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China Canada Cooperation Project in Cleaner Production

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Newsletter 8 - Winter 2002

Five-Year Retrospective 
Building a Foundation for CP 
Project wins Scotiabank Award for International Development 
CP Solutions at Juhua - the chlor-alkali/PVC sector
CCCP-CP Extended 
Website Summary 
Contacts

Five-year retrospective

As we approach the Project's five year mark, we look back on accomplishments and lessons learned. The Project has helped China reduce industrial pollution through the implementation of Cleaner Production (CP). The contribution to a healthier environment was built on achievements at several levels, and results are now being observed at those levels. 

These results include reductions in pollution in individual factories (demonstration sites), improved technical capacity across the four participating industrial sectors, and a profound effect on national CP policy. People across the country now have access to a wide array of relevant information on the project-initiated website. Moreover, the Project has engaged people from all levels of society - school children, local workers and factory managers, provincial authorities, national policymakers-in the challenge of addressing China's environmental problems. 

CP Solutions at the Juhua Chlor-alkali facility, October 2001 ( photo by Bob Lao)

One notable influence has been the extent to which the Chinese have embraced the Project's Gender Equality initiatives. In November the Project was awarded a CIDA International Cooperation Award in recognition of its success in integrating gender equality across the project. The Project is recognised as one of the more successful Cleaner Production projects in China. Donors have met with Project participants and the CEA/CIDA to learn why the Project has been so successful. Its effectiveness has been attributed to four elements: 

• the strong support of Chinese leadership and excellence of the Chinese participants;  

• the expertise of the Canadian Executing Agency;  

• its design - a multi-faceted project that works at several levels to demonstrate benefits while building the capacity to replicate those benefits elsewhere; and  

• its transparency and responsiveness to counterpart input. 

Lessons learned 

A multi-faceted, system-based approach builds a solid foundation for CP 

The Project builds on essential elements that are readily recognised by anyone familiar with environmental management systems: strong leadership; a sound legal and policy framework; implementation guidelines and procedures; committed, trained staff; and access to information. 

Improved conditions for workers means greater commitment and better productivity 

Factory managers are learning from the CP demonstrations that they can increase productivity by improving conditions for their workers, especially women. Measures have included ensuring a healthier working environment, providing protective equipment, and expanding nursery schools. Managers have also learned that the adoption of CP contributes to long term economic viability, as their enterprises become more efficient and competitive. 

Create conditions for success, building on Chinese efforts 

The Project focused on concrete, achievable initiatives with a high degree of Chinese involvement and "ownership." It then supported the dissemination of those successes by the Chinese. This approach of starting small, then amplifying successes, was repeated at every level. 

In the factories, as management and workers in demonstration plants have become genuinely committed to continuous improvement, they have undertaken new CP activities on their own initiative. 

Demonstrations of the benefits of CP and training in how to achieve them has generated a demand for Cleaner Production and created a pool of local CP expertise. One demonstration in the pulp and paper sector has lead to participation by six additional plants; a demonstration in fertiliser has resulted in another eight fertiliser plants becoming involved. People trained by the project are in demand within their sectors to provide training and advice to other plants. At the request of Chinese participants, demonstration plants in two additional sectors (PVC/chlor-alkali and brewing) were added. 

At the national level, success in developing policy has also had a contagious effect. The Project-sponsored group of Chinese CP policy experts were in great demand to assist industrial sectors to develop their own CP policies. One outstanding outcome of the heightened CP awareness is the imminent new CP promotion law that will mandate the implementation of CP in China. 

The website is another outstanding example of step by step increase in Chinese capacity and control. 

Sustainability 

One of the measures of success is the extent to which Project initiatives have become self sustaining. 

• The long-term economic prospects for factories that embraced CP are brighter as a result of increased efficiency and competitiveness. Such enterprises will continue to provide benefits of a cleaner environment and a healthier, more efficient workplace, to local communities. 
   

• Awareness and training are having an enduring impact. For example, the Women in Environment Group has developed its own separate webpage and network, and promotes environmental awareness at public events. It was formed with encouragement and support from the Project, and is now relatively autonomous. The new-found skills of factory workers , both in production units and offices, set a new standard for worker-competence within participating sectors. 
   

• New industrial sectors are asking to be included in CP demonstrations as they see more highly skilled workers and the economic benefits of becoming more efficient and competitive. The new CP promotion legislation will entrench this trend towards sectors embracing CP. 
   

• The SETC has adopted the Project's website as the official Chinese CP website. 

