Mineral raw materials form the basis of industrial value creation and are indispensable key ingredients for green and digital future technologies. China is considered one of the most resource-rich countries in the world, but at the same time – like Germany – is highly dependent on the import of mineral raw materials from abroad. Circular economy and the recovery of critical mineral raw materials are therefore an essential building block for achieving a sustainable supply of raw materials.
According to current forecasts, the average global temperature will increase more than three degrees Celsius by the end of this century. This is one degree more than the target set in the Paris Agreement. The most recent reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are demanding urgent actions because of this. Bosch wanted to do their part to decrease CO2 emissions and became CO2 Neutral in 2020. More than 400 locations worldwide achieved this short-term goal by increasing energy efficiency, expanding renewable energy, procuring green electricity, and offsetting unavoidable CO2 emissions, which makes Bosch the first large industrial company to become climate neu- tral. Bosch China with its over 40 locations plays a critical role in this project. Regarding the company’s long-term goal, they have vowed to reduce their indirect CO2 emissions across the entire value chain by 15 percent by 2030. Meanwhile Bosch is committed to seizing any chances of improving energy efficiency and expanding in-house renewable energy generation. The company is working towards its long-term goal and has addi- tionally pooled the experience from more than 1,000 energy-efficient projects in a new advisory subsidiary called Bosch Climate Solutions. Bosch’s climate actions have been recognized by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and rated as A by CDP.
Plastic is a versatile material that helps us keep our food fresh, our houses warm and makes driving safe, thus, contributing to a sustainable future. However, it needs to be used and managed in an environmentally responsible way. BASF is developing innovative solutions that address the global challenge of proper dis- posal and recycling of plastics. In 2019, BASF launched an optimization project in Shanghai to minimize product packaging waste at all eight production plants at its Pudong site. Key changes include replacing wood pallets with durable polyurethane (PU) pallets, using ISO tanks for bulk products, and developing recyclable foldable intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) to replace plastic ones. Packaging accounts for 2% of all production costs. This project has helped reduce large amount of packaging materials and generated significant economic savings, enabling BASF to provide value-added service to customers. In the long run, BASF plans to build an eco-system of recycling packaging materials together with customers, suppliers, and partners. BASF believes that each small change makes a big difference on the road to carbon neutrality.
In a globalized society, the flow of information and education is needed to enhance society, industry, and value. With this in mind, Volkswagen Automatic Transmission Tianjin (VWATJ) created their “Dual Vocational Educa- tion Program”. This program, established in 2016, is an educational mode of school-enterprise cooperation based on German concepts, which aims to train highly skilled young talents in the automotive industry. In 2020, VWATJ expanded the scope of their cooperation and involved the Tianjin Technician Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Technology. Through this project, the company systematically improved their employees’ skills and competencies. In addition, the young talents recruited into this program improved their experience through several years of hands-on learning. The next step for VWATJ is to expand their cooperation scope and mode to train talents in different specialized areas. They aim to fully integrate the school’s resources, optimize the education and teaching process, improve talent training, and introduce a market-oriented mode of training to promote a system of reform in colleges.
Due to an unbalanced economic development between urban and rural areas, many workers from rural areas in China have to leave their children and other family members behind to migrate to big cities. Because of this and many other issues, the education of these “left-behind children” has always been a big concern for society. With this in mind, Vitesco Automotive Changchun plant teamed up with their local government, creating a long-term education strategy for the children. In six years and six visits, the company has been sup- porting rural schools: bringing them learning goods, new clothes, books, and laptops. The aim was to not only improve the students access to education but their daily lives. From 2015 to 2020, the company has been closely work- ing with the Changchun government, Jingkai Education Bureau, Jingkai Project and Service Bureau, and the Huayi Association to visit four rural schools and the students’ families. The Huayi Association supported Vitesco by connecting them with the rural schools and discussing how they can be of assistance. The company will continue to develop their strategy in education, planning how they can further assist families in their community.
Children’s education is important to the country’s future. Allowing equal learning opportunities, especially for youths in rural areas, has always been a social concern. Because of this, TÜV SÜD has been giving back to society through their Charity Christmas Market. Since 2019, the company has been calling on all employees to sell their unused items for charity. In the past, the proceeds have been donated to the Shanghai Children’s Fund, an organization that helps the children of low-income families who excel academically complete their education. In 2020, the Charity Christmas Market raised money and employees donated clothes and books for children. The donation was pledged to the “Spring Bud Project”, a national charity hosted by Ms. Peng Liyuan, ambassador of the project and spouse of President Xi Jinping. The donation will be used to support children’s education in four selected counties in Yunnan province. TÜV SÜD will continue the Charity Christmas Market, in accordance with German traditions, and also call for more people to be aware of children’s educational needs.
