Environmental management helps Baosteel to transform and upgrade

High pollution, high energy consumption, especially the chimney with exhaust gas, the steel industry is almost such a "standard image" in people's minds, and it has nothing to do with green, even people in the steel industry say bluntly " China's steel industry has long had a bad reputation." Can iron and steel enterprises develop harmoniously with society and the environment? As a leading enterprise in the domestic steel industry, Baosteel gave a positive answer. In 2009, Baosteel identified environmental management as the development strategy of the entire group. "As iron and steel technology continues to develop, environmental-related technologies must keep up. The two wheels must advance in sync, otherwise relying solely on the advancement of iron and steel technology will not be enough to support the healthy and sustainable development of this industry." Assistant General Manager of Baosteel Group Co., Ltd. , said Hu Xuefa, general manager of the Planning and Development Department.

Combining environment and management

"Four years ago, when we just proposed the 'environmental management' strategy, many people narrowly understood it as environmental protection." Hu Xuefa used "very scary" to describe this kind of understand. Operation is to produce benefits, while environmental protection requires continuous investment. The concept of environmental management lies in how to combine the environment and management. The question that Baosteel has to answer is "why environmental management can improve the level of green manufacturing and improve enterprise efficiency". After more than three years of exploration, Hu Xuefa said that now Baosteel finally understands that "environmental management is indeed a complete whole. Internally, it improves financial performance, and externally, it contributes to society." Specifically, Baosteel's environmental management mainly includes three aspects, namely green manufacturing, green products and green industry.

Green manufacturing requires both energy saving and environmental protection. In 2011, Baosteel Group launched 130 key environmental protection projects and 73 key energy conservation projects. Hu Xuefa said: "Everyone is very enthusiastic about energy saving. For example, how many tons of standard coal are saved can be calculated directly. However, in terms of environmental protection, it may have been done for a long time, which not only did not improve business performance, but produced negative effects. Contribution." He said that Baosteel can only take one step at a time. In 2010, Baosteel Co., Ltd. (Headquarters) and Baosteel Development subsidiary Baotian Company took the lead in passing the national energy management system certification in the domestic steel industry and cement industry respectively. At present, all major steel enterprises of Baosteel Group have passed the energy management system certification. In 2010, Baosteel also carried out clean production compliance actions in the whole group, and the clean production compliance rate increased year by year.

By eliminating outdated production capacity and adopting advanced technology to build new production lines, Baosteel has improved its eight The green manufacturing level of 1 Iron and Steel, Ningbo Iron and Steel and Shaoguan Iron and Steel. Improve the environmental appearance of Bayi Iron and Steel Plant, build Ningbo Iron and Steel with brand-new technology, and are currently completing the upgrading and transformation of Shaoguan Iron and Steel. The implementation of these projects contributes to the improvement of the environment in the regions where the steel companies are located. "Environmental protection standards have nothing to do with the quality of business operations. We cannot reduce investment in environmental protection because of operational difficulties." Hu Xuefa said.

In order to become a "clean factory with international advanced level", Baosteel has formulated internal control standards that are more stringent than national laws and regulations. Every year, Baosteel invests no less than 5% of its environmental investment in new, renovated and expanded projects. %, and took the lead in the industry to apply blast furnace residual pressure power generation (TRT), converter gas purification and recovery, gas-steam combined cycle power generation (CCPP) and other technologies. It is reported that during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, Baosteel invested 4.02 billion yuan to successfully implement 346 energy-saving and emission reduction projects, saving 1.534 million tons of standard coal and reducing sulfur dioxide and COD emissions by 63% and 86% respectively.

What is a green product is inconclusive in the steel industry. Dong Xiaodan, director of the Institute of Sustainable Development, Baosteel Group Economic Management Research Institute, said: "Some enterprises calculate green products according to the production cycle, but Baosteel pays attention to the whole life cycle of products. The boundary of steel's environmental friendliness is not only limited to The process of our production, when it enters the downstream enterprises, becomes the product in the hands of consumers, and even finally recycles, can still reflect its friendliness to the environment.” Quantitative evaluation through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) The environmental load and environmental impact during the product life cycle not only provide environmental management and accounting tools for environmental management, but also provide systematic thinking and methods for environmental management.

