INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE

CLEANER PRODUCTION IN CHINA

Leonard OrtolanoStanford University

Katherine K. CushingUniversity of California at Berkeley

Kimberley A. WarrenUniversity of Hong Kong

During the past two decades, many analysts have described China’s rapideconomic growth and the environmental pollution that has accompaniedit.1 The numerous environmental protection laws and regulations that theChinese government has put in place to stem the tide of environmentaldestruction have been well documented.2 Cleaner production in China, thesubject of this special issue of Environmental Impact Assessment Review,has received much less attention in the literature.3

Until recently, China’s environmental policies, and analyses of thosepolicies, have centered on “end-of-pipe treatment,” that is, the installationof pollution abatement systems at the tail end of a production process justprior to the point of waste discharge. During the past several years, Chinastarted to shift its environmental protection efforts in the direction ofcleaner production, a term defined by the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme as “the continuous application of an integrated preventiveenvironmental strategy to processes and products to reduce risks to humansand the environment.”4 The ongoing efforts of the State Economic and

1 For accounts of the cost of China’s rapid environmental growth, see, for example, the World Bank(1997) and Smil (1993).

2 Details concerning China’s environmental protection system are given by Wang and Blomquist (1992)and Sinkule and Ortolano (1995), among others.

3 For an early account of the obstacles to implementing cleaner production in China, see Zhuang (1997).4 This definition is from the introduction to a special “Cleaner Production” issue of Industry and Environ-

ment (Vol. 17, No. 4: p. 4), a publication of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). CleanerProduction has been heavily promoted by UNEP, which launched its Cleaner Production Programmein 1990.

Address requests for reprints to: Leonard Ortolano, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,Terman Engineering Centre, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4020, USA. E-mail: ortolano@ce.stanford.edu

ENVIRON IMPACT ASSESS REV 1999;19:431–436 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. 0195-9255/99/$–see front matter655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010 PII S0195-9255(99)00021-9

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Trade Commission and the State Environmental Protection Administration(SEPA) to prepare information for the National People’s Congress touse in drafting a law on cleaner production provide an example of thegovernment’s changing emphasis.

That a cleaner production law is under serious consideration signifiesthe importance Chinese officials attach to shifting away from the nation’straditional reliances on end-of-pipe treatment as its principal environmentalprotection strategy. A further indication of China’s commitment to cleanerproduction is SEPA’s “Ten, One Hundred, One Thousand, Ten Thousand”plan. According to this plan, which was initiated in 1995, cleaner productionwill be promoted in 10 heavily polluting industrial sectors in 100 citiesthroughout China. The goal is to implement cleaner production in 1,000enterprises, and to train 10,000 people in cleaner production concepts andmethods. This new focus on cleaner production is consistent with the gov-ernment’s approach to economic development. China is attempting to movefrom “extensive” industrial production, which involves using more inputsto foster growth, to “intensive” production, which relies on promotinggrowth by using inputs more efficiently. This change from extensive tointensive development has been mentioned frequently in speeches by Chi-nese economic development officials.

This issue of Environmental Impact Assessment Review brings togetherseveral papers that characterize China’s use of cleaner production as anenvironmental management strategy. In developing this issue, we made aspecial effort to balance contributions from research-oriented universityscholars with articles from agency staff who are in the vanguard of imple-menting cleaner production China.

Before describing the organization of this issue, we would like to elimi-nate potential confusion by clarifying the meaning of cleaner productionand commenting on terms that are closely related to it. Based on theconceptualization used by the United Nations Environment Programme,cleaner production covers a wide variety of technical and managerial activi-ties and can be applied to all aspects of the production cycle. In the contextof production and manufacturing, cleaner production includes activitiessuch as process modifications, conservation of raw materials, substitutionfor toxic and hazardous chemicals, and good housekeeping. As applied toproducts, cleaner production involves integrating environmental concernsinto product design and delivery. It includes making efforts to avoid adverseenvironmental impacts throughout a product’s lifecycle—from raw materialextraction, through product design, manufacture, and use, and finally toproduct disposal.

