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Clearing the Air With Your Employees |
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Written by Faye Pan
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Eco-building, the Future of Your Site
Looking out at a gloomy Shanghai skyline, the low clouds and smog mask the lustre of many of the city's impressive buildings. It is an uninspiring scene. Unfortunately it is not unique. In major cities across China, smoggy scenes serve to dampen enthusiasm and stifle spirits almost every day. However, this is indicative of a wider problem - poor air quality across the country. This manifests itself as an everyday issue for most of us, but just because it is ‘normal' does not mean it is something that should be accepted unquestioningly. There must be another way!
Particular Problems
Air quality can have a major impact on your staff. Chemicals such as sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and ozone (O3) all pose serious health risks, such as respiratory illness, bronchitis, emphysema, as well as aggravating existing allergies. Sadly, as the Chinese economy expanded quickly over the past decade through the rapid increase in manufacturing, more and more of these pollutants have found their way into our atmosphere and then into our lungs. Some of the statistics on air quality are frightening. For instance, a survey by the World Health Organisation (WHO) found that over 200 Chinese cities failed to meet appropriate safety standards for airborne particles. A 2003 World Bank Study also found that 80% of China's major cities had sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide levels significantly above WHO safety standards. In 2005, Hong Kong's sulphur dioxide levels rose by a staggering 41% in the space of just one calendar year. Perhaps the most chilling of all these statistics came from a recent WHO survey which estimated that approximately 2 million people die every year from conditions triggered by air pollution, with almost a third of that total (650,000) dying in China.
Clearing the Air
Thankfully, many people across China are beginning to appreciate the value of clean air. In Beijing, there has been much talk of a ‘Green Olympics'. To facilitate this, officials have introduced sweeping policies to reduce pollution. These include curbing coal-burning power stations and regulating the cars on the capital's congested streets to ensure they meet new stricter emission standards - approximately 1.5 million vehicles will soon face their last journey around the city's ring roads. Guangdong is also set to take some drastic measures for the environment. 2007 was officially the southern province's smoggiest year since records began in 1949, with an average 79 days of poor air quality and reduced visibility. Manufacturing bases in the Pearl River area were hardest hit, with Dongguan racking up an alarming 213 days of polluted air. Provincial capital Guangzhou also checked in with 131 days of low air quality. However, Guangdong's authorities ambitiously aim to reduce air pollution to 55% below 1997 levels by 2010. To do this, provincial officials plan to install online monitoring systems at 150 factories that produce high levels of pollutants. They also aim to de-sulfurise over 100 thermal power stations and to regulate car emissions. On a national level, the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has pledged to introduce a series of key measures to ensure China meets environmental targets set out in the country's latest five-year plan. It aims to reduce sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide levels by 10% come 2010.
Eco-Building
Obviously, solving China's pollution problems is not the remit of your average HR department. However, providing a healthy working environment for your staff certainly is. So, aside from moving your offices to a remote area of Xinjiang province - where the air is likely to be significantly more fresh and clean - what can you do? In the July issue of Network HR, the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) outlined 20 ways to reduce harmful CO2 emissions by 20%. Implementing these measures in your organisation would be a great start. However, one should look to the future and advocate a far grander solution - eco-building! A great example of an organisation building with environmental concerns in mind is Siemens, whose new Siemens Centre is currently under construction in Shanghai. The German technology giant's new Chinese headquarters will feature environmentally friendly technology and equipment to help reduce the company's emissions and work towards a cleaner Shanghai. If all organizations followed Siemens' example, it would certainly help to make the CBDs in China's biggest cities far more pleasant and far healthier places to work. However, there is an even grander solution.
Chiongming Island, 15km north of Shanghai on the Yangtze Delta, is home to one of the most exciting new projects in China, the Dongtan eco-city. Currently under construction with an estimated completion date of 2010 (which coincides with the Shanghai International Expo), Dongtan will be a completely sustainable facility and will eventually house 500,000 people. According to its planners, the British developers Arup, Dongtan will utilise "wind, solar, bio-fuel, and recycled city waste," and, "clean technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells which will power public transport. A network of bicycle and footpaths will help the city achieve close to zero vehicle emissions." The idea behind Dongtan sounds fantastic for the environment, but it is also beneficial or the employees who will live and work there. With no harmful emissions and belts of green running through the city, it will be a far healthier place to live than the present smog-choked environment found in China's cities today. A location like Dongtan would definitely prove beneficial to the health of your employees. However, it should not stand alone as an example of a healthy and environmentally friendly location to establish your offices. With the numerous multinational organisations that are already expanding in China, and more and more investment coming in from overseas, the time is right to start considering eco-building as part of a strategy to make China a healthier place to work, develop, and most importantly - live.
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