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Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1502e1508

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate/ jc lepro

Regional initiatives on promoting cleaner production in China: a case of Liaoning

Yong Geng a,*, Wang Xinbei a,1, Zhu Qinghua b,2, Zhao Hengxin a,1

a Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shenyang, Liaoning Province 110016, PR Chinab Institute for Eco-Planning and Development, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, Liaoning Province 116024, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 25 January 2008Received in revised form16 June 2010Accepted 24 June 2010Available online 7 July 2010

Keywords:Cleaner productionEco-efficiencyRegional initiativeChina

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 24 83970371; faxE-mail addresses: gengyong@iae.ac.cn (Y. G

(W. Xinbei), zhuqh@dlut.edu.cn (Z. Qinghua), zhaohe1 Tel.: þ86 24 83970371; fax: þ86 24 83970372.2 Tel.: þ86 411 84706018; fax: þ86 411 84707331.

0959-6526/$ e see front matter � 2010 Elsevier Ltd.doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2010.06.028

a b s t r a c t

With the increasing environmental issues, now cleaner production has been implemented across all theregions of China. During this process, regional governments have played a leading role for promotingcleaner production. Main measures include coordinating the various stakeholders, providing financialsupport, stipulating appropriate policies and conducting capacity building programs. Such an innovativeinitiative is quite unique and should be further studied. This paper reflects such a perspective througha case study of Liaoning province. We first introduce the main initiatives for the promotion of cleanerproduction in Liaoning and then identify the key barriers. Our focus is to provide suggestions for futureimprovements. Finally we make our conclusions.

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1. Introduction

China, as the most populous developing country and one of themost rapidly industrializing countries, is now facing many resourcesupply and waste assimilation challenges (SEPA, 2005). With theprospect of further rapid urban and industrial growth under China’scurrent model of economic development, environmental conditionsare expected to worsen in the near future. Under these circum-stances, China urgently needs a new sustainable developmentmodel which has the ability to overcome the current dilemma and“achieve improvements in resource productivity and eco-efficiency”(Yuan et al., 2006). Methods, including eco-design, cleanerproduction, eco-industrial development, and green procurement,have been employed across the country (He and Ortolano, 2006).Among them, cleaner production (CP) is one of the most effectivemethods and has been widely promoted. Especially, with theenactment of “Cleaner Production Promotion Law” in January 2003,the implementation of cleaner production has received moreattention from both governments and industries. For instance, in anearly effort, Zhang introduced China’s first national cleanerproduction initiatives and analyzed the related policy mechanismby considering regulation, economic incentive, social pressure and

: þ86 24 83970372.eng), wangxinbei@iae.ac.cnngxin@iae.ac.cn (Z. Hengxin).

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supportive functions (Zhang, 2000). Fang and Cote reviewed theobjectives, strategies and barriers for cleaner production in Chinaand suggested that cleaner production implementation can beassisted by further popularization, policy system improvement,perception and awareness raising and technology innovation (Fangand Cote, 2005). By adopting an analytic hierarchy process (AHP),Shi et al. (2008) examined and prioritized underlying barriers toadoption of cleaner production (CP) by small- and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs) in China from the perspectives of government,industry and expert stakeholder group. At the regional level,through a case study in Zhejiang province, Hicks andDietmar (2007)introduced how an environmental management tool, namely envi-ronment-oriented cost management, can effectively promote theimplementation of CP in local industries. Heidi et al. (2005) assessedenergy related cleaner production projects in Taiyuan city from thepoint of view of climate change and integrated assessment. Inaddition, Oliver and Ortolano (2006) studied how city-level cleanerproduction programmes can function for the implementation ofcleaner production by employing a case study approach in bothChangzhou city and Nantong city. Their findings show us thatineffective vertical control, weak inter-agency coordination, and lackof alignment between CP requirements and the core missions andoperating procedures of implementing agencies have impeded CPimplementation. Practically, many provinces and cities have estab-lished their own cleaner production centers and stipulated theirown regulations in order to promote the implementation of cleanerproduction in their regions. New cleaner technologies are beingtransferred or being incubated by considering the local reality.

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Capacity building activities, such as cleaner production audittraining and relevant education programs, are being undertaken(Geng et al., 2007). However, there is no detailed study on how CPcan be effectively and efficiently promoted at the provincial level.With China’s continuous deregulation approach on environmentalprotection, now the provincial government is playing a leading roleon enforcing the related CP regulations, supervising the imple-mentation of CP, coordinating among different stakeholders, andproviding technical support and capacity building. Thus, it isnecessary to study how a provincial government adopts appropriatepolicies and other innovative measures to encourage the imple-mentation of cleaner production so that the suitable solutions couldbe identified.

