Deputy Director of Publicity and Education Bureau of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the PRC Yang Xiaoling Visits Everbright International Changzhou Waste-to-energy Project

On 28 August 2020, Yang Xiaoling, Deputy Director of the Publicity and Education Bureau of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment ("MEE") of the People's Republic of China ("PRC") visited Changzhou Waste-to-energy Project ("Changzhou Project") of China Everbright International Limited ("Everbright International") and joined a seminar at the project, in order to follow up feedback and advice regarding the opening-up of environmental protection facilities for public visits, as well as to provide guidance relating to the development of the primary contact points and ecological conservation. Yang Shiqiao, Deputy General Manager of Everbright International accompanied her on the visit.



Since the summer vacations for students were not yet ended, local students and residents were everywhere in the public visiting areas of Changzhou Project. The visiting group led by Yang Xiaoling visited the featured areas of the project, including a children's playground, a basketball court, a science popularisation center, a community library, a street garden, an environmental protection education center and the waste crane control room. The group listened to introductions of Changzhou Project's construction, operation and opening-up arrangements, design concept of the smart waste sorting bins, as well as the construction and management of the community library. The team also looked at presentation materials on the opening-up arrangements of Everbright International's three major business sectors, namely environmental energy, greentech and environmental water, to understand the company's relevant experience and outcome. During the visit, Yang Xiaoling kept nodding to show her appreciation of Everbright International's effort on complying with emission standards, opening its environmental protection facilities for public visits, and transforming the "Not-in-My-Backyard" (NIMBY) effect into the "community-friendly" effect in environmental protection facilities.



Yang Xiaoling said, Everbright International's Changzhou Project is not only the sole unit from the ecological environment system, but also the only enterprise in the first 15 primary contact points of key projects, which were recently approved by the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress (CCGCEP). The company and the project have established a channel, through which the local people, businesses and government authorities could connect with each other directly, setting a benchmark in the industry with a long-lasting meaning. Yang said that Changzhou Project is an active execution of Xi Jinping's Thoughts of Ecological Civilisation, a typical case study on the modernisation of the country's ecological environment quality system, and an important base to improve ecological awareness of the general public. The successful experience and significant meanings of Changzhou Project should be studied thoroughly by all, and the functions of Changzhou Project as the primary contact point should be extended to Changzhou City and even Jiangsu Province. Yang Xiaoling expressed her high expectations on Everbright International. She also hoped the company to perform a leading role as a centrally-administrated state-owned enterprise and continue to lead the stable development of the environmental protection industry.



Yang Shiqiao, Deputy General Manager of Everbright International, accompanied the group on the visit. He delivered a detailed introduction on the company's exploration of promoting the "government, business and resident" collaborative model and developing Changzhou Project into a "community-friendly" factory. He thanked the MEE of the PRC, the Department of Ecology and Environment of Jiangsu Province and relevant government departments of Changzhou City for their continued support and guidance for Changzhou Project, which have helped the project to be recognised as a primary contact point of the Key Projects of the CCGCEP. According to him, Changzhou Project is a demonstrative project of Everbright International, as well as a name card of Changzhou City. By breaking the plant walls and opening up the project to the public, Changzhou Project has brought local residents much closer, reflecting its philosophy of affection for residents, right for residents, benefit for residents, thinking for residents and working for residents. It also showcases Everbright International's corporate pursuit of "Creating Better Investment Value and Undertaking More Social Responsibility". The company is concerned about long-term social effectiveness, strives to build garden factories, pursues the goal of "proven performance in four aspects", strictly follows the demands of "three-zero" and "three-one", and focuses on being an industry benchmark. Everbright International looks forward to more in-depth collaborations with Changzhou City in the environmental protection sector, with a vision of developing a national demonstration base and achieving a win-win situation for both.



Representatives from the Department of Ecology and Environment of Jiangsu Province, Bureaus of Publicity and Ecology and Environment of Changzhou City, Yaoguan Town Government of Changzhou City, and relevant headquarter departments and environmental protection sector of Everbright International joined the visit.

Extended Reading

Changzhou Waste-to-energy Project was invested in and constructed based on a BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) model, with an investment of approximately RMB413 million. Covering a land area of 75 mu, the project commenced commercial operations in November 2008, with a designed annual household waste processing capacity of 290,000 tonnes and an expected annual electricity generation capacity of approximately 87 million kWh. In 2019, Everbright International invested in RMB140 million in an upgrading project of Changzhou Project to open up its project walls and achieve ultra-low emission. In addition to removal of the project walls, Changzhou Project has also been equipped with a number of community-friendly facilities, such as a science popularisation center, a community library, a basketball court, a children's playground and a street garden. Following the upgrading work, the project was officially open to the public in June 2020, making it China's first community friendly waste-to-energy project that is located in residential communities, fenceless, fully-opened, and with ultra-low emission. The project has transformed from a "staff-only" factory into a "public living room" of the city.

In the past 12 years since the project was established, Changzhou Project has been not only ensuring the safety and compliant emission, but also dedicated to solving the NIMBY effect by honoring the principle that "waste-to-energy projects could be good neighbors of local communities". As a result, the project's innovative practices were shortlisted as one of the Case Studies on Overcoming Obstacles Following Chinese President Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. In August 2020, it was approved by the CCGCEP to be included in the first batch of Primary Contact Points of the Key Projects of the CCGCEP.