China is the most populous country in the world. With the sheer size of the labor market, it is a challenge for young professionals and recent graduates to find a company where they fit. On the other side, it is equally difficult for companies to find the talent hidden in the ever-growing stack of CVs submitted for an open position. To overcome this issue, TRUMPF China partnered with Suzhou Chien-Shiung Institute of Technology to help students and young professionals bridge the employment gap within their project “Blooming Youth.” Since July 2020, the company has embarked on an education initiative to provide a series of teaching sessions to students. TRUMPF invites corporate managers and experts of various topics to share their experience and give students a glance at the future of their careers. So far, over 500 attendees for over ten sharing sessions have shown how effective it is to share knowledge and experience. TRUMPF China and Chien-Shiung decided to establish a long- term partnership agreement to continue to cultivate young professionals. The next round of the project has been planned to begin in July 2021 and TRUMPF China will continue to contribute to the local talents’ development.
One social issue society in China has been facing is providing a good education to the children of migrant workers. Migrant workers leave their rural homes to go to bigger cities to earn a living. Most of the times, they find low-income opportunities which make it hard to afford expensive tuition for their children. To com- bat this ongoing issue, tesa Plant Suzhou offered scholarships to students in need through their “Sunshine Education Assistance” project. Since 2008, the company has been partnering with a school in Suzhou whose student body is mainly the children of migrant workers and have provided long-term assistance to the children. For 2020, tesa’s target was to empower more than 1,000 young people through customized STEM (Science. Technology. Engineering. Mathematics) classes which were offered to local school students. The company plans to promote this project to raise more attention in their community and get more financial and hands-on support.
In April 2000, the German Pfrang Association was killed by financially underprivi- leged migrant workers who burgled their house in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. To keep their memory alive, their friends started a charitable organization which bears the family name: the Pfrang Association. The association is a project that is made possi- ble through the cooperation of the Amity Foundation, Nanjing International School and the German Chamber of Commerce in China | Shanghai.,It is administered and housed through Sharehouse in Nanjing. Its purpose is to support school children from underprivileged families in rural Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces. The focus is mainly on orphans, children of single parents and members of ethnic minorities who drop out of school for financial reasons. The main goal is to assist junior middle school students, guaranteeing them full nine years of education. Those who do well can receive funding for three more years, making them eligible for university. Through the years, the Pfrang Association has supported over 1,500 students. Currently, in the 2020-2021 school year, the Pfrang Association is supporting a total of 325 students in 16 different schools in Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces. Although COVID-19 has made planning difficult, Sharehouse has vowed to make sure they can keep up their efforts through new fundraising methods. By providing continuous support, the Pfrang Association hopes to help break the cycle of poverty caused by lack of education, which often leads to criminal activity, and to give underprivileged children brighter prospects for the future.
Against the backdrop of a global digital economy, digital skills educa- tion should be offered to teenagers and children, especially in under- developed areas. This is to help them master digital skills quickly to better integrate the kids into the digital economy and improve their quality of life. To achieve this, the “SAPi Digital Skill Program” aimed to use SAP’s technological advantages to broaden the children’s horizons. After the success of the “SAPi 1.0 Robot Coding Experience Day”, the company started working with Save the Children, a leading humanitarian organization for children, in 2020 to reach more teenag- ers and children. SAP focused on the “SAPi Digital Skill” curriculum de- velopment while Save the Children oversaw migrant school resources. The program delivered an experience course on how to use coding to control robots. This opened their minds to coding and robotics as well as a window to see the future digital world. In the future, the company will further develop the “SAPi Digital Skills Program” and expansion projects, to promote education equality.
Many students who excel academically do not have an opportunity to further their education due to financial issues. To help these excellent yet underprivi- leged students, Pulcra awards them with scholarships, which enables them to complete their studies. Helping students helps Pulcra grow too. Since the start of their cooperation in 2017, the company has strengthened their partnership with Shanghai Petrochemical Academy to award, nurture and attract young talents to join the Pulcra team. Additionally, since 2014, the company has de- veloped a close research and study relationship with Shanghai University; the Shanghai University research team assists Pulcra in developing new products to meet the market’s demands while Pulcra provides a practice platform for the University to implant their research results. In January 2021, The “Industry – University – Research Cooperation” Base was officially set-up in Pulcra’s Jinshan site. It is a milestone for Pulcra and Shanghai University, reaching a “win-win” in research and industry. In the future, the company will need a lot more talented people to join their company for innovation, operation, and other key functions.
In China, many rural “left-behind” children in schools are affected by a shortage of teaching staff, lack of advanced teaching equipment, as well as an incomplete curriculum. To overcome this issue, Merck initi- ated “SPARKRYSTAL”, which supported rural primary school education by donating second-hand tablet computers and building a multimedia learning platform. 159 smart tablets were donated to 15 remote schools to enable digital education. In addition, over 240 teachers were selected for “Train-the-Trainer” program to advance digital education in collaborated schools. Over 200 Merck volunteers joined Merck’s online and offline volunteer activities. The donated devices and vol- unteer activities have benefited almost 9,000 pupils. The company will continue to donate second-hand, well-performing smart tablets to schoolchildren in remote areas to enable digital education, to expand and scale up the “Train-the-Trainer” approach, which will help achieve better engagement of teachers and schools.