This paper reflects such an effort by employing a case studyapproach. The case study region is Liaoning province, one of thelargest heavy industry provinces in Chinawithmany polluting issues.We assume that our analysis outcomes could be useful for otherChinese regions to further continue their cleaner production efforts.

2. Methodology

This study has a qualitative nature, rather than quantitative. Thedata and information used to create this paper were derived fromunpublished municipal government reports and published papers,as well as semi-structured interviews with key informants in theprovince. Before the interviews, a brief session and several formalworkshops were hosted by the authors so that the interviewerscould probe respondents for greater clarity in answers andconsistency in relation to the objectives of the questions. Thewholeinvestigation process was administered with the endorsement andsupport of the Liaoning Provincial CP center, which assigneda specific department to be in charge of this project. Responseswere obtained from 35 officials out of 48 investigated, providing anoverall response rate of 72.9%. To appreciate the value of ourinvestigation, one needs to understand the general difficulties ofadministering survey questionnaires among government officialsin China, given the regime’s apprehension that investigation resultsmay be used as a basis for criticizing the Chinese government. Also,it is impossible to conduct these surveys without the endorsement,support, and collaboration of the government units concerned.Consequently, such interviews represent a rare opportunity forexamining the attitudes and enforcement styles of CP related offi-cials in China, as well as identifying the key barriers for theimplementation of CP. In addition, interviewees were promisedanonymity, and thus interviewee responses have been pooled andin some cases slightly reworded to obscure interviewee identities.We observed no evidence that the leadership in the investigatedunits made any effort to affect the outcomes of the survey, and weexplained clearly both in our briefing that all data were collectedsolely for academic purposes and would remain strictly confiden-tial. Thus we can reasonably believe that the responses representthe true opinions of the respondents. Then, on the basis of data andinformation collected, we first summarize the basic information onCP implementation in Liaoning province and then present theirdetailed measures on promoting cleaner production at theprovincial level. Our focus is to identify their challenges andbarriers on implementing cleaner production and to seek theappropriate solutions. Finally we make our conclusions.

3. Current implementation of cleaner production in Liaoning

Liaoning province locates in the south part of northeast China,with a total population of 42.1 million. It has an area of 147,500square kilometers. This province is a natural resource based region,with rich deposits of iron, coal, crude oil, magnesium, gold, copper,

and other metals (Liaoning Provincial Government, 2006). It hasbecome one of the largest heavy industry provinces since 1950sand played a key role to support the country’s industrializationprocess. However, with the depleting resources and laggard tech-nologies andmanagement, those heavy industries have become themost severe polluters in the region. Many rivers and the ground-water are contaminated. The surrounding Bohai bay is now one ofthe most polluted seas in the world, with frequent red tides andover-discharged heavy metals. Acid rain, sandstorm, urban noise,and the loss of biodiversity, are also main problems within theprovince. A large amount of complains from the local residentshave showed the public concerns on the ecosystem’s health(Liaoning Provincial Government, 2006). Thus, the provincialgovernment decided to adopt an integrated approach to solve theproblems. At the micro level, or say the company level, eco-designand cleaner production are the main tools. At the middle level,namely, the industrial park level, to develop eco-industrial parks isthe main method. At the macro level, or say the provincial level, topromote circular economy is the main strategy and to build up aneco-province is the final target. In this paper, we will focus on theimplementation of cleaner production.

