hzgd#19 with steven zhang (usa) - zhejiang factory managers environmental ideas, policies and...

1

All you ever wanted to know about Zhejiang factories

A$tudes and prac/ces of waste reuse, recycling, and environmental protec/on of Zhejiang manufacturers

Steven Zhang Hangzhou Green Drinks

June 6, 2013

About me

2

3

Research locations

Factory demographics

17 factories total

4

Smallest factory 10 workers 100 square meters

5

Biggest factory 10,000 workers Several square KM


11 in Zhejiang

7


Half business to business

8


6 were foreign invested, 2 foreign subsidiaries

9

Interviewees

Demographics • All male except one female • Average age: 40 • 1/3 CEO, 1/3 VP, 1/3 other white collar • All except one went to higher educa/on

• 2/3 went to university

Qualita/ve research

≠ sta/s/cs

12

Theme 1. Environmental consciousness exists, is improving, but has a long way to go

• 环保 huánbǎo : • Environmental protec/on (noun) • Environmentally friendly (adjec/ve)

• 意识 yìshí ： • consciousness, awareness

• 文明 wénmíng ： • civilized, cultured

13

Theme 1 Quotes • Mr. Xu, VP of large chemical company

•  “You know, these few years, huanbao goden more and more important。 Before, who would have thought about huanbao or not? No one. When I was growing up this sort of yishi just wasn’t there at all.”

• Mr. Tao, VP of electronics company. Worked abroad at MNC for 20 years

•  “North America and Europe is rather strict about environmental protec/on. Things are ge$ng beder, but here in China, the awareness is just some/mes not there. For example, heavy metals. We do predy well on this area. But smaller companies have totally no idea about heavy metals and their environmental/health impacts, and don’t do anything about it.

• Mr. Tai, manager at recycling company •  “So my boss, the CEO of this company, he’s worked his way to the top. But he is uncultured (没有文化). That is part of the reason we don’t do so well on environmental protec/on.”

14

Theme 2. Perceived relationship between China’s economic development and environmental protection

15

China before 1970 China now Western Europe, North America now; China in 30 years

Economic development

Environmental protec/on

Stage 1. “Not enough to eat”

16

China before 1970 China now Western Europe, North America now



Mr. Liang: CEO of electronics company: “Back 20 years ago, when I was growing up, there was no such thing as huanbao (environmentally protec/on) or not… “Everything was huanbao… we never used pes/cides on the farm. All those plants were safe to eat… “…I remember when I was a child, I ate just rice and vegetables all the 8me. Meat was a luxury. Everyone was always in some semi-‐hungry state. Not starving like China in the 50s or 60s. But not full either. We didn’t have enough to eat.


17




Mr. Fu, VP of a toy company: “The rela/onship between ED and EP are actually very close. China, the US, every country at the beginning of their development stages didn’t have enough to eat. When I was young, we didn’t have this problem of environmental destruc/on or what not, or at least we didn’t think about it”


18




Mr. Liang: CEO of electronics company: “Back 20 years ago, when I was growing up, there was no such thing as huanbao (environmentally protec/on) or not… “Everything was huanbao… we never used pes8cides on the farm. All those plants were safe to eat… “…I remember when I was a child, I ate just rice and vegetables all the /me. Meat was a luxury. Everyone was always in some semi-‐hungry state. Not starving like China in the 50s or 60s. But not full either. We didn’t have enough to eat.




“Before everyone not very good with environmental consciousness but now with social media and other things… Chinese manufacturing is ge$ng more and more into huanbao 环保”

“Chinese people may not have the yishi 意识 (consciousness) as Western countries, but now we‘re ge$ng beder at it. China’s headed in a good direc/on I think”

Stage 2. Rising environmental consciousness…

19




Mr. Tai, manager at Ire company: “Our level of culture-‐ness (人口素质) is not there yet Government subsidies, regula/ons, the only ways that we can get people to care about being sustainable”

Stage 2 …and stricter laws

20

Stage 3. Be like Western Europe and North America

21




Mr. Deng, Division Head at very large, foreign-‐owned, electronics company “Everyone knows: the water in America. It’s so clear… But look at the Taihu [Lake Tai]. You can't even see the water in it! That’s because factories have been just dumping chemicals directly into it!”

