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Caring for the environment
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Han Ximin
SHENZHEN is home to 23,000 foreign funded companies from over 60 countries and regions. Their development is crucial for Shenzhen's economic prosperity.
The Certification Centre of the Shenzhen Environmental Protection System says that of the companies which passed ISO14000 certification in the last two years, 90 per cent are foreign funded.
The areas surrounding factories of companies like Xerox, DuPont and Ricoh are surprisingly pleasant, with flowers, grass, and an absence of noise. The tidy buildings house efficient machinery, including waste- and noise-reduction systems. Environmental protection has been an integral part of the development of these and many other companies.
Phillips: a long-term committment
Han Ximin
JUST after the Spring Festival, as he prepared to jet off to Singapore for a hazard assessment conference, Dale Summerlin, Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Manager for Phillips China Inc, was busy working on the implementation plan for Phillips' 2001 environmental protection plan.
But before he started work that weekend, he did one thing everyone at Phillips does when working on weekends, and that was to inform the property management coordinator that he was working. He did this because the air-conditioning system is always powered off outside normal business hours, one of many energy saving and pollution prevention measures spelled out in Phillips' 2000 environmental action plan.
Oil companies are often associated with environmental disasters like oil spills, but Phillips has long worked hard to improve its image not simply through marketing but real, nuts-and-bolts programmes.
Summerlin's particular objective on this occasion was to reduce consumption of electricity by 10 per cent. He says Phillips has reduced its electrical consumption by nearly 18 per cent by implementing this and other energy reducing measures.
Each year, Phillips' management and employees assess the previous year's progress and set new and more rigorous goals on environmental protection for the coming year. These goals are established with input from employees and contractors working for Phillips China and also include input from Chinese government agencies. In fact, Phillips works very closely with Chinese government agencies on a number of environment, health and safety issues.
The environmental plan for this year focuses largely on developing a programme that ensures compliance to the internationally recognized standard of ISO 14001. According to Summerlin, if an organization can meet the stringent requirements outlined in the ISO 14001 standard, it is close to being the best. He believes Phillips can reach this goal by the end of 2001.
"Our goal is to operate our businesses in a safe and environmentally friendly way so we cause harm to no one including employees, contractors, customers, neighbours or communities," said Summerlin. This statement is supported by a well-established and documented policy within Phillips. "As a natural resource company, Phillips has a long tradition of helping communities where our employees live and work. Environmental protection is one of the important ways we can fulfill this commitment," said Summerlin.
Since 1998, this US-based oil producer has sponsored an annual US$100,000 environmental protection programme in Beijing, Tianjin and Shenzhen. Phillips' financial support is targeted at education for primary and middle school students so that they can become good, environmentally conscious citizens. To plant the seeds of environmental protection education in young children, Phillips, in co-operation with the Chinese State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), recently published Jelly Jam, a comic book which illustrates a series of environmental protection methods. Phillips, again in co-operation with SEPA and the US-China Environmental Fund, sponsored the publication of the first map of water resources in China. The map, which shows the proportional distribution of population to water resources by region, help the government formulate its water use policies.
The recent "EHS (environment, health, safety) Day", an activity Phillips has sponsored locally for two years now, is another way the firm spreads the word. As Summerlin puts it, 'we can give a little back to the community'. This event was designed to teach members of the local community about safety and environmental issues such as first aid, ozone depletion awareness, fire safety, waste recycling and other current EHS issues.
Phillips' efforts have not gone unnoticed. Phillips is one of several companies in the Shenzhen area which will receive recognition by the Chinese Offshore Oil Operations Safety Office (COOOSO) in Beijing on February 15, for excellent performance for the year 2000 in EHS.
DuPont: reaching for zero
DUPONT China Holding Co, set a goal of zero water, air and soil pollution and zero waste when it started operation in Shenzhen 11 years ago.
The company was one of the three enterprises in the city which has won ISO14000 certification.
Charles Browne, president of the company, said at its ten-year anniversary last November that employee safety and environmental protection have been regarded as the core values for DuPont, a science and technology based company for nearly 200 years.
Like oil producers, the chemical industry often stirs up image of grimy factories spewing out nightmarish chemical concoctions. The industry, though, is trying hard to change that.
"DuPont conducts its business with respect and care for the environment," said Auke Tuinstra, the general manager of DuPont Telfon Nonstick Coating Plant, which started operation two years ago. He says DuPont believes sustainable development can best be achieved at the local or neighbourhood level. To pursue local sustainability, the company is striving for zero injuries, illnesses, waste, emissions and incidents, while finding solutions that are good for business, the environment, communities and employees.
"We will drive toward zero waste generation at the source, materials will be reused and recycled to minimize the need for treatment," said Auke Tuinstra. Plastic, brush and adhesive-bonded fabric waste is 100 per cent reused.
Progress toward the goal of zero for all incidents has been dramatic over the past decade. Statistics showed that DuPont witnessed accidents from a level of over 100 incidents per year in the early 1990s, to only one in each of the last two years. Global air toxins are down 64 per cent and global air carcinogens are down 87 per cent from a base year of 1987.
Global hazardous waste has been reduced by over 30 per cent since 1990 during a period when total production increased by over 28 per cent.
The company has now set a goal to get 10 per cent of its total global energy needs in the year 2010 from renewable energy sources like wind power and biomass. The proportion of renewable energy in the company's power consumption is expected to reach 25 per cent.
Ricoh: Energy saving
THE oil and chemical industries aren't the only firms trying to reduce pollution and save energy. One company respected for its efforts is Ricoh Company Shenzhen, a manufacturer of office automation equipment. The company, prominent in digital and conventional cameras and advanced electronic devices, was the first in the city to gain ISO14000 certification.
Huang Tianyan, who is in charge of general affairs with the company, told Shenzhen Daily last week that the company decided to replace its old three-in-one light tubes with 50w bulbs to save energy and, as a result, 3,600 tubes were replaced last year.
The company is very careful when handling its waste carbonic powder. The company introduced advanced equipment from Japan to make sure its powder emissions were below the national standard.
It's not easy to find a piece of paper in the company that's blank on both sides. All the paper is required to be used, then re-used, to cut waste.
The company has also achieved remarkable success in rubbish classification. Ricoh offices all have four dustbins: one is for recyclable paper, one for recyclable hard objects like metallic bottles, plastic waste and glass, one for organic rubbish, and one for hazardous waste.
The rubbish classification not only recycles resources but also improves staff's environmental protection awareness. According to Huang, the daily amount of rubbish was reduced from 12 bins to six bins. The goal of Ricoh is zero rubbish generation by the year 2002. At the same time, it required its nearly 300 suppliers to pass ISO14000 certification.
Caption: Zhang Wei, EHS specialist with Philips China, teaches visitors to test water quality on the company's EHS Day.
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