First of all, from institutional point of view, despite the pro-growth orientation of officials, Liaoning has established a highlyinstitutionalized environmental governance structure. In order topromote cleaner production, the provincial government estab-lished a provincial center for cleaner production (LPCP) at theirprovincial environmental protection bureau (EPB) in December1997, jointly funded by the European Union’s “Liaoning IntegratedEnvironmental Program (LIEP)” and the provincial government(Liaoning Environmental Protection Bureau, 2008). This center isdesignated as a leading agency to disseminate the knowledge ofcleaner production, to train trainees for the potential cleanerproduction audits, to prepare the appropriate policies, to undertakecleaner production audits in the key polluting industries, to enforcethe cleaner production promotion law within the province, tocoordinate the cleaner production activities among different cities,as well as international collaboration efforts. With this center,a provincial cleaner production audit guiding group was estab-lished in early 1998, with over 30 senior experts from differentregions of the country. They are responsible for preparing new CPguidelines in different industrial sectors and delivering specifictraining service to some aged polluting firms within the province(Van Berkel and Geng, 2007). Another key agency is the division ofenergy conservation and resource utilization (ECRU) at LiaoningProvincial Economic Commission, a provincial bureau leveledagency. While LPCP is the provincial governmental body in chargeof compulsory cleaner production audit according to the CleanerProduction Promotion Law, ECRU is responsible for voluntarycleaner production audit (Note: Compulsory cleaner productionaudit is designed for those enterprises that exceed the national orlocal discharging standards or exceed the total volume controltargets for pollutants set by the relevant local people’s govern-ments and those enterprises using toxic and hazardous materials inproduction or discharging toxic and hazardous substancesaccording to the cleaner production promotion law (Mol and Liu,2005)). To date, with the efforts of LCPC, 693 audited companiesimplemented 12,411 CP options with a total investment of 5.54billion CNY (about US$ 815 million). Industrial sectors include coalmining, coal-burning power plant, steel and iron manufacturing,petro-chemicals, food processing (Van Berkel and Geng, 2007).Economic benefits include increased profit (3.65 billion CNY), watersaving (151 million cubic meters), coal saving (5 million tons),electronic power saving (199 million kw). The unit energyconsumption per 10,000 RMB GDP reduced from 2.11 tons ofstandard coal equivalent in 2001 to 1.704 tons of standard coal

Y. Geng et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1502e15081504

equivalent in 2008, namely a reduction of 19.4% (LiaoningEnvironmental Protection Bureau 2009). Environmental improve-ments include reduced industrial wastewater (303 million cubicmeters), reduced SO2 emission (18,900 tons), reduced COD emis-sion (26,300 tons), reduced industrial ash (169,900 tons) (LiaoningEnvironmental Protection Bureau 2009). Moreover, with theircoordinating efforts, all the city governments within the provinceestablished their own cleaner production centers at the city envi-ronmental protection bureau and one division of resource andenvironmental conservation at the city economic commission, withthe same functions. The vice provincial governor in charge ofeconomic development is the responsible leader for promotingcleaner production. He signs yearly agreements with all the mayorsof the province to set up the quantitative target for the imple-mentation of cleaner production. Such targets include the amountof companies that should be undertaken CP audits within a year,the annual total energy efficiency improvement indicators, theannual indicators for water saving and emission reduction, as wellas the annual total amount of reused or recycled industrial solidwastes. Then the mayors sign similar yearly agreements with thekey polluting industries within their cities. As such, themanagers ofthese key polluting industries set up their own cleaner productiontargets within their firms (Liaoning Environmental ProtectionBureau 2009). Such an organizational framework created a goodinstitutional environment for the promotion of cleaner production.

Second, from regulation point of view, now the province hasa broad legal framework on promoting cleaner production. Itshighest expression is to be found in the National Cleaner Produc-tion Promotion Law. This law requires full control over all theproduction links e from production design, choice of energyresources and raw materials, technology, equipment maintenance,towaste recyclinge so as to reduce pollution and promote resourcerecycling. It also requires the responsibility of each local adminis-tration to initiate appropriate regulations on the basis of its level ofeconomic development and the nature of its polluting problems(Mol and Liu, 2005). This is because the huge size and diverseecological conditions of China’s different regions make it extremelydifficult to come up with a general and standardized policy tohandle regional environmental problems. Within Liaoningprovince, now environmental protection is changing from thedown-stream, end-of-pipe management of the past to today’swhole-process supervision and control. The enforcement of cleanerproduction promotion law provides guarantees to implement thisstrategy. In order to better reflect the local realities, based upon allthe items of this law, the provincial environmental protectionbureau enacted a new regulation on conducting cleaner productionaudits within those polluting industries, stipulating the detailedadministrative measures. This regulation requires that enterprisesand institutions that cause serious environmental pollution shallbring such pollution under control within specified time limitsthough they are given more flexibility in meeting control targets. Itset forth the policy of “allotted time limits for fulfilling pollutioncontrol task” or “time limits” system for short (Mol and Liu, 2005).Its main objective is to identify the most serious and hazardouspollution sources from existing enterprises and to require them totake the necessary steps to eliminate and control the pollution instages by conducting cleaner production. This time-limits systemspecifically targets the existing, older polluting enterprises. TheLCPC is in charge of executing a system of deadlines for controllingpollution for these aged enterprises. This regulation also requiresthat all the city governments prepare their own policies onpromoting cleaner production by considering their own conditions.Moreover, in order to further improve the provincial environmentalperformance, this new regulation requires that all new industrialfirms must meet with more stringent pollution standards before

construction permits can be approved so that cleaner productioncan be incorporated into their development.

