfer, a former undersecretary general of the United Nations and a guest professor at Shanghai's Tongji University.

Professor Klaus Toepfer, a former undersecretary general of the United Nations and the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, was appointed as an Honorary Professor of Tongji University in 1998. In May of 2002, Toepfer and the then President Wu Qidi initiated the cooperation between the UN Environment Programs and Tongji University and established the IESD. Since 2004, he has acted as an environmental consultant to the local government. In the following years, Toepfer received The Friendship Award by Chinese Government in 2006 and the Magnolia Awards by Shanghai Government in 2008. As the Chief Professor of IESD, he donated 1 million RMB to set up the “Klaus Toepfer” Scholarship aiming at supporting students of environment major of Tongji University.

Richard Yorke, President and CEO of HSBC Bank (China) Co Ltd, accepted the invitation from the then President Wan Gang to act as a member of Board of Trustees of Tongji University in 2007. In 2006, Mr. Yorke and IESD initiated the Seminar for Future Leaders of Environment and Sustainable Development in Tongji University. Financed by HSBC(China), Professor Li Fengting from Tongji has published several papers concerning the climate changes of Shanghai from 2006 to present, which provide valuable information for developing low-carbon economy as well as reforming industrial structures for Shanghai city.