Senior Research Fellow, Institute of  Ethology and Anthropology, CASS

No.27 ZhongguancunNandajie, 100081, Beijing, P.R.China；

  Team Leader, Sustainable Development Team, UNDP China

No.2 LiangMaHe NanLu,100600, Beijing, P.R.China

After 1992, the rapid and unregulated development of private sector enterprises had a variety of social impacts, among them, environmental pollution affected major population centers and extensive regions, putting China in a major environmental crisis. This attracted much of public attention, pushing the government to take effective measures.

In such context, Environmental protection was identified as strategically significant and the government rolled out measures, policies and models to address environmental concerns. It is worth noting that in the 1990s, China’s industrial pollution control mode shifted from end-of-pipe treatment method to comprehensive management. During the decade after China’s accession to the WTO in 2001, China’s economy continued to develop rapidly and internationalization increased considerably, prompting Chinese enterprises to become increasingly attentive to social development and environmental pollution.

So to speak, the Chinese government began to engage with the public aiming at increase awareness and incentives for enterprises in favour of environmental protection. It pushed for better environmental information disclosure by enterprises and issued the Interim Measures for Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment in 2006. In 2009, China attended theUN Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, and elaborated on China’s commitment to responding to climate change, which gave an impetus to domestic efforts in energy conservation and emission reduction and gradually put pressure on enterprises. Ningbo Banbianshan Resort is a significant case of quick  and effective response to this initiative.

Ningbo Banbianshan Investment Company is an investment company located on the coast of the East China Sea that specializes in tourism development and management. As a state-owned enterprise, Banbianshan since the beginning of its establishment, it aims to use tourism as the social and economic leverage to promote the industrial upgrading of this coastal town, while at the same time protecting the local environment and supporting the local community.

Ecotourism and Environmental Protection

During the tourism development planning, attention has been paid not only to ensure the impacts on the environment is minimized, but also to transform and upgrade the local ecological environment.

At the same time, Banbianshan Company also harnesses green building technologies to build a low-carbon green scenic spot: in the short term, the company will carry out green roof construction according to local conditions, and build green buildings in the resort, such as sky garden and green interior and exterior walls, forming a microcirculation around the area and alleviating the heat island effect.

In addition, the resort also features its “green hotel” business model. With its outstanding performance reducing energy consumption, waste production and other negative environmental impacts, the Crowne Plaza Ningbo Xiangshan Seaview Hotel is currently making its application to the LEED(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification program is one of the most popular green building certification programs in the world, developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). It includes a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of buildings that aims to help minimize the negative environmental impacts and maximize energy and resources efficiency.] Gold Certification. In addition, the hotel actively raise the awareness of sustainable consumption to its customers. For instance, it is committed to minimize the use of disposable products and ensure that various resources and energy are recycled as much as possible without sacrificing service standards through measures such as utilizing the residual food through anaerobic fermentation to provide biogas energy. Besides, it also increases community environmental awareness through campaigns, publicity, education and action programmes.

Industrial and Growth Promotion

Before the Banbianshan resort was built, the region was once a fishing village, where its residents' income was mainly from fishing and remittance from outside. Stuck in the preliminary stage of urbanization, the income level was generally low, most of them were below RMB 3,000 /month.  After the development of Ningbo BanbianshanInvestment Co., Ltd., the region took on a localized urbanization path that features ecological conservation.

The company promotes the economic development of the region with eco-tourism, and also promotes the transfer of local labour force from the primary industry to the tertiary industry. For more than a decade, the company has provided 53 local people with training and job opportunities, which accounted for 27% of the local population.  At the same time, by providing more livelihood opportunities to the local communities, it effectively reduced social problems such as the loss of local labour and promoted the local urbanization process.