Social self-governance for environmental protection in China is still at the starting stage，but has natural foundation and huge potential. In many places including Shanghai，there are some successful cases emerged，while the institutional environment needs to be improved. In this paper，some cases in Shanghai are introduced，compared with experience in other places. Some common problems in China include weakness of social power，underdevelopment of environmental NGOs，NIMBY bottlenecks，and so on. Corresponding suggestions are：reinforce the self-governance power of community committees by law；cultivate institutional soil for environmental NGOs and social enterprises；ensure supervision rights of media and the public；encourage voluntary social contracts and other ways suitable for local conditions；facilitate residential green lifestyle and environmental public welfare activities.