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China Makes Good on its Green Promise

December 26th, 2007 · by Tim Minahan · 1 Comment · LCCS and trade, enviro/social sustainability, supply management

Earlier this year, I noted China’s plan to embrace sustainable business practices. A recent Wall Street Journal article shows signs that country leadership is making good on its green promise.

Under new anti-pollution rules, China’s Ministry of Commerce threatened to shut down polluters for a period of one to three years, depending upon the severity of the infraction. Now China’s State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has gotten more stringent when evaluating the environmental impact of requests to build new manufacturing facilities.

According to the Journal article, in 2006, SEPA rejected 110 construction projects for steel mills, power plants, and other facilities that were submitted for its review due to potentially damaging environmental impact. Through October of this year, the agency has vetoed 187 project proposals, putting the nix on capital investments totaling about $91 billion. SEPA officials told the Journal that they are now rejecting nearly one-third of the projects that submit an environmental-impact assessment. “And most of the ones that clear the process do so only after making changes to satisfy SEPA’s demands.”

While the new moves may curb some of China’s near-term capacity, developing more environmentally sound factories and facilities will yield long-term benefits in the form of more sustainable capacity and growth.

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1 response so far ↓

  • 1 Supply Excellence » Supply Management Success Strategies for 2008 // Jan 3, 2008 at 12:19 pm

    [...] Embrace sustainable supply strategies: Last year I predicted that 2007 would be the year that environmentally and socially responsible supply strategies go mainstream. And many of you didn’t believe me. Well, moves by Hewlett-Packard, Wal-Mart, Sun Microsystems, and others clearly indicates that the sustainability movement has already begun. This year, tighter environmental regulations from China and the U.S. (coupled with the need to offset supply price increases and risks) will drive most of you to employ sustainable supply strategies. The smarter in the bunch will find ways to leverage these approaches to lower supply costs, secure supply, and drive greater sales and profits. [...]

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