Third, from financial point of view, since the implementation ofcleaner production needs a huge amount of money, a financialchannel has been developed. Liaoning province is the first provincein China to set up a cleaner production revolving fund (CPRF) witha total starting fund of 10 million Euros (Van Berkel and Geng,2007). The EU’s “Liaoning Integrated Environmental Program”

provided 5 million Euros, and the provincial government providedthe other 5 million Euros. Starting from November 23, 2003, thisfund is specially designed for promoting those high or middle feecleaner production options (Liaoning Environmental ProtectionBureau 2009). Its unique feature is that this fund is managed bya designated bank. This bank signed an agreement with theprovincial government for providing loans to those companieswanting to undertake high or middle fee cleaner productionoptions. The line of credit is 3 million Euros per project. All theapplication materials from those polluting industries are firstreviewed by the cleaner production experts nominated by thisbank. If one company passes such a review, this company willreceive a commercial loan from this bank so as to conduct theirwork plans. The CPRF is not directly provided to those successfulapplicants, but used to cover the business interests. Thus, this loanis a kind of free interest loan and provides a good incentive forthose polluting companies. To date, with this CP revolving fund,seven projects have been supported, with a total investment of 176million RMB (25.9 million USD). Companies receiving this fund areall large scaled state-owned companies, such as Anshan Steel andIron Group (the largest state-owned company in China), JinxiNatural Gas Limited, and Lingyuan Steel and Iron Group (LiaoningEnvironmental Protection Bureau 2009). Besides this program,there has been a noticeable increase in the proportion of GDPdevoted to investment for cleaner production and a series ofadministrative injunctions to compel local governments strictly toenforce pollution prevention. For instance, the provincial environ-mental protection bureau decided to use all the pollution charge tosubsidize pollution prevention initiatives from 2003. While in thepast such funds were used to support those end-of-pipe treatmentprojects, now such a budget is being applied to support low feecleaner production options. Most of the city governments alsoestablished similar funds, with an amount of 1e5 million Eurosrespectively (Liaoning Environmental Protection Bureau 2009).

From technology point of view, research projects related withclean technologies have been fully supported. Many provincialuniversities are now undertaking research projects related withcleaner production technologies with auspices from both govern-ments and industries. Research outcomes are then applied in thoseindustries to quicken the cleaner production process. A cleanerproduction information system has been established in theprovincial cleaner production center, aiming at integrating andpublicizing all the necessary clean technologies (LiaoningEnvironmental Protection Bureau 2009). Such a system can facili-tate those relevant research outcomes to be transferred and appliedin those companies. This system also includes a database of cleanerproduction experts, a database of cleaner production regulations,and a database of cleaner production guidelines for differentindustrial sectors. Those polluting industries also can raise theirdemands on specific clean technologies to the provincial CP centerso that this center can help seek the potential solutions throughpublic bidding and establishing special research programs. In somecases, if there is no knowledge and expertise available within theprovince, this center will contact other organizations outside theprovince for help. In addition, the LCPC is actively involved inpreparing technical guidelines and standards of CP in differentindustrial sectors. Now the center has released seven CP guidelines.

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Among them, the one for petro-chemical industry has becomea national standard (Liaoning Environmental Protection Bureau2009). Several books on CP were published, including “CleanerProduction Case Studies ”, in Liaoning “Cleaner Production Poli-cies”, “Cleaner Production Audit Manual”, etc (LiaoningEnvironmental Protection Bureau 2009).

From capacity building point of view, the province- wide projectto arouse people’s awareness on cleaner production (CP)commences in 1998 after the LCPC was established. The provincialgovernment have made great progress on cultivating pro-envi-ronmental opinions by drawing people’s attention to seriousenvironmental issues, and persuading them that some situationsare unacceptable and that immediate adoption of cleaner produc-tion are possible. Consequently, the LCPC received active supportfrom the provincial government for cleaner production educationand publicity programs. They have endeavored to promotea responsive and responsible image in the belief that the public isa potentially powerful ally to promote cleaner production. Majorefforts include increasing public involvement in CP, the publicationof regular CP newsletters, the organization of CP publicityprograms, the promotion of CP education and the provision oftraining courses for improving industries’ knowledge on CP(Liaoning Environmental Protection Bureau 2009). The LCPC’sobjective was to foster public sentiment to support governmentauthorities in implementing CP policies and to enforce the relevantlaws and regulations. To date, the LCPC has conducted joint activ-ities with other provincial agencies and local enterprises to providetraining courses, most with a strong practical emphasis tailored tomeet the needs of different groups. Between 1998 and 2007, 123different training courses were organized for those who want toconduct cleaner production audit, and 724 persons have becomethe national cleaner production auditors, including 658 companyemployees and 66 professional auditors (Van Berkel and Geng,2007). Ten professional cleaner production audit organizationswere established and nowundertake cleaner production training indifferent areas. In addition, the local media have given widercoverage to reporting the progress of cleaner production. Forinstance, local television channels were increasingly used to bringthe message of CP into people’s homes (Liaoning EnvironmentalProtection Bureau 2009).

