Bayer's eco-relief

Lai Jia-rong, a senior student from Beijing Forestry University happily recalls her trip to Germany last year for the Bayer Young Environmental Envoy (BYEE) program, a global initiative under the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and Bayer, the German-based chemical and pharmaceutical giant known best for inventing aspirin.

"During the trip to Germany, I saw the joint efforts made by the government and German companies on environmental protection and realized the notion of environmental protection that 'Practice Brings Improvement'," Lai says.

Born in a small village of Yunnan province, in her first trip overseas, Lai was mostly impressed by the high quality of water in Germany.

"We could drink the tap water directly at the hotel and didn't need to buy the bottled water. The Rhine River is clear and clean."

As one of the world's biggest chemical companies with its headquarters beside the Rhine River, Bayer was an early environmental steward and founded a "Wastewater Commission" in 1901 to protect the river's eco-environment.

"It is also a good chance for the young Chinese to get to know German advanced technologies in environmental protection. That really broadened our horizons," Lai says, who is proud to be a Bayer Young Environmental Envoy.

Lai says she plans to pursue a master's degree and study forestry protection.

With the topic of "Green Olympics, Energy Efficiency and Emission Reduction", the sixth Bayer BYEE program continues from April through November this year simultaneously in Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, and Hangzhou, bringing the theme of environmental protection to college and university students across the nation.

First launched in 1995 in Thailand, the BYEE program now covers a dozen developing countries. In China, more than 600 students from more than 100 colleges and universities submitted environmental proposals, among which 85 students were selected as environmental envoys.

"It means the activities we do to demonstrate what we want to be are part of a voluntary contribution to the development of the society," Michael Koenig, president of the Bayer Greater China Group says.

Another biennial program, Eco-Minds is also a part of the Bayer and UNEP partnership in global youth environmental activities.

It challenges the youth to think of creative and practical interdisciplinary uses of science and technology.

Further joint initiatives include a global children's painting competition that takes place each year in connection with World Environment Day, and Tunza, a quarterly UNEP magazine for youths.

Beneficial solutions

As pointed out by Michael Porter in the Harvard Business Review "CSR can be much more than a cost, a constraint, or a chartable deed - it can be a source of opportunity innovation and competitive advantage."

Doing business in healthcare, crop science and material science, Bayer regards business behaviors as way to integrate human intelligence with natural resources for the benefit of the whole society.

Scientific and technological innovations are effective means for Bayer to realize mutually beneficial solutions between corporate management and environmental protection.

Bayer Material Science plans to build a toluene diisocyanate (TDI) facility at the integrated site. DiiIsocyanates are part of a family of highly reactive, low molecular weight chemicals. They are widely used in the manufacture of flexible and rigid foams, fibers, coatings such as paints and varnishes, and elastomers, and are increasingly used in the automobile industry, autobody repair, and building insulation materials. This will be the first world scale TDI facility to utilize the Gas-Phase Phosgenation (GPP) process which reduces energy use by up to 40 percent.

In November 2007, Bayer launched an integrated, Group-wide "Bayer Climate Change Program", aiming to further reduce the CO2 emissions from its production facilities and to develop new solutions for climate protection and dealing with climate change.

The Bayer Group was listed in Dow Jones Sustainability Index since 2003, named "Best in Class" by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and included in the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index in 2006.

Bayer was granted "Responsible Care Leadership Award" by the international council of Chemical Associations (ICCA).

"We made the right decision to bring the most advanced technology to China, not only the technology of plants and processes, but also the technology of keeping clean air, wastewater treatment and solid/liquid waste management," says Koenig.

(China Daily 05/26/2008 page8)