On September 1st, the US-China CEO Council for Sustainable Urbanization hosted a workshop on factory energy efficiency at Dow Chemical’s Shanghai office. The goal of the workshop was for Council member companies to share their experiences and best practices in factory energy efficiency and to inspire peer companies to improve the energy efficiency of their own operations. Energy-related expenses can make up a large portion of a factory’s cost structure, so finding opportunities to improve energy efficiency can not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also often result in cost savings for companies. The half-day workshop involved 30 participants from Alibaba, Apple, Dow Chemical, Fosun, Honeywell, IBM, GM, Taikang Insurance, TCL, and Trina Solar. The workshop was part of the Council’s ongoing Greenhouse Gas Reduction project, which encourages companies to reduce their greenhouse gas footprint by making new emissions reduction commitments or by strengthening existing targets.
The workshop was led by KPMG Director Coleman Ng and featured presentations by senior experts from Dow Chemical and Honeywell. Dow discussed common capital expenditures and factory designs that the company has used to save energy. These include switching to LED lighting, using variable frequency drive motors, and recycling steam condensate. Honeywell described the company’s internal governance structure, called “Honeywell Operating System”, which manages and continuously monitors factory operations to reduce waste. The Honeywell Operating System involves employees at every level of the organization, from the CEO to factory workers, allowing for Honeywell management to set efficiency targets and monitor their implementation throughout the organization. KPMG described common energy management opportunities in industrial buildings, factory processes, and factory-related transportation.
After the workshop, the CEO Council Secretariat will be working with select member companies to implement these concepts in their own operations.
About the CEO Council
The U.S.-China CEO Council is a multi-industry platform for action that convenes top American and Chinese CEOs with the aim to harness the power of business to support China’s efforts to achieve its urbanization goals in a sustainable way.
Launched in November 2014 in Beijing, the Council is composed of top CEOs of Chinese and Western companies, each with a passion for integrating sustainability into their business plan and setting best practices through their actions. Collectively, the companies have a combined annual revenue of US $1.4 trillion (RMB 8.6 trillion), with more than six million employees and over a billion customers throughout the world. The mission of the Council is to mobilize business to promote sustainable urbanization through innovative corporate environmental and social practices, advocacy for effective government policies, and direct actions by companies and governments.
The Council takes action through individual and collaborative projects among members that can be scaled across China and elsewhere; advocates for effective policies and actions on sustainability standards; and illustrates best practices through case studies and research. The Council committed to action in 2015 focused on encouraging 21st Century buildings and 21st Century energy. To this end, the Council has formed action groups to work on increasing energy efficiency in buildings and accelerating energy policy, including the integration of renewables into the energy system.