In remote areas of China, many schools lack educational resources and have a poor teaching environment. This situ- ation worsened in 2020, when COVID-19 regulations advised against large gatherings. Linde wanted to come up with a creative way to help these schools. The company called for their employees to participate in a 21-day walking and reading activity where employees collected credits which determined how many books Linde would need to donate to the schools. As a result, the company donated 2,562 books (valued at USD 5,079) to both the Third Central Primary School and the Geping Primary School. With preparation and the actual 21-days, this project helped 1,282 pupils in the two schools in two months. The company hopes to form a long-term relationship with the schools and explore more community volunteer possibilities including more book donations, infrastructure repair, and providing school supplies to aid in the children’s education.
There are around 300 German enterprises in Taicang, many of them lack shop floor management employees. Although there is training for these positions, there is no systematic program to keep trainees on the same page. To help with this issue, Kern-Liebers established their “Taicang German Industrie Meister Training Center (DTIT)”. This project aims to establish a systematic training to cultivate floor talents accord- ing to their own competencies and what the company actual needs. With the cooperation of AHK-Shanghai, DAWT, and Taicang Vocational Education School, the DTIT program helps German enterprises in Tai- cang to cultivate their production site management talents, improve en- terprises’ management ability on the production sites by introducing a German dual system training. At the same time, it also provides an op- portunity for first-line production personnel to improve their abilities. The first cohort of the DTIT finished in 2019 and after holding presenta- tions and passing their exams, they received their certificate at the end of 2020. The newest cohort will officially start in September of 2021.
An additional aim for tesa is to raise awareness of the challenge among its employees and include more volunteers in the project as a result. It also intends to find similar projects so it can expand its reforestation-related efforts.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG17) set out in the United Nations 2030 Agen- da outline humanity’s consensus on what constitutes progress. These goals are also the yardstick Siemens China uses to measure their impact on the world. The company aims to become the world’s first major industrial company to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint by 2030. In China, the company greatly contributes to the initiative and achieved a carbon reduction of its own value chain by 80% between 2015 and 2020, overachieving its interim target of slashing its CO2 emissions by half. As a company acting globally, they entered partnerships on various levels with a diverse set of players in line with SDG17. The SDG17 call for a revitalized and enhanced global partnership that brings together governments, civil society, the private sector, the United Nations, and other entities. Carbon neutral aims for carbon neutrality of Siemens’ own greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Next to this project, the company launched “Eco Efficiency @ Siemens”, effective as of October 2020, to support this mission. The programs embrace environmental aspects along the entire value chain, follow circular economy principles and center on climate action, efficient ener- gy use and environmentally friendly materials. The programs are regularly supplemented with topical environmental initiatives such as water or biodiversity.
In modern times, customers need leather to be more functional than just looking good. With this in mind, the Pulcra Greater China R&D team developed a formalde- hyde-free amino resin to fill the market’s ever-changing needs, bringing an excellent thickening effect and filling performance for leather. The formaldehyde-free amino resin re-tanning agent is a green product which doesn’t negatively affect the environment. The creation of these new products reflects the company’s goal for reducing carbon and developing environmentally friendly chemical products. After extensive research and development with the help of Shanghai University, the product has now been marketed and accepted by customers, with the sales quantity reaching more than 100 tons in 2020. Furthermore, the product promotes the technical progress of the enterprises that need it. The preparation process does not use formaldehyde as a raw material, thus can fundamentally eliminate the risk of residual formaldehyde brought by the re-tanning agent in the leather processing. This means that procedure will no longer harm the workers in all steps of the production process. The company will continue to pay great attention to the markets, promotion, and industrialization of their products to ensure sustainability and organic development.
VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and NOx (Nitrogen Oxides) are pollutants that come from everyday production. These vol- atile and gaseous compounds pollute the atmosphere, harm the environment and are hazardous to our health. Hence, the Chinese Government does their best to regulate these emis- sions, and many companies are trying their best to control their emissions. Echoing this, Linde set up a project in China in 2014, aiming at emission reduction of VOCs and NOx. Since then, Linde has helped more than 20 industry customers achieve emission control and managed to provide localized solutions for each of their customers in China. Their effort benefits the atmosphere and environment and protects all habitants from these pollutants. The company plans to expand their solutions and advanced tech- nology to more regions and industries in China.
With cleanliness and health being a big concern for the world at large in 2020, Kaercher China introduced its project “Kaercher China Public Cleaning 2020”. The project aimed to worked with thousands of volunteers in 100 cities to ensure the wellness of people and the environment. Since the project’s launch in 2007, the company kicks off their cleaning initiative on 1 May every year. Within the project, Kaercher ’s expert cleaning team cleaned numerous public places including hospitals, schools, transporta- tion hubs, famous historic locations, cultural sites, and landmark buildings. The project used processes that not only utilized sci- entific methods and efficiency, but also environmental protection to lend a hand in shielding citizens during the global pandemic. The company partnered with many organizations including the Yangtze River Chinese Sturgeon Nature Reserve and the Changsha Ecological Zoo. Kaercher will continue their efforts to ensure the sterility of these public areas for years to come.