Therefore, Baosteel defines green products as those that can save energy, reduce consumption, reduce pollutant emissions, and improve environmental quality during the entire life cycle of product design, manufacturing, transportation, use, recycling, reuse and disposal. and products that contribute to reducing harm to human health.

High-strength steel AHSS is such a typical green product. On the premise of ensuring strength, this material can successfully realize the lightweight of automobiles, and achieve the effect of reducing fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In China, Baosteel became the first enterprise to carry out research and development and production of such products. It began to set foot in 2002. In 2009, the first domestic special production line for ultra-high-strength steel was put into operation, and in 2011, it took the lead in realizing the industrial production of the third-generation advanced high-strength steel-QP steel. According to statistics, Baosteel's high-strength steel, which is currently used in the automobile industry, can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 21.86 million tons per year, and its emission reduction effect is equivalent to an entire Shennongjia virgin forest.

In order to enhance the enthusiasm of employees for the research and development of green products, Baosteel released the classification standard of green products in 2012, and proposed the "3B product concept", namely the basic product Base, the excellent better and the cutting-edge Best. Among them, the first category is the basic product (BASE) that meets the requirements of environmental protection regulations of various countries, the second category is the excellent product with good environmental performance (BETTER), and the third category is the excellent environmental performance, the use of breakthrough technology, A world-leading leading edge product (BEST) with excellent environmental and economic performance. "In the past, the product development cycle was too long, at least four or five years, so everyone had insufficient motivation to develop green products. The current classification can improve the ability and speed of product development, allowing everyone to move forward." Hu Xuefa explained.

The third green industry in Baosteel's environmental management strategy covers a wider range. "Integrate environmental technology, develop energy-saving and environmental protection industries and comprehensive utilization of resources, and realize the double benefits of corporate economic and social benefits. That is to say, use a green technology and green products to replace the original technology and products, so that it can be beneficial to the society as a whole. If the pollution level drops, we will position such an industry as a green industry." Hu Xuefa admitted that Baosteel is not fast enough in this regard, and the output value in 2011 was only 2.3 billion yuan. Through technological changes, Baosteel has carried out deep processing and utilization of wastes in iron and steel production to produce raw materials needed by other industries. For example, Baosteel processes the blast furnace slag into raw materials for producing cement, and mixing it into cement can improve the grade of cement, and it has been used in the construction of airport runways and high-speed rail. In China, Baosteel is the first enterprise to make such an attempt. At present, almost all of its water slag has been processed into raw materials for cement.

On the other hand, Baosteel is still trying to systematically commercialize its accumulated energy-saving and environmental protection technologies, not only producing tangible products, but also providing technical services. For example, from 2011 to the end of September 2012, the energy-saving service company under Baosteel Group signed 38 contracted energy management projects with a contract value of 635 million yuan, saving customers 122,800 tons of standard coal.

The third part of green industry is the environmental protection business developed by Baosteel around factories and cities. "Water treatment is the strength of our steel mill, and for cities, water treatment is also a big market. Baosteel's current thinking is to enter the urban water treatment business at the same time without giving up the water treatment business of iron and steel enterprises. "Hu Xuefa introduced. In addition, Baosteel is also taking the lead in trying a Living Steel project that may subvert the traditional construction mode of Chinese residential buildings. The green steel structure building with high assembly rate not only greatly shortens the construction period, but also saves land resources, and can completely recycle steel structure buildings Material. If successful, this will also lead to the development of a huge supporting industry.

Conform to the general trend, transform and upgrade

The report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China states: "Promote the revolution of energy production and consumption, control the total energy consumption, strengthen energy conservation and consumption reduction, and support energy-saving and low-carbon industries and new energy, The development of renewable energy ensures national energy security.” Policy pressure and market demand are pushing Chinese companies to embed green into their own operations. "To a certain extent, before we formally proposed the concept of environmental management, others were also passing on relevant concepts to us. For example, companies such as General Motors, GE, and domestic Haier were all doing green procurement. As their suppliers, we We must respond quickly." Hu Xuefa said.

