Ma Jun published his book "China's Water Crisis" in 1999. In 2004, he was selected for the Yale World Fellows Program. In 2006, he founded the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), and led the development and launch of China’s first environmental public database, as well as the Blue Map, a mobile app that help the public access environmental and ecological monitoring data and tracks the environmental performances of 16 million companies.

In 2020, he led the launch of the Blue Map for Zero Carbon and the development of Corporate Climate Action Transparency Index (CATI). The Blue Map data has been incorporated by some of the largest global and local brands in supply chain management, motivating 31,000 companies to address violations and measure and disclose tens of million tons of carbon emission. It has also been tapped by major banks to check 3 million corporations as part of green banking due diligence.

In 2006, he was awarded as China’s “Green Person of the Year” and was named as one of TIME Magazine’s World’s 100 Most Influential People. Ma was also honored with the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2012. In 2015, he received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2019, Ma was invited to be and has since served as a Special Observer by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.