Students from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center's Energy, Resources, and Environment (ERE) Group, and Dr. Roger Raufer - the new Resident Professor of ERE at the HNC - attended the First Corporate Social Responsibility Awards and Green & Clean Forum on October 16th, 2014. The event was held at the Nanjing Hilton Riverside, and hosted by the European Union Chamber of Commerce (EUCC) in China.
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| Brandon (3rd from left) with classmates and Professor Raufer |
The event was widely attended by representatives of locally operated international and domestic businesses as well as other professionals. Many of the attendees took part in a panel discussion that focused on their current efforts to address the issues of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
Speakers at the event included the German and Chinese joint-venture chemical-industrial firm BASF-YPC; the Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Company; the Sustainable Design and Architecture firm, Omega Zeta, MAN Diesel & Turbo China Production; and the Lenzing Group, an Austria-based viscose fibers production firm.
All of the firms shared their methodology and successes in implementation of sustainable practices, ranging from resource & production efficiency, efficiency in treating water and waste, and overall efforts toward finding sustainable solutions in a fast changing world.
Among the speakers was Dr. Oliver Conen from BASF-YPC, who shared an interesting practice in which the German and Chinese joint venture implemented the Verbund principle of resource and production efficiency. As indicated in Dr. Conen’s presentation, the Verbund concept is set to allow BASF-YPC to realize energy efficiency and cost effectiveness while also minimizing environmental impact. The principle uses the basic premise behind energy cogeneration plants, but within a chemical production context. This chemical-industrial cogeneration model uses the by-products from one chemical plant as starting materials for other plants, which increases efficiency and redefines the notion of “waste”.
This event was a great opportunity for ERE students to hear directly from European and Chinese firms about how they work to achieve more sustainable and energy-efficient operating practices.