While following the general trend, Baosteel is also infiltrating environmental management into its procurement system, guiding suppliers to establish a green production system, and encouraging them to pass ISO14001 or environmental management certification system. For bulk raw materials such as coal and iron ore, Baosteel selects raw materials that are more in line with the environmental management strategy according to the industry's existing mature evaluation system. For production accessories, Baosteel selects products and suppliers according to its own green supplier certification management system and product life cycle evaluation system. It is reported that at present, 70 to 80% of Baosteel's suppliers have connected production with Baosteel's environmental management, but Hu Xuefa pointed out that Baosteel and its suppliers are inseparable from each other's partnership, so Baosteel will give time to help Suppliers are certified green.

In 2012, the Shanghai Municipal Government and Baosteel Group signed an agreement on promoting the structural adjustment of the steel industry in Baoshan, Shanghai, and made it clear that the structural adjustment of the steel industry in Baoshan, Shanghai will be implemented from 2012 to 2017. After the adjustment is completed, the total steel production capacity in Shanghai will be reduced by about 6.6 million tons. What does this mean for Baosteel? "According to 6,000 yuan per ton of steel, the sales of more than 36 billion yuan have disappeared." Hu Xuefa said.

Industrial structure must be adjusted, but performance cannot decline because of this. Taking full advantage of the original advantages, the green industry in environmental management has brought Baosteel a huge space for imagination. "City-oriented development is our focus," Hu Xuefa said bluntly. "From manufacturing to service" is one of the three major strategic transformations of Baosteel. Hu Xuefa said that in the future, we will put energy-saving and environmental protection businesses together and set up a city-oriented energy-saving and environmental protection company.

Integrate into daily life, internalize in heart

For Baosteel, environmental management is a long-term strategy combined with enterprise transformation and development. "Enterprises need to transform and develop emerging industries. If they don't focus on green, the industry will have no vitality." Hu Xuefa pointed out, "Environmental management must be integrated into every link of operation and everyone's mind. Two skins will be formed.” Environmental management has become the content of Baosteel’s “must talk at every meeting” since it was proposed, “It is to tell all employees how to do it and what cases Baosteel has now for everyone to learn from.”

Hu Xuefa believes that mobilizing employees' intrinsic pursuit of environmental management is far better than the method of assessment. Although Baosteel designed a scoring and evaluation system for the implementation of environmental management, it was not enforced in the end, but each department was allowed to self-assess and self-assess. "One of Baosteel's corporate cultures is to trust its employees," explained He Chao, Director of Public Relations of Baosteel Group. "In addition, environmental management allows everyone to add another dimension to the original operation and management, and allows everyone to see that once integrated , it can be reflected in the work performance." In the Baosteel factory area, the route of transport vehicles was completely dependent on the driver's subjective judgment in the past, and basically only considered the "fast" factor. However, after introducing the thinking of environmental management, it is found that the fastest route is not necessarily the most reasonable cost. Therefore, on the premise of ensuring that the work is carried out normally, a more economical route can be planned by performing detailed calculations. This not only reduces emissions, but also reduces fuel consumption, and based on Baosteel's huge logistics flow, the economic benefits brought about by this adjustment are considerable. Dong Xiaodan pointed out that cost saving and value creation originally existed in Baosteel's value system.

In addition to the fit of corporate cultural genes, Baosteel's advantageous genes also lie in having a large team of corporate technicians and a strong technological innovation system. "As long as the guidance is correct, someone will ponder it." Hu Xuefa said. LCA, an important tool in environmental management, was researched and released by Baosteel's technical researchers on their own initiative. Publishers explain how LCA can be used in products, convince decision makers, and get other technologists interested to use the tool to evaluate their products. Hu Xuefa pointed out that this was originally Baosteel's normal production, operation and product development system, but now only the technology and process have been changed.

Because all staff and all-round promotion of environmental management strategy, Baosteel did not set up a separate special environmental management committee like Posco in South Korea and Nippon Steel in Japan, but the general manager's office assumed a similar role , and the daily work such as concept propaganda, calculation of internal and external indicators output, and release of environmental management results, etc., are undertaken by the Group's Planning and Development Department. Hu Xuefa re-emphasized: "This is a matter related to all people and all business activities. You shouldn't be concerned about environmental protection just because you are in charge of purchasing and marketing." Baosteel's vision is to be a driver of green industry.