Finally, since China is still a developing country, both technologyand human capacity on cleaner production are weak. Thus, inter-national collaboration is necessary for the province’s cleanerproduction promotion. With the implementation of LIEP project,EU has played a leading role. Experts from EU provided valuablecontribution to the preparation of several cleaner production auditguidelines, as well as EU’s clean technologies. Industrial sectorsinvolved include petro-chemical, natural gas processing, steel andiron, food processing and gold mining. This project also providesboth direct financial help (the above mentioned CPRF) and capacitybuilding help. With the auspices of this project, 168 cleanerproduction auditors were trained, 10 cleaner production demon-stration projects were undertaken, and 52 workshops were heldwith a total amount of 2550 participants (Liaoning EnvironmentalProtection Bureau 2009). The province’s most important seaportcity, Dalian, signed an official agreement with its twin city in Japan,Kitakyushu, to support long-term collaboration in the field ofcleaner production. One of the most polluting cities in the province,Benxi, also received a large Japanese Yen loan for cleaning its dirtysteel industries through CP efforts (Van Berkel and Geng, 2007).Other initiatives include a Canadian International DevelopmentAgency (CIDA) funded project titles as “Eco-planning and Envi-ronmental Management in the Chinese Coastal Communities”,aiming at improving key polluting industries’ capacity on cleanerproduction in Dalian region through a series of training workshops,

and a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) fundedproject titled as “Implementing Cleaner Production in Benxi’s keyPolluting Industries” (Liaoning Environmental Protection Bureau2009). All these international activities further strengthen theimplementation of CP within the province.

4. Barriers

Although some progresses have been made, there are stillbarriers existing. First of all, from institutional point of view, thereis a lack of coordination between the China National CleanerProduction Centre (CNCPC) and the LCPC. CNCPC was establishedby the former State Environmental Protection Administration(SEPA, now renamed as the Ministry of Environmental Protection)in December 1994 within the Chinese Research Academy forEnvironmental Science (CREAS), one of the national government’sresearch institutes with a particular mandate for undertakingpolicy relevant research in environmental sciences, engineeringand management (Zhang, 2000). This center is designated as thenational body to promote the implementation of cleaner produc-tion. One of the center’s missions is to coordinate CP related workwith the various provincial CP centers. However, our interviewwiththe director of LCPC indicates that LCPC cannot gain any substantialsupport from CNCPC, thus, LCPC operates quite independently (VanBerkel and Geng, 2007). Such a dilemma impeded the furthercommunicationwith the central governments and other provinces.

A substantial number of studies find that the enforcement bodiesof environmental regulations in developing countries are mostlyweak institutions with low bureaucratic status (Chan et al., 1995). Asa division of the provincial environmental protection bureau, theLCPC is accorded very strict powers in the belief that environmentalprotection and economic development- the top priority of govern-ments-conflict. The center is unable to secure active co-operationfrom other bureaucratic authorities, particularly those associatedwith polluting industries (Liaoning Environmental ProtectionBureau 2009). With a strong pro-growth orientation, both provin-cial and municipal governments have usually sided with theseeconomic bureaus and have subordinated environmental protectionto economic interests where the two have been seen to be inconflict. There are numerous examples of economic, planning, tradeand industry bureaus working together to prevent the adoption oftough cleaner production law and undermine strict enforcement ofCP standards. Individual local agencies were not given precise andaccurate guidelines as to howCPwork and policies should be carriedout (Van Berkel and Geng, 2007).

