While I was in Asia last week, I met with the CIO of PetroChina and China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and learned of his desire to expand on our great success consolidating all applications in the Environmental Health and Safety arena into one platform for efficiency and centralized reporting. I was really impressed when he told me they have more than 70,000 users.
This has to be the largest EHS sustainability platform ever deployed. He also told me it was the first and “only” software within PetroChina and CNPC that has been deployed across the entire company. We want to enhance our value to their business users by providing tools like role-based Key Performance Indicators to help them improve performance within their specific business units.
I also met with the CIO of China Light and Power (CLP) in Hong Kong. This is meaningful because CLP is followed and benchmarked as best of breed throughout Asia for its best practices in using information technology to enhance business value. He gave me a tour of the company’s technology center, which was quite impressive, and we spent a good deal of time talking about translating technology investments like ESS software into real business value.
These CIOs are true thought leaders and our plan with them in the area of GHG emissions management and corporate responsibility reporting will set the standard not only in Asia but across the world. For those of us who think our companies are in the vanguard of sustainability, here’s a word of caution: Look out. You may just find yourself following leaders from Asia.
Tags: asia china light power clp cnpc ehs environmental health safety ess ghg emissions petrochina sustainability
September 25th, 2008
Prior to the Olympics, some experts were concerned about whether the Chinese government would withdraw from its commitment to addressing climate change once the games ended. However, Chinese officials recently made good on their pledge when the National People’s Congress (NPC) passed a law, signed by President Hu Jintao, that is expected to boost sustainable development through energy saving and emission reduction measures.
The law, which takes effect Jan. 1, contains provisions including tax breaks, special spending and other measures to promote sustainable economic growth.
Chinese officials will conduct closer monitoring of resource-intensive and heavily polluting industries such as steelmaking, non-ferrous metal production, power generation, oil refining, construction and printing, according to Xinhua, China’s official news industry.
Much of China’s pollution is caused by the use of coal as a power source; China consumed 1.16 tons of coal every 10,000 Yuan of GDP in 2007, down 3.66 percent from 2006, and the government has set a 2010 target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and major pollutant emissions by 10 percent from 2005 levels.
The law will also encourage industries to adopt water-saving technologies and use cleaner sources of energy such as natural gas and alternative fuels and promote recycling of waste materials such as straw, livestock waste and farm by-products to produce marsh gas.
The pollution control portion of the law is especially important for slowing the impact of further climate change. Studies by American scientists at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration have revealed that pollution from manufacturing, as well as cooking and heating in Chinese homes could create summer hot spots in Europe and the U.S. by mid-century.
Tags: china climate change NPC pollution sustainable economic growth
September 9th, 2008
