Business leaders from the United States and China will collaborate on important economic, social and environmental projects under an agreement signed this month by the United States and China Business Councils for Sustainable Development.
The agreement, signed Nov. 1, calls for the two councils to establish a joint communication center in Beijing to develop projects that provide economic, environmental, and societal benefits and to disseminate information on project results. They will begin by focusing on three areas of ongoing concern for the councils: expanding the use of clean-burning bio-fuels, creating a more sustainable strategy for the cement industry, of which China is the world's largest producer, and implementing by-product synergy, a system that allows companies from one industry to reuse by-products as feedstocks for another.
The Sino-US sustainable development communication center will also allow the two councils to trade expertise and technologies. They will pursue funding from both the U.S. and Chinese governments and other funding organizations to assure mutual support for the center.
Signing the agreement for the U.S. Business Council were Andrew Mangan, executive director, and Terry Welch, who in addition to serving as vice-chairman of the council directs the Global Environmental Technology Center for the Dow Chemical Company.
"It is exciting to consider the possibilities of a US-China collaboration on sustainable development, which should offer new business opportunities that produce clear and measurable economic, environmental and societal benefits," said Mr. Welch.
Signing for the Chinese Business Council were Zhai Qi, deputy secretary general, and Wan Jiming, the council's executive president, executive vice president of the China Enterprise Confederation and vice chairman of Sinopec. Sinopec, also known as the China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, is China's leading supplier of oil and petrochemical products and is the country's second largest corporation.
Other US BCSD participants included representatives of Dow Chemical, DuPont and the Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Helping address the legal implications of the ground-breaking agreement were representatives of two US BCSD members: the law firms of Baker Botts and Thompson and Knight.
The agreement came about after the Chinese business contingent asked the U.S. Business Council in June to establish a formal mechanism so the two could cooperate on sustainable development matters. That request coincided with a suggestion from the Chinese Environmental Protection Agency to the U.S. Department of Commerce that the two national governments establish a bilateral office to promote joint projects in environmental protection, cleaner production, pollution prevention and clean energy. These two objectives could potentially be realized through the Beijing communication center.
Launched in 2002, the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development is a non-profit association of businesses that serves as a partner organization of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a global network of 170 international companies with members drawn from 30 countries and 20 major industrial sectors.
The WBCSD plays a leading role in shaping the business response to the challenges of sustainable development. The US Business Council plays a complementary role by communicating those policies to the U.S. business community and its stakeholders and by implementing projects that apply sustainable development principles to real-world problems. The Chinese Business Council plays a similar role in that country.
"These agreements hold tremendous value for companies committed to sustainable development as a part of their business strategies," said Andrew Mangan, US BCSD executive director.
"Much work remains to be done to implement the agreements, but I am excited about the potential of this partnership."