Another barrier is about the enforcement of CP promotion lawand the provincial CP policies. As in many developing countries, theenforcement of environmental regulations in China is considerablymore problematic than their promulgation. This is exactly thesituation of enforcing cleaner production promotion law in Liaon-ing. A culture of corruption in some locations creates opportunitiesfor powerful polluters effectively to violate regulations and thefragmented bureaucratic administration creates overlapping juris-dictions and insufficient coordination (Lo and Fryxell, 2005). Also,environmental officials often lack adequate support from outsideconstituencies to do their jobs effectively. This lack of support takesa serious toll on their commitment to their agency that furthererodes their effectiveness. In addition, the key to success in CPworkdepends on how field regulators approach polluting problems,hence, how they condition the decision situations. CP involvesa substantial degree of discretion at the field level among fieldregulators who are physically dispersed and isolated for most of theday while tending a complex and unpredictable environment.Working in the absence of direct and visual superiors, withsubstantial discretion, the field regulators are working in

Y. Geng et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1502e15081506

a discretion-prone situation. The role and performance of regula-tors in pollution control is decisive. If field regulators are notenvironmentally sympathetic and not given sufficient institutionalsupport, the effectiveness of CP work will be compromised and itsimportance diminished. Now the reality is that the lack of technicalsupport and training seriously reduces field regulators’ ability toenforce CP promotion law. The problem is compounded by thefactors of a lack of rule, legal support, and funding, and the heavyworkload (Van Berkel and Geng, 2007). In enforcing the CP laws,those field regulators have to develop measures that combine lawand technique in order tomonitor the effectiveness of CP laws. Theyhave to specify, for example, environmental quality standards,pollutant emission standards, environmental basic standards, anddifferent operational methods (Liaoning Environmental ProtectionBureau 2009). If they were to develop these measures, theirtraining, their belief paradigm, the perception of their role andpolicy legitimacy, and their technical know-howwould be themaindeterminants of success. Also, the LCPC’s capacity has beenconstrained by its limited budget and personnel. They often foundthemselves faced with a lack of support in setting standards andpressing for more aggressive cleaner production policies (LiaoningEnvironmental Protection Bureau 2009). In addition, cleanerproduction audit is still a new concept in China, specific imple-mentation procedures are yet to be worked out and the content,procedure, and method of audit remain to be improved.

The third challenge is that those small and medium enterprises(SMEs) cannot receive adequate support for their CP efforts. Thegovernment pays a lot of attention on those larger state-ownedcompanies and provides more funds to cover their CP expenses.Although cleaner production audit in key polluting industries ismandatory, only those large enterprises are currently required tosubmit a cleaner production audit report to the Provincial Envi-ronmental Protection Bureau. The majority of other medium- andsmall-scale projects can, therefore, easily bypass the stringentcompulsory cleaner production audit requirements. Especially,these SMEs have relatively lower environmental awareness andoften regard environmental protection a heavy burden. Withouta technically and economically practical driver, the effectiveness ofCP in these SMEs is doubtful. However, due to the booming oftownship and village enterprises, SMEs have been growing rapidlyin terms of the total number and their contribution to the grossindustrial output values. With the reality that most SMEs arecurrently confronted with difficulties such as obsolete equipmentand technology, untrained and inexperienced laborers, and insu-fficient financial resources, their production has caused significantnegative environmental impacts. Consequently, both the provincialand municipal government should consider how to prepareappropriate economic incentive policies, improve lax enforcementand provide necessary financial support to those SMEs.

Finally, the political system provides no institutional channel forthe general public to exercise strong influence on the CP policyprocess (Liaoning Environmental Protection Bureau 2008). Majorcleaner production policies are formulated and decided upon bynon-elected bureau officials without any public consultation. Allthe non-governmental organizations, such as Liaoning Environ-mental Protection Association and other green organizations, areunder tight government control and perform mostly the functionsof promoting the provincial’s green image for the promotion of CP.But they are not allowed to play an active role in the CP policyprocess, as well as those industrial manufacturers (LiaoningEnvironmental Protection Bureau 2009). In the absence of publicparticipation, accountability in the cleaner production regulatoryprocess is almost non-existent. In such a situation it is difficult forthe provincial cleaner production center to gain any powerfulextra-bureaucratic allies to counter strong bureaucratic resistance

to cleaner production. It is also difficult to persuade some pollutingenterprises for joining those training courses as most judged thebenefits of such training programs in terms of economic gain,rather than environmental improvement.

