Note: The Jiefang Daily is a literal translation of the bulletin issued by Shanghai-City Communist Party Committee. Dated December 19, 2003, this newspaper reported about Xicen Phase-2 Plant of Minebea Electronics & Hi-Tech Components (Shanghai) Ltd. as a remarkable receiver of "The TOP 100 Project of National Environmental Protection". The article covers the following.
Minebea Electronics & Hi-Tech Components (Shanghai) Ltd.(hereinafter "Shanghai Minebea") was established in Xicen Town, Qingpu District, Shanghai, in 1994 which is located nearby Lake Dianshan-hu. Shanghai Minebea is a 100% owned subsidiary founded for the first time in China by Minebea Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, to make miniature and small-sized ball bearings, fan motors, etc. Minebea considers environmental preservation at all of its production bases worldwide to be a cornerstone of its management policy.
In particular, Shanghai Minebea has doubly assured its local environmental preservation because its facilities are located next to Lake Dianshan-hu, which is a sightseeing spot rich with lovely natural scenes while being the principal source of drinking water for the residents of Shanghai City. Among the measures Shanghai Minebea has taken toward this direction, an example indicates its wastewater treatment facilities working according to a twenty-four-hour monitoring system. Shanghai Minebea reuses its wastewater after it is treated in accordance with its proper standards that are stricter than China's drainage standards in general. More remarkable is the fact that the final wastewater is drained, though in part, at a place as distant as 3.2 km away from Shanghai Minebea's facilities.
At a glance, Shanghai Minebea's plants stand amidst greenery and just several hundred meters away from Lake Dianshan-hu. This plant's site area extends several hundred thousand square meters, where we can see manmade ponds and large-scale green belts that grace the whole factory premises. Truly, the entire premises are occupied in greenery as much as 40%.
In this respect, Shanghai Minebea's President Susumu Fujisawa remarks: "Lake Dianshan-hu favors us with beautiful scenery; besides, the lake provides Shanghai citizens with a tap-water source as well as a relaxing place. Therefore, as a local corporate citizen, Shanghai Minebea also is responsible to help keep these indispensable natural surroundings free from pollution as ever; we will keep taking all the measures so that the local environment can be protected assuredly. In this relation, even on a day in future when our local business here develops furthermore to require additional construction site, our attempts would be kept so as to preserve the greenery that now lies between our plant and the lake.
"Mr. Fujisawa continues: "In this connection, an evidence shows that our wastewater treatment facilities here have worked unfailingly, fulfilling our proper standards as long as for two thousand and six hundred days to date since we started manufacturing operations in Shanghai. Three years ago, we built the second factory at our Xicen Plant in order to raise our production capacity. Even thereafter, however, we have brought about to date no accident that causes pollution.
Shanghai Minebea's Xicen Phase-2 Construction Project was ranked the fourth among the receivers of the award called The TOP 100 Projects of National Environmental Protection. The extended Xicen plant is making fan motors applicable for computers and other electronic devices. The project was mainly for construction of additional factory buildings and wastewater treatment facilities, and our total investment amounted to 132 million U.S. dollars.
In terms of construction scale, the expansion project of Shanghai Minebea's Xicen Plant is not the largest among those five projects that were awarded The TOP 100 Projects of National Environmental Protection.
Even so, it should be highly commended that the Xicen expansion project has carried on Minebea's corporate traditions consistently for nine years since the beginning of Shanghai Minebea, thereby strictly controlling drainage in compliance with its proper standards. Besides, the in-house standards are stricter than those set forth by Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau.In this way, the Xicen expansion project has been in operation in safety and at the level that meets its own standards for nine hundred days to date after the project was completed.
When Shanghai Minebea was founded, it established the Environmental Charter as well, thereby specifying its environmental protection purposes, operating systems, and action guidelines. A recent survey shows that among the business corporations located in the Shanghai district, it is Shanghai Minebea alone that has been "thoroughgoing" in respect of local environmental protection.
Most importantly, Shanghai Minebea stands nearby a reservoir protection area upstream of Huangpu River that runs through the city. In order to secure city water, the Shanghai environmental protection authority has set forth wastewater drainage standards that are applied specifically to the said reservoir protection area, and these specific standards are far stricter than those applicable to the other places.As you know, certain substances consume the oxygen contained in water, causing to deteriorate the quality of water.
In the case of chemical oxygen demand (COD) increasing substances contained in treated wastewater, Shanghai Minebea has maintained its proper standards since the startup of its wastewater treatment facilities. These in-house standards require its treated wastewater to be less than 20 milligram per liter, while the local official standards requiring below 100 milligram/liter in the other Shanghai areas, or below 60 milligram/liter in the upstream reservoir protection areas. Furthermore, regarding petroleum, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) ammonia, nitrogen, suspended solids, etc., Shanghai Minebea has established its proper drainage standards that regulate these chemicals to be one-third the level that Shanghai City has specified as applicable to its upstream reservoir protection zone. Additionally remarkable is that Shanghai Minebea has attained a better result in wastewater drainage than those specified in its proper standards.
In response to my question, "Why does Shanghai Minebea regulate itself so strictly?", Mr. Fujisawa answered in a self-possessed manner: "First, we have gained confidence in our own ability to meet local drainage standards applied to business operations; second, the mother Minebea has advocated "No causing any pollution" as its environmental safeguards; and third, our management has placed trust in its local employees' competences. Mr. Fujisawa's words sounded convincing, not self-praising. More convincing are the results attained by Shanghai Minebea in its wastewater drainage over nine years since its commencement of operation. At Shanghai Minebea, manufacturing wastewater and domestic wastewater are first mixed, then put into sewage treatment system for treatment through the secondary biochemical, ozone, and activated carbon processes. Finally, in terms of physical-chemical properties, the treated water proves to be at almost the same quality level as that of city water.In consequence, Shanghai Minebea has reused 50% of its treated wastewater for toilet flush, street cleaning, and green-belt irrigation. Additionally, Shanghai Minebea holds such a drastic concept as "zero drainage" by maximizing its reuse rate of treated wastewater. Toward this direction, the company trying to ceaselessly decrease any "visible" or even "conceivable" pollution by strictly keeping its own drainage standards while coming up with various new ideas so as to keep following its corporate Environmental Charter in practice. These efforts were rewarded, for one, by the fact that until years ago and similarly as other bearing makers, Minebea Group also used to apply specified CFCs or ethane to its process of cleaning the parts of its ball bearings; now that these chemical substances were globally recognized to have depleted the stratospheric ozone layer, Minebea developed with success a proprietary system that uses water for the purpose of parts washing; as a result, much earlier than other bearing companies, 1993 saw Minebea Group beginning to use purified water, while phasing out the use of these chemicals at its manufacturing plants the world over. Then, Environmental Protection Agency of the United States became aware of these environmental achievements so well that the Minebea group was awarded the Stratospheric Ozone Protection Awards three times in total.
In 1996, Shanghai Minebea established the Shanghai-Minebea Lake Dianshan-hu Environmental Protection Fund aimed to accelerate its efforts for preservation of the environs around the lake. The fund totals eleven million yuan at present. The fund has financed Shanghai Minebea for its contribution to its local surroundings by donating a great number of young cherry trees now planted along the highway running by its Shanghai Plant, while presenting many chemical lavatories to individual homes in the adjourning farming villages, among others. When you have an opportunity to visit Shanghai Minebea, your admiration will grow, after replacing your shoes with the designated slippers at the entrance, by seeing the chemical analysis room that belongs to its Wastewater Treatment Center. It is no surprise that the wastewater treated there is so good as hundreds of varicolored carp keep sailing in the treated water similarly as seen in an ordinary pond. You would be impressed by Shanghai Minebea's earnest corporate attitude and the great effects gained through its environmental management activities.
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