Representatives from General Office of the Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress and Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China Visit Everbright Environment Changzhou Waste-to-energy Project

On 17 September 2020, a group of government officials visited Changzhou Waste-to-energy Project ("Changzhou Project") of China Everbright Environment Limited ("Everbright Environment") to inspect work relating to the Primary Contact Points of the Key Projects of Central Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress (CCGCEP), as well as to exchange ideas on the promotion of the primary contact points. Wang Jiyao, Deputy Director General of the Secretary Bureau of the General Office of the CCGCEP, and Yang Xiaoling, Deputy Director General of the Department of Education and Communications at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment ("MEE") of the People's Republic of China ("PRC") joined the visit. Yang Shiqiao, Deputy General Manager of Everbright Environment accompanied the visitors and briefed them about relevant work.

In the morning, Wang Jiyao and Yang Xiaoling led the group and visited some featured plant areas of Changzhou Project, such as the newly-built community-friendly facilities (including a basketball court, a fitness square, a children's playground, a street garden, etc.), the science popularisation center, the community library, the environmental protection education center and the waste crane control room. The group also watched the latest corporate video of Everbright Environment, an interactive presentation on waste sorting and promotional materials about the opening up of environmental protection facilities by the environmental energy, greentech and environmental water sectors of Everbright Environment. During the tour, they listened to introductions about Everbright Environment, in terms of the company's practices in opening up its environmental protection facilities for public visits, progress in developing the "Five Points in One Line" full industry chain layout for the waste sorting business, progress of the company's work on ecological conservation, as well as the construction, operation and opening-up of Changzhou Project.





During the visit, Wang Jiyao and Yang Xiaoling commended Everbright Environment's effort in complying with relevant emission standards, the opening its operating projects for public visits and transforming the "Not-In-My-Backyard" ("NIMBY") effect into a "community-friendly" benefit. On behalf of the CCGCEP and the MEE of the PRC, Wang Jiyao and Yang Xiaoling donated a number of popular environmental protection books and magazines to the library.



During the symposium in the afternoon, Yang Shiqiao first introduced the development history of Everbright Environment and its business sectors, the company's effort in promoting the development model that involves the government authorities, businesses and residents, and also the exploration made to transform Changzhou Project into a "community-friendly" plant. He said that Everbright Environment would like to consider Changzhou Project being shortlisted among the primary contact points by CCGCEP as a new starting point, to further study and comprehend the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. The company will strive to develop Changzhou Project into an urban public service platform, which takes an industry-leading role, serve promotional and educational purposes, and provide places for fitness and entertainment. Everbright Environment is confident and determined to developing the project into a hub for research, observation and demonstration under the key project scheme of CCGCEP, as the company is a practitioner of building a Beautiful China.





Bearing in mind the requirements of China's ecological conservation and cultural and ethical advancement, Zhang Zhengxiang, General Manager of Everbright Environment Energy (Changzhou) Limited (the project company of Changzhou Project) made a detailed report on the practices, progress and future work plans of Changzhou Project in setting up a cultural and ethical benchmark within the industry, playing a leading role in promotion cultural and ethical advancement, as well as creating a new development pattern that the government authorities, businesses and residents could work together and share the benefits.



Wang Jiyao said that the short visit to Changzhou Project was overwhelming and impressive, and had changed his stereotype about waste treatment. As an industry benchmark, Everbright Environment has been consciously implementing Xi Jinping's Thoughts of Ecological Civilisation and thoroughly implementing the five development concepts of "innovation, greenness, harmony, openness and sharing". Taking social and environmental responsibilities as a centrally-administrated state-owned enterprise has made Everbright Environment a well-deserved industry leader. As the only garden factory built in residential communities in China, Changzhou Project has also become the country's first community-friendly waste-to-energy plant that is fenceless and fully opened to the public. The removal of the project wall also stands for the removal of barriers among the local government authorities, businesses and residents, making all parties closer to each other and assuring the residents with benefits brought by ecological progress. He also said that thanks to the recommendation of the MEE of the PRC, Changzhou Project is a good pick for the primary contact point list, as the project has solid experience, outstanding performance that are worth promoting widely.

Wang pointed out three requirements for Changzhou Project's next steps of work:

Firstly, the project should have a thorough understanding of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Thoughts of Ecological Civilisation. It needs to understand the inner connections between ecological conservation and cultural and ethical advancement, and fully undertake the leading role as a primary contact point, in order to promote the material and cultural progress and to guide people to champion ethical progress and create a better life for themselves.

Secondly, the project should conscientiously study and implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's Thoughts of Ecological Civilisation. It needs to motivate the society for participation and proactively develop an environmental management system that is led by the government authorities with the public's involvement. By doing so, it could constantly enhance its public credibility and resolve social conflicts, which could provide confidence and incentive for the next phase of work. The project also has to develop a sense of innovation and carry out work relating to primary contact points with depth, width and breadth.

Thirdly, the project should explore and develop a long-term working mechanism relating to primary contact points. Everbright Environment Energy (Changzhou) Limited should summarise the progress of work relating to cultural and ethical advancement on a quarterly basis and submit the summaries to CCGCEP and the MEE of the PRC. Good experiences and practices shall be reported at any time. At the same time, relevant government authorities in Jiangsu Province and Changzhou City should provide support, guidance and services as appropriate to work relating to the primary contact points.

Officials from the Department of Ecology and Environment of Jiangsu Province, Jiangsu Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress, Publicity Department of the CPC Changzhou Committee, Changzhou Commission for Guiding Cultural and Ethical Progress, Department of Ecology and Environment of Changzhou City, Changzhou City Administration Bureau and Changzhou Yaoguan Government joined the visit. Representatives from the Department of Safety and Environment and the environmental energy sector of Everbright Environment also participated in the visit.

Extended Reading

As a waste-to-energy project located closest to residential communities in China, Changzhou Project commenced operation in 2008. It has a daily designed household waste processing capacity of 800 tonnes and is expected to generate on-grid electricity of approximately 87 million kWh annually. The project has been operating smoothly in compliance with respective discharge standards for many years, standing in harmony with its neighbors, the 100,000 residents of the adjacent communities. In 2019, Everbright Environment invested RMB140 million in the upgrading project of Changzhou Project, which mainly includes the removal of the project walls and ultra-low emissions.

In July 2019, the Changzhou Project was included in the Case Studies on Overcoming Obstacles Following Chinese President Xi Jinping Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era under the chapter of ecological civilization development. In July 2020, the project was approved by the General Office of the CCGCEP to be shortlisted in the first batch of "Primary Contact Points of the Key Projects of the CCGCEP".

Changzhou Project officially opened for public visits in July 2020, and has become China's first fenceless community-friendly plant that is equipped with facilities benefiting the public. The project also marks the transformation from "Not-In-My-Backyard" into a "community-friendly" factory and became an urban classroom of for ecologic conservation education.