5. Discussions on suggestions for improvements

The case of Liaoning shows that the successful factors inLiaoning include strong political support from both provincial andmunicipal governments, appropriate policy encouragements,effective technology and information support, continuous capacitybuilding activities and broad international collaboration. Althoughsome progress have been made, the case also shows that there aresome common existing barriers as other regions in China, such asa lack of the establishment of an adequate institutional framework,a basic lack of awareness capacity and resources among enterprises,and the difficulty in creating a market for CP services (He andOrtolano, 2006; Fang and Cote, 2005; Shi et al., 2008; Hicks andDietmar 2007; Heidi et al., 2005; Oliver and Ortolano, 2006).Unlike other case studies in Zhejiang (Hicks and Dietmar 2007),Nantong and Changzhou (He and Ortolano, 2006), and Taiyuan(Heidi et al., 2005), the provincial government has a morecomprehensive consideration for promoting CP implementation inLiaoning. The provincial government has a strong environmentalcampaign, aiming at becoming an eco-province. In the last decadeall the provincial governors had better environmental awarenessand regarded environmental protection efforts as one of the keypriorities in their decisions. Such a political commitment ensuresthat circular economy, eco-industrial parks and cleaner productionefforts be part of their long-term development strategy andadequate budget and other resources be allocated.We also find thatthe CP legal base in Liaoning is stronger than other provinces.Whileother provinces’ requests on CP for actions take the form of opin-ions, the Liaoning province is the first Chinese province to take theform of regulations. In the Chinese perspectives, opinions havea low legal status and are often treated with indifference, thusresulting in failure to attain CP targets or to implement otheraspects of CP programs (He and Ortolano, 2006). Another advan-tage that Liaoning province has is its broad international collabo-ration activities. Comparing with other provinces, Liaoningprovince has broader international collaboration efforts, especiallyreceiving both financial and technological supports from variousagencies. Such supports play a catalyst role to encourage both thelocal governmental agencies and industries to join CP initiatives.Nevertheless, our research findings still indicate that the Liaoningincreasing levels of economic activity and consumption usuallymore than offset any gains associated cleaner production. Conse-quently, the Liaoning province needs to adopt an integratedapproach to promote the implementation of CP.

The need to create a receptive and suitable policy environmentis essential for CP work to be effective. It is critical that differentgovernmental agencies work together to ensure that there isa concerted effort to promote cleaner production, increase efficientuse of resources and reduce the overall waste production. In orderto reach this, a roundtable at the provincial level should be estab-lished to ensure that all aspects from different stakeholders areequally considered and strong support from upper managementcan be gained. It also creates an opportunity for them to exchangeinformation and feedback, to obtain financial and personnelsupport, and to negotiate. For instance, in order to receive timelyservice from the CNCPC, the participation of CNCPC for thisroundtable is necessary, especially when the LCPC is seekingspecific assists outside the province. Also, the LCPC should make CPmore relevant to other policy priorities, including Circular Economy(CE), Energy Efficiency, Multilateral Environmental Agreements,

Y. Geng et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1502e1508 1507

etc, and establish working relationships with the responsibleagencies (for example the provincial economic commission) toensure that the potential of CP to contribute to these policy areas isbeing utilized to the maximum degree possible. They could orga-nize an annual leading practice conference to bring together CPpractitioners to exchange their achievements and experiences,convene working groups with representatives from various city CPcenters to work on specific topics (e.g. CP audit methods, CP stan-dards, company success stories etc).

Besides the traditional “stick” policy (strong enforcement ofenvironmental regulations), the government also should consideradopting “carrot” policy, namely, employing a marketing approachto promote cleaner production. Such an approach can educate bothindustries and consumers about the issues surrounding wasteproduction and to promote waste reduction measures though taxredesign, financial subsidies, and resource pricing reform. Forinstance, by taxing the waste produced by industries, the fundsreceived can be directly applied to cleaner production initiatives.Such a tax would ensure that there is a cost associated with wastegeneration and provide an incentive to manufacturers to reducetheir waste through the implementation of cleaner production.Another example is that government can increase prices ofdifferent virgin materials so that companies can significantlyreduce their consumption. The surcharge could be used to supportresearch new waste reduction initiatives. This measure will besignificantly effective, especially for those small and mediumenterprises as they usually have limited money on researchinvestment. Such a surcharge could also be directly used to supportthose SMEs for their CP efforts through government subsidies.

With regard to improving enforcement of cleaner productionpromotion law and the provincial CP regulation, we can see that it isimportant for the governments to create an appropriate policyenvironment. According to the former studies (Chan et al., 1995; Loand Fryxell, 2005; Van Rooij, 2006), enforcement problems in Chinaare rooted in a lack of local legitimacy caused by conflicting inter-ests of stakeholders. Van Rooij (2006) mentioned that the flexibilityof short-term policy instruments can offer incremental improve-ments to enhance the balance between competing interests, andthus increase the effectiveness of the legal system. This requirespolicy-makers to design some useful instruments. For instance, toadd one environmental performance indicator on assessing theoverall political achievement of the local officials is one effectivemeasure for local politicians to seriously consider the enforcementof various environmental regulations, including CP promotion lawand related regulations. Another example is that the recent estab-lishment of a reporting system at all governmental levels allows thepublic to monitor the officials’ enforcement performance. Otherinstruments include increasing the enforcement budget and thefield regulators’ capacity. Such a budget could come from the wastetax or resource tax. And the training program should be specificallydesigned to meet the local demands. In this regard, understandingthe perceptions, dispositions, and values of field regulators willhelp design a better training strategy. Also, the continuouscommitment from senior management can strengthen the confi-dence of those regulators and stimulate them to do a better job.

