Pim Overes speaks pior to a tug-of-war held by Huisman in Xiamen. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Although there are numerous local and international guides and examples available on how to implement CSR in companies, there are no real auditing or accreditation standards for social responsibility itself. Some subjects of it are covered by international standards, e.g. the British Standard for occupational health and safety management systems – OHSAS 18001. This touches many subjects of CSR already, but does for instance not cover the social part of it. Luckily within China’s laws pertaining to areas related to CSR, much is already in place. Furthermore there are many initiatives launched promoting CSR through local policies. For me the main thing is awareness of the subject within companies and their stakeholders. This is something we can still improve, and to me the best way to achieve this is through dialogue with companies and policy makers on the subject of implementing CSR compliancy. Besides the prosperity it gives to companies, it’s the sustainable mentality towards environment and people today, that lay the basis for the generations to come. So they can enjoy the environment the way I enjoy it today, when hiking in the Fujian hills and mountain sides.

Background info of Huisman.

Huisman is a global operating company with extensive experience in the design and manufacturing of heavy construction equipment for the world’s leading on and offshore companies. Huisman expanded its operations to Zhangzhou (Xiamen area) in China to facilitate customers in Asia and to increase its overall production capacity. The Huisman China facility has been fully operational since April 2007 and delivers a significant contribution to the overall Huisman engineering and production capacity. Over the years, Huisman China has manufactured a fair share of Huisman products, including two of the world’s largest offshore mast cranes (4,000m and 5,000m) built by Huisman so far.

Huisman China has excellent production facilities at its disposal. With the new quayside in place, the facility is easily accessible for seagoing vessels, allowing for fast installation, commissioning, and testing of the Huisman designed and built offshore equipment onboard. Besides the installation of Huisman products, the new quay and the 2400mt quayside crane (named: Skyhook) can also serve commercial purposes for companies throughout China. In addition to the 16 production halls, shot blasting and painting hall, a movable painting shop, a material laboratory and a maintenance facility, which also accommodates the Welding Training School, we have a production hall 205m long, 54m wide and 62m high, which opened in 2011. The internal assembly of products improves the efficiency and the quality which importantly adds to Huisman's international market position.