“Pollution prevention,” a term used extensively in the United States, isclosely related to cleaner production. The United States EnvironmentalProtection Agency defines pollution prevention in terms of source reduc-tion, which consists of activities that reduce or eliminate the generation of

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pollutants. Although experts are not entirely consistent in their usage ofpollution prevention, the term is generally conceived of in terms of ahierarchy of activities that include, for example, recycling that involves a“closed loop,” where materials are recovered from intermediate waste-streams and returned for reuse in the same production process. Activitiesat the top of the hierarchy are those that eliminate or avoid pollution whereit is first generated in a wastestream. This might be accomplished, forexample, by changing or reducing raw material inputs, or by improvingmaterials handling operations. At the next level of the hierarchy are prac-tices such as recycling and reuse of materials on site. In general, off-siterecycling and reuse, as well as end-of-pipe treatment, are not consideredpollution prevention.

This issue of Environmental Impact Assessment Review begins with WangJi’s description of China’s national cleaner production strategy. She presentsthe government’s policy framework for cleaner production and its ongoingefforts to promote cleaner production, for example, by partnering withinternational development assistance organizations to conduct demonstra-tion projects and training courses. Wang Ji has been on the staff of SEPA(formerly, the National Environmental Protection Agency) for many years,and she is involved in implementing SEPA’s cleaner production programs.(In keeping with traditional usage in China, we list last names first for allChinese authors).

Another characterization of the Chinese government’s efforts to institu-tionalize cleaner production is given by Chen Wenming, Kimberley Warren,and Duan Ning, who describe an ongoing effort to make cleaner productionaudits a required part of environmental impact statements prepared forproposed industrial development projects. These authors highlight the manyways that existing environmental protection regulations and policies inChina cause industry to favor end-of-pipe treatment. They also report onfield tests of an analytic scheme that is being considered as a model forhow considerations related to cleaner production can be integrated seam-lessly into China’s environmental impact assessment program. Chen Wen-ming and Duan Ning are on the staff of the China National Cleaner Produc-tion Center in Beijing.

Efforts to institutionalize cleaner production in China have been movedforward by the establishment of a national environmental labeling program.As reported in the paper by Zhao Jimin and Xia Qing, considerations ofinternational trade motivated China to establish an environmental labelingprogram in 1994. Use of environmentally sound technology is a criterionused to determine which products can carry China’s environmental label.Although it would be an exaggeration to say that the labeling program iswidely understood by the general public in China, the program has encour-aged many enterprises to implement cleaner production. Xia Qing andZhao Jimin point to opportunities for enhancing cleaner production by

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improving coordination among Chinese officials involved with the follow-ing: cleaner production; environmental labeling; and ISO 14000, the seriesof environmental management standards issued by the International Stan-dards Organization.5 Xia Qing, who is with the Chinese Research Academyfor Environmental Science (CRAES), played a pivotal role in designingChina’s environmental labeling program. His coauthor, Zhao Jimin, is cur-rently at Stanford University and was formerly a colleague of Xia Qing’sat CRAES.

Another link between international trade and the motivation to usecleaner production is articulated by Zhao Jimin and Leonard Ortolanoin their analysis of China’s implementation of the Montreal Protocol onSubstances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. As these authors show, a fewChinese refrigerator manufacturers chose to adopt environmentally soundtechnology so they could sell refrigerators in the European Union, andthis action eventually translated into pressure on all Chinese refrigeratormanufacturers to use cleaner production methods to make their productscompetitive in domestic markets. These authors also analyze how the multi-lateral fund created by the Montreal Protocol affected the cleaner produc-tion activities of Chinese enterprises in two industrial sectors: foams andhousehold refrigeration.

