Corporate Ecology: Is China Going Green?

China is making another global power play— one that’s not militaristic, economic, or political, but ecological.

Twenty-one Chinese companies attended June 18’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development (aka Rio+20) in Rio de Janeiro. That Far East portion of the Brazilian summit was dubbed the China Going Green Dialogues. In addition to the presentations, nine of the businesses made ecological pledges that add up to tens of millions of dollars. Those companies include real estate heavyweight China Vanke, top global notebook manufacturer Quanta Computer, and the Himin Solar, builder of the world’s largest solar powered office building.

But eyebrows were truly raised by who those the Fortune 500 types chose to schmooze with. The roster included NGOs like Shan Shui Conservation Center, which works to preserve remote regions where China’s dwindling pandas call home. Such an outfit would normally be griping about tycoons, instead of rubbing shoulders with them.

“This is the first time that there has been such an integration at this scale between Chinese businesses and environmental NGO’s,” says Lo Sze Ping, a co-chair of China Going Green and CEO of Greenovation Hub, who for years have worked to build smaller, but similar cross sector ties.

Below Sze Ping goes on to tell us about the benefits of partnering those supposed polar opposites.

You’re saying this is a breakthrough partnership between China’s businesses and environmentalists. What has kept it from happening before?
Before these collaborations have been mostly one to one, one company and one NGO forming a relationship. But this time it is a cooperation of NGO’s together with a large group of corporations, all at the same time.

What is the incentive for these businesses to join China Going Green? We’d be naïve to think it’s out of the goodness of their hearts— what’s in it for them?
This is not just something they’d like to do, it’s not just their sense of normal societal responsibility. It’s about competitiveness in a global economy where there is rising environmental awareness and social expectations of the consumers and the media. At the same time, it is the built-in momentum of these businesses that will truly sell ‘going green,’ to their industries, rather than feeling pressurized by external factors. So they’re becoming a self propelling force with these NGO collaborations.

What do you mean by a ‘self propelling force’? Give us more details about one of these commitments, and why it impressed you.
China Vanke, the number one residential apartment builder in China and probably the world, committed to building 3 million square-meters of ‘green apartments’ by the end of this year. These apartments would reduce energy usage by 20 percent, water costs by 63 percent, and wood consumption by 87 percent. By so doing Vanke is effectively raising the environmental standard for residential builders.

How can you ensure these companies will fulfill their commitments— who’s keeping them accountable?
We will continue to play a monitoring role to ensure that companies are not just doing green PR or green-washing. We are making these commitments known to the public so that they are held accountable to media and public scrutiny as well.

Photos courtesy of China Vanke and Lo Sze Ping

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Re: Corporate Ecology: Is China Going Green?

Um.

No.

Doubt wisely; in strange way / To stand inquiring right is not to stray; / To sleep, or run wrong, is. (Donne, Satire III)