Mary Ellen MacCallum  

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Building a foundation for CP

The Project has contributed to the spread of CP in China by supporting the Chinese specialists in their analysis of what is most likely to be successful. Numerous case studies have been prepared by the Project supported Chinese CP Expert Working Group, with the assistance of the Canadian Resident Coordinator. They look at what succeeded in the past, and what lessons are inherent in experience to date. A case study completed in 2001 focuses on the implementation of ISO 14000 in the new Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP). 

The case study documents the establishment of the new SIP in 1992. The SIP was established with three objectives: to attract high tech investment, within an open-market economic district, supporting a modernized community. The park has been highly successful in attracting foreign investment: between 1992 and 1999, the Suzhou district economy grew by 50% per annum, to more than twelve billion Renmimbi (RMB), on revenues of 1.27 billion RMB. 

In 1999 the State Environmental Protection Administration identified it as the first national demonstration for ISO 14000 implementation. The case documents the progress of ISO 14000 implementation to date, the steps undertaken, and areas for future improvement. The full text can be found on the Project website. 

Mary Ellen MacCallum  

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And the winner is...

The Project has won the Scotiabank Award for International Development. The award is for measures taken to incorporate women's opportunities and gender equality into the design and implementation of a project. 

We dedicate the award to the memory of Madame Liang Boqing. She was a guiding light behind the design of the project and the Manager of the Chinese Project Office until her untimely death in 1999. Jane Liu, the daughter of Mme Liang, accepted the award on behalf of the Project. 

Jane Liu accepts CIDA International Cooperation Award on behalf of China-Canada Cooperation Project in Cleaner Production. The CEA dedicates the award to her mother, the late Liang Boqing.

The following CIDA media release outlines the award winning results. 

"The China Canada Cooperation Project in Cleaner Production is helping Chinese industries and government regulators to effect significant emissions improvements in the pulp and paper, fertilizer, chlor-alkali (PVC plastics) and brewing sectors. Typically, women working in these plants are concentrated in lower level positions. Now, after a special focus on gender issues in this project, women make up 30% of the workers in training and are being encouraged to apply for decision-making positions at participating plants. These women have helped to save water and reduce pollutants in their workplaces and neighbourhoods; they have expanded day care facilities at one job site; and they've experienced a major turn-around in their confidence that they can be agents of positive change. 

"Women connected to the project have also begun to make an impact beyond their work places. They organized the first national workshop on Gender Equality and Development in China in 1999. They established a new Chinese Environmental Non Government Organization, set up a webpage, conduct tour schools, and run an popular street fair-all to raise national awareness on environmental issues. 

"The China Canada Cooperation Project in Cleaner Production, begun in 1996, is run by a consortium of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, SNC-Lavalin Environment Inc. and ESSA Technologies Ltd."

The consortium takes pride in this award and the recognition it provides for the efforts of the entire team. We thank Dorothy Lele and Professor Wu Qing for their leadership in guiding our efforts. Both are leaving the Project at the end of 2001 to pursue new challenges elsewhere. 

Ken Parent  

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Implementation in the chlor-alkali/PVC sector

CP solutions identified by Project engineers are being implemented at the Juhua Electrochemical Plant. The table below illustrates low cost CP solutions that implemented in the plant's PVC facility. The three CP solutions in the table below will reduce water pollution and provide potential savings of more than 4 million RMB per year. Similar improvements are also underway in the chlor-alkali facility.

Adapted from CCCP-CP semi-annual report  

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CCCP-CP Project extended

CIDA has approved an extension of the Project for an additional three and a half years, for a total of $5 million Canadian. The Chinese requested the extension because of the success of the original project and the impending implementation of China's new CP promotion law. The extension represents a unique opportunity for Canada to support sustainable development in the western regions-a priority of the Chinese government-as well as supporting Chinese environmental protection legislation from its inception through implementation. 

Project Director Ken Parent with the late Mme. Liang Boqing, original manager of the Chinese project office.

The plans for the extension are expected to be in place by April 1, 2002. The Canadian Executing Agency and structure of the project will be the same, with the focus on industrial sectors that have a significant impact on the western regions, and on implementation of the CP promotion law. Demonstration plants will be located in Western China. 

The Canadian team values the regard and friendship of Chinese counterparts; and looks forward to working together for another three and a half years.

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Website summary

Website use increased to more than 40,000 page a month in December, exceeding our target of 30,000 pages a month set for March 2002. Average monthly page requests have increased from about 7,000 pages per month in 2000 to about 25,000 in 2001. Use of both the English and Chinese sites has increased, with the Chinese language site growing consistently faster than the English language site. The heaviest traffic is still on the server in Canada, but the use of the Chinese server is increasing. 

There have been 426,000 page requests since records were first kept in August 1998. More than two thirds of these  requests - 300,000 - have come in 2001. In December, users from about 70 countries used the site. 

John Gordon  

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Contacts 

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