Of course, international trade and international agreements are not theonly factors motivating Chinese enterprises to implement cleaner produc-tion. This is clearly demonstrated in the paper by Kimberley Warren, Leo-nard Ortolano, and Scott Rozelle. (The latter author is at the Universityof California at Davis). Their paper demonstrates that many Chinese enter-prises in the electroplating sector have discovered how cleaner productioncan increase profits at the same time that it improves environmental perfor-mance. The paper also shows that many enterprises remain completelyunaware of how cleaner production can be used as a factorywide manage-ment strategy for cutting costs and increasing profits. Warren, Ortolano,and Rozelle present a typology of environmental management strategiesused by enterprises to explain results from their case studies of cleanerproduction at a sample of electroplating enterprises in Qingdao. They alsooffer suggestions on how more enterprises might be encouraged to adoptcleaner production as a management strategy.

International development assistance organizations, including the WorldBank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and many bilateral aid agen-cies, have played an important role in transferring cleaner production con-cepts and environmentally sound technologies to China. The last threepapers in this issue provide a sample of the many international developmentassistance activities to promote cleaner production in China. The paper byAminul Huq, Bindu Lohani, Kazi Jalal, and Ely Ouano of the ADB details

5 For an introduction to ISO 14000 and the adoption of ISO 14000 standards by firms in China, seeRoss (1998).

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ADB’s experience in transferring clean technology to China. In additionto describing ADB’s work, the authors relay their impressions of lessonslearned to date.

In another paper, Shouchuan (Jusen) Asuka-Zhang of the Center forNortheast Asian Studies, Tohoku University in Japan, describes the experi-ence of the Japanese government in transferring clean technology to China.Here also, a description of projects and programs is supplemented byAsuka-Zhang’s impressions of what has been learned from Japan’s technol-ogy transfer efforts; the author also suggests how those efforts can be im-proved.

The final paper in this issue describes a bilateral development assistantproject involving the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IllinoisEPA) and other US organizations in transferring cleaner production meth-ods to China. The authors, Katherine Cushing, and two members of theIllinois EPA, Peter Wise and Janet Hawes-Davis, describe how cleanerproduction audit demonstration projects were conducted at case studyfactories in the pharmaceuticals sector. Their analysis focuses on how theenvironmental and financial benefits of implementing cleaner productionwere estimated. They also analyze the factors that motivated case factorypersonnel to participate in the demonstration projects.

Collectively, the papers in this issue demonstrate the serious commit-ments that China and its numerous international partners have made tocleaner production. Although the papers make note of shortcomings inpolicies and program implementation, they also point to numerous waysthat barriers to implementing cleaner production in China can be removed.China has taken some pioneering steps in implementing cleaner productionas an element of national strategy, and much can be learned from theexperience in China to date.

The editors are grateful for the efforts of the contributors to this issue and for their patiencein responding to suggestions from peer reviewers and the editors. We are also grateful toeach of the following individuals for the time and effort they put into participating in thepeer review process: Husayn Anwar, William Barron, Greg Browder, Larry Canter, DonaldDuke, Elizabeth Economy, Keith Florig, Burton Hamner, Neville Holt, Clare Lindsay, MaXiaoying, Bill Miner, Richard Morgenstern, Barbara Sinkule, and Lee Travers. We also owethanks to Eric Johnson, Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Impact Assessment Review, forencouraging us to produce an issue on cleaner production in China. Finally, we wish to expressour gratitude to Duc Wong, for her exceptional efforts in retyping and reformatting draftsand in assembling the various components of this issue.

References

Ross, L. 1998. China: Environmental protection, domestic policy trends, patternsof participation in regimes and compliance with international norms. The ChinaQuarterly 156:809–835.

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Sinkule, B.J., and Ortolano, L. 1995. Implementing Environmental Policy in China.Westport, CT: Praeger.

Smil, V. 1993. China’s Environmental Crisis: An Inquiry into the Limits of NationalDevelopment. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

Wang, X., and Blomquist, R.F. 1992. The developing environmental law and policyof the People’s Republic of China: Introduction and appraisal. Georgetown Inter-national Environmental Law Review 5(25):25–75.

World Bank. 1997. Clear Water, Blue Skies: China’s Environment in the New Century.Washington, DC: World Bank.

Zhuang, Y.H. 1997. Environmental management initiatives in China to promotecleaner production. In Environmental Management Systems and Cleaner Produc-tion R. Hillary (ed.). Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons.