It becomes obvious, that the complex problem of a sustainable development in abig country like China, can only be tackled by an orchestra of institutions and individuals involved. Too many factors on different levels have to be taken into consideration and have to be cascaded down from the framework of governmental actions to the companies and further on to each individual employee and consumer at the end of the production chain.

The government needs to provide clear and valid regulations for enterprises and needs to incentive ecological behavior for both - enterprises and consumers as well. The best way to do this effectively is over the price mechanisms of the market. Costs for using resources should reflect the actual availability and should not been subsidized by the government.

As long as “free rider behavior” is possible or the incentives for a sustainable behavior remain small for any of the stakeholders of sustainable development, not much change will happen.

Besides the implementation of market mechanisms, the government needs to promote a sustainable behavior as something positive much stronger than in the past. Ecology and the sustaining of resources need to become a value in society. This rather long-term goal should not been put off and needs to be communicated in the media, included into the educational system of the country and reflected in the actions of government decisions at all time.
In parallel, it is the task of each company to break down the vision of a sustainable development into concrete actions. This should be done in their own interest, e.g. to safe costs, to generate an outstanding market position or to create a distinguished image of being a “Green Enterprise”.

Again, as long the customer does not appreciate sustainable products and is not willing to sacrifice on convenience, status or price (Ecological products are often perceived as less convenient and are sometimes more expensive, due to higher investments in technology) it will be difficult to realize sustainability. The same accounts for costs of resources, like gas, fuel or electricity. If they do not reflect the actual situation, it will be counter productive to participate in a sustainable development for market players, since this business model might put them behind ecological unaware companies, which do use cheap resources, but do not invest into greener technologies.

TRW Automotive, as a global player in the industry as integrated a sustainable development into the business plans at all levels. Here in China, we have certified our plants ISO 14001 and are working hard to integrate the thoughts behind resource saving production into the hearts and minds of each employee. We have clear rules and regulation, which violation might lead to an immediate dismissal from the work place. We provide on site and off site trainings to make the employees understand the relations between certain actions. Last but not least, we do hold the opinion that there is an obvious connection between an ecological and economical behavior, since every gallon of fuel or water saved, will decrease our production costs. Therefore we have committed ourselves to participate in an overall sustainable development in China.

The most important change, which needs to happen, is in the minds of the people. Society needs to realize the true value of nature and resources. This can only be done by continues efforts to educate, teach, explain and reward a sustainable behavior at all levels. I recommend the honorable leaders of the Chinese government to do so and to be visible role models of this important issue.

By Florian Reiter