Another key point is that the cleaner production activitiesshould link with carbon reduction efforts in order to respond toclimate change. Now the Chinese government is making substantialprogress in managing its total releases of carbon, with a target ofreducing the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDPin 2020 by 40e45 percent compared with the level of 2005(released by the State Council on November 26, 2009). Under sucha condition, more funding would be invested into the research,development and industrialization of technologies for energysaving, and into energy efficiency, clean coal development,

renewable energies, cleaner energies, and carbon capture andstorage. This creates a new chance for further improving cleanerproduction in Liaoning since cleaner production efforts can makesignificant contributions to carbon reduction. The special attentionshould be given to the quantitative assessment of various produc-tion processes, including carbon reduction from substitution ofvirgin materials, improvement of production technique andequipment (energy efficiency), reuse and recycle of some byprod-ucts, and reduction of total wastes, so that the firms can getfinancial support from carbon reduction initiatives. It also requiresthat individual firms should not only consider their own operations,but also seek the potential synergies through industrial symbiosis(Zhu et al., 2007). Many byproducts cannot be efficiently reused orrecycled within one individual plant, thus, to seek potentialcollaborationwith surrounding firms is necessary so that a regionaleco-industrial network can be established. Such efforts can furtherreduce the total carbon release at the regional level, thus, ensuringmore financial and policy support (Geng and Doberstein, 2008).

Finally, to encourage the public to voice their grievances andactively participate in promoting cleaner production a number ofinstitutional channels should be established. For example, a directcommunication to the vice mayor in charge of cleaner productionthrough a dedicated telephone line and communication throughthe delegates to the local people’s congress and members of thelocal people’s political consultative conference, could quicken theprocess on responding the polluting issues from the local enter-prises. The reason is that these people are formally empowered toraise relevant questions and demand greater governmentinvolvement. Moreover, the governmental agencies, especially theLCPC, should continue to organize various capacity buildingprograms so as to increase the public’s awareness. The focus of suchprograms should move from the current urban areas to the remoterural areas as many township or village-ship owned enterprises arestill employing obsolete equipment and technologies and feelreluctant to make changes due to their short-term visions. Inaddition, in order to keep going on catalyzing CP activities, inter-national collaboration efforts should be continuously encouragedso that the state-of-the-art technologies and information on CPfrom developed countries can be transferred to Liaoning.

6. Conclusions

Cleaner production has been approved as an effective tool onimproving the overall eco-efficiency of one company througha comprehensive pollution prevention approach. Especially, cleanerproduction is useful in developing world, where people are facingboth resource and environmental challenges. However, cleanerProduction remains mainly targeted towards particular manu-facturing processes and business strategy within individual compa-nies. In order to further enhance its effectiveness and efficiency, itshould be applied at a level of one system, such as one industrialcluster or even one region. In this regard, governmental agenciesshould play a leading role by coordinating different initiatives,enacting appropriate regulations, stipulating feasible guidelines andstandards, providing substantial financial support and carrying outinternational collaboration. Obviously, it is a challenging work andneeds more innovative measures. From the case of Liaoning we cansee the value of government’s leadership. The increasing politicalcommitment of the provincial government has eventually led to theofficial adoption of “cleaner production” as the long-term develop-ment strategy.With the implementation of a series ofmeasures, suchas appropriate institutional framework and policies, financial mech-anism, technology innovation, capacity building, and internationalcollaboration, significant achievements could be gained. However,cleaner production is still in its early stage in China and its

Y. Geng et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 18 (2010) 1502e15081508

implementation may suffer from ineffective enforcement of relevantregulations, fragmented organization framework, lack of publicparticipation and lower environmental awareness. This requires thatthe regional government should coordinatewith both industries andpublic and make common efforts together.

Acknowledgement

This study is funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China(70772085, 70911140101), Chinese Academy of Science (2008-318),and Shenyang Municipality Research Fund (1091147-9-00).

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