Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area Launches Corporate Sustainable Water Management Innovation Initiative

On December 13, 2022, under the guidance and support of the Ecological Environment Bureau of Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA), the Tianjin TEDA Low Carbon Economy Promotion Center, together with Tianjin TEDA Water Industry Co.

The event was held online and offline, and invited experts such as Xing Di, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Tianjin TEDA Water Industry Co., Wang Qian, Shanghai Regional Program Director of WWF(Switzerland) Beijing Representative Office, Tian Jinping, Professor of Tsinghua University School of Environment, Zhang Hao, Production and Operation Director of Novozymes TEDA Plant, and Zhou Yuanchi, Deputy Director of Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area Ecological Environment Bureau to attend the event and deliver a speech. At the event, more than 30 people from 21 enterprises in Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area participated in the event and signed the "Sustainable Water Management Innovation Launch Initiative for TEDA Industrial Park Enterprises".

In his welcome speech, Zhou Yuanchi, deputy director of Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area Ecological Environment Bureau, said: Tianjin is a city with resource-based water scarcity, and the per capita water resources are far below the national average, so the industrial park should contribute to the national water conservation action. Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area hopes that through the Enterprise Sustainable Water Management Innovation Project, firstly, to continue TEDA's international gene, import the global experience of WWF and Novozymes into TEDA, and contribute TEDA's strength to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); secondly, to promote TEDA's green development, starting from water management, to promote the transformation and upgrading of industrial enterprises and industrial chain optimization, and to polish TEDA's green The third is to realize the modern management of TEDA, to do a good job of sub-metering and water balance mapping, to carry out policy innovation and model innovation, and to strive to provide replicable and replicable practical cases for industrial parks in northern water-scarce areas.

Wang Qian, Regional Program Director of WWF China, shared his views on collective action in watersheds for sustainable water management innovation. WWF is currently promoting corporate participation in water management innovation initiatives on a global watershed basis, with a "five-step" roadmap. The first step is to raise awareness of the global water challenges and their relevance to water action; the second step is to understand the water impacts (including water footprint and water risks) of their own operations and supply chains, to actively engage in internal actions to optimize water management processes, improve water efficiency and reduce water pollution, and to "go beyond the walls" to engage with businesses, communities, governments and social organizations in their campuses. Finally, we need to consciously engage in supporting shared governance in the basin and promote government incentives and sustainable investment in managing the basin.

Xing Di, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Tianjin TEDA Water Industry Co., Ltd. explained the current situation of regional water use in Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area. Secretary Xing Di analyzed the advantages, characteristics and challenges of Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA) from several aspects such as sewage treatment and recycled water utilization. As a professional company of industrial park water operation that grows together with Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone, TEDA Water always insists on doing a good job of regional water supply service protection, and the next step is to do a fine job in safe water supply stability, pipe network transformation, service quality and intelligent water construction.

Professor Tian Jinping from Tsinghua University School of Environment shared on the methods and practices of sustainable water management system in industrial parks, interpreted the general requirements of national and Tianjin water conservation actions, introduced WWF guidelines on water management innovation in parks, elaborated key issues and initiatives of water management innovation in enterprises, and analyzed typical cases of water management innovation practices in enterprises. The core of water management innovation is to continuously improve water use, reduce the water impact within the enterprise and related to the value chain and supply chain, show that water management innovation in industrial parks should focus on multi-stakeholder joint action, promote and share the sustainable development and utilization of water resources, build a whole life cycle water management system, take the park management agencies and enterprises as the main body of implementation, and promote the park to realize water consumption from relative decoupling to Absolute decoupling. The basic problem of park water management is always new is to achieve fine and quantitative management for water quantity, water quality and the whole process of water consumption and drainage cost, and carrying out water balance test is an important tool for water management; the key task of implementing sustainable water management project in the park is to establish and improve the whole life cycle park water management system, strengthen the management of metering hardware and software, and build a water-saving park with the participation of all staff.

Mr. Zhang Hao, Director of Production and Operation of Novozymes TEDA Factory, shared his experience on water management in Novozymes TEDA Factory. Director Zhang Hao firstly introduced Novozymes' sustainable development strategy and said that the environment-based water management program is through WWF to help Novozymes' Tianjin TEDA plant, Suzhou Hongda plant and Shenyang plant to assess water risks and develop relevant water targets and action plans. Mr. Zhang said that Novozymes China's water management innovation lies in public awareness and collective action for water management. Finally, Mr. Zhang shared about Novozymes TEDA plant's water management projects, including the improvement of water saving management system and implementation of water saving technology improvement projects, and expressed his prospect and expectation for the cooperation with TEDA water industry to realize the new model of wastewater recycling service.

At the meeting, Novozymes, as a representative of the company, launched an initiative to start sustainable water management innovation for enterprises in TEDA Industrial Park together with representatives of various enterprises in Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area and signed the initiative letter. The initiative includes four aspects, such as system construction, staffing, equipment efficiency and strengthening management, in an effort to form an intensive and efficient, circular and diversified, intelligent and clean industrial water usage.