Theme 3. Bad environment = immediate impact on personal health

22

“Being huanbao is good for personal health” “20 years ago, when I was growing up, everything was huanbao… we never used pes/cides on the farm. All those plants were safe to eat…”


“Its clear the problems not doing huanbao has had on the environment. People are ge9ng sick. Too much pollu<on… the air really is just too bad. People are geEng sick. People all around us, are geEng cancer… In the future, when we all have money, but the food, water, none of it safe, then what's the point! Then I'd rather increase regula<ons to factories, have them spend a liCle more money”

23

24

How does this apply?

Theme 1. Environmental consciousness exists, is

improving, but has a long ways to go


Theme 2. Perceived relationship between China’s

economic development and environmental protection

25

• Mr. Deng, electronics factory: “Our factory doesn’t have any environmental impact, everything is huanbao. We only use electricity here, and we don’t pollute or waste at all. There’s no water pollu/on. We don’t have any air pollu/on. Everything is huanbao.”

Theme 4. Factory is huanbao as long as it doesn’t pollute directly

Theme 4. Factory is huanbao as long as it doesn’t pollute directly

Mr. Yu, cable manufacturing: “I mean, our products meet RoHS and other cer/fica/ons so they are huanbao….

…We have no real waste… lezover plas/c from injec/on molding is reused anyways. …and all of packaging and other waste are taken by recyclers anyways… …so I don’t think huanbao really a problem for us…”

26

Theme 5. “let the recyclers take care of it”

Mr. Yu, cable manufacturing: “I mean, our products meet RoHS and other cer/fica/ons so they are huanbao….

…We have no real waste… lezover PVC/PE from injec/on molding is reused anyways. …and all of packaging and other waste are taken by recyclers anyways… …so I don’t think huanbao really a problem for us…”

27

28

Theme 5. secondary waste market as way to off-load burden

29

Theme 5. secondary trash market as way to off-load burden

Me: “What do you do with this? Do you sort it?” Mr. Feng, Heavy equipment manufacturer: “How can we? We don’t have the equipment for this. We just sell it to the recyclers. They do what they want with it. They sort it … we just pack it up in bags and let them go with it.

Theme 6. Environmentally-beneficial innovations from various incentives

30

¥ Environmental benefit to society

Image incenIve

Price incenIve

Gov’t incenIve

Theme 6: image incentive example

IncenIve for company • Market “green” product to interna/onal customers to increase global profile of company

• Compete on something other than price

Environmental benefit to society • Raises environmental awareness and consciousness of Chinese public as by product

• Actual tangible environmental benefit of program ques/onable

31

Theme 6. Price incentive example

32

IncenIve for company: •  Recycling used /res and selling the rubber to other companies is profitable

Environmental benefit to society •  Provides valuable waste disposal service for /res

•  Recovers valuable metal, rubber that otherwise would’ve been burnt

Theme 6: government incentive example: material-energy

exchange

33

Wood chips/dust

Heat

34

IncenIve for company: • Government subsidy makes payback period for equipment short enough to be worth buying

Environmental benefit to society • Woodchips are incinerated in less pollu/ng way

•  Less electricity is used for hea/ng energy

Theme 6. Government incenIve example

6 things to think about…

AWtudes of factory managers: • Consciousness • Economic development • Personal health

PracIces in factories • Direct pollu/on • Secondary waste • Image, price, government incen/ves

35

Contact Info

36

hzgd#19 with steven zhang (usa) - zhejiang factory managers environmental ideas, policies and...

Education