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BEIJING -- At a time when China's leaders are urging better protection of the
environment, more foreign companies are setting an example by starting to look
to international "green" standards to guide their operations here.
China's environmental practices and requirements are unevenly enforced and in
flux. But after several high-profile incidents of environmental damage,
including a chemical spill in the Songhua River that left millions without safe
drinking water for days, Beijing is moving toward stricter standards. Because of
the sheer scale of construction and the use of resources, government regulators
are paying particular attention to new buildings.
Plantronics Inc., a Santa Cruz, Calif., company that makes headsets, is one
of those ahead of the regulatory curve. Its new $23 million factory, near the
eastern city of Suzhou, is the first manufacturing facility in China to be
certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, a private, nonprofit American
group. Meeting the voluntary code, called Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design, or LEED, requires cutting electricity consumption and reusing water.
Plantronics's efforts to go beyond basic environmental requirements helped
make local authorities "very enthusiastic for this project," said Terry Walters,
the company's senior vice president of operations. "They were in our corner the
whole time, fighting for us to get through the approval process, and fast."
A spokesman for Intel Corp., which has an assembly site in nearby Shanghai,
said the semiconductor maker is taking "a hard look" at LEED certification and
energy-efficiency options for future facilities in China.
In recent years, a few property developers have followed programs to soften
the environmental impact of new residential and commercial buildings. This trend
reflects companies' calculation that their facilities will have to meet not just
today's lax standards but tomorrow's tougher ones, too.
"Clearly, over time the regulations are going to change, and they are going
to be forced into doing environmental things," said Patrick Bruce, head of
planning and design company Integer China Ltd., which advises on green
buildings.
Buildings with a combined floor space of 2.4 billion square yards are going
up every year, according to the Ministry of Construction, in a building spree
that is consuming more than one-third of the world's annual supply of steel and
cement. With electricity supplies tight in some areas and reliance on imported
oil rising, policy makers are eager to find ways to manage China's expanding
thirst for energy.
Government standards for new buildings require them to use 50% less energy
than they would have 20 years ago, and even stricter measures are in the works,
said Tu Fengxiang, president of the China Building Energy Efficiency
Association.
Still, Mr. Tu said, it has been difficult for the Ministry of Construction to
ensure those standards are followed throughout the country, and not just by
expensive projects in major cities.
"We come across clients who are genuinely interested in sustainability, but
at the moment it's mostly restricted to foreign investors," said Raymond Yau, a
director at Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong, an engineering consultancy.
The government is trying to lead by example, sponsoring a number of
high-profile projects with environmentally friendly designs, most notably the
facilities for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. A company owned by the Shanghai
city government has hired Arup to help design an "eco city," a residential
development to be powered entirely by renewable energy, on the island of Dongtan
in the Yangtze River.
Proponents of energy-efficient architecture argue that the economic case for
such practices is strong in China: As wages are relatively low, energy costs can
occupy a proportionately much larger share of expenses than is usual in
developed nations. That means energy savings can provide a bigger boost to a
building owner's bottom line.
For Plantronics to achieve "gold" LEED certification for its factory, it had
to go beyond what was available locally. "A large measure of the building
material was local, but some of the key pieces of equipment were imported," Mr.
Walters said.
Contractor Bechtel Corp., San Francisco, was brought in to help on a design
with some unusual features, including a large insulated glass wall that lets in
enough sunlight to significantly reduce the use of electrical lighting and a
system that captures rainwater and runoff for other uses.