China looking to expand sustainably, experts say

As they expand internationally, Chinese companies are looking to increase production efficiency in environmentally friendly ways while ensuring long-term profitability, China News has reported.

“After 30 years of growth, Chinese companies have developed to such an extent that they have enough scale to realise their social responsibility,” Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told China News.

“In addition to the government policy, there is also a need for these companies to pay more attention to energy efficiency to realise a sustainable future, because the era of achieving big profits solely by large-scale production is over.”

As part of the Chinese government’s air-quality improvement plan, companies that produce large amounts of pollution and use large quantities of energy are required to meet specified emission-reduction standards and control production capacity.

Major companies in a number of manufacturing industries are required to cut emissions by 30% by 2017 (based on 2012 levels).

Chinese companies have realised they cannot expand their businesses simply by increasing capacity, Lin said.

“In the past, the companies in major industries focussed on ensuring supply for domestic economic growth,” said Lin. “They need to rely on raising energy efficiency to live longer and better lives.”