EcoPartnership signing ceremony, Washington DC, June 2011

The US BCSD has extended its efforts beyond U.S. borders as one of six groups nationwide participating in the US Department of State’s U.S.-China EcoPartnerships Program. This EcoPartnership, which strengthens an existing bi-national partnership between the US BCSD and China Business Council for Sustainable Development (CBCSD), will tackle energy and environmental challenges facing both countries.

Goals of this EcoPartnership include:

• Promoting energy efficiency in Chinese and American buildings;
• Reducing the impact of industries on the environment;
• Discovering by-product synergies, where one company’s waste streams can become another’s resource;
• Understanding and applying ecosystem valuation;
• Addressing water quality, quantity and stormwater issues;
• Building strong business relationships between Chinese and American enterprises by facilitating collaboration and communication.

Through the EcoPartnership program, the US and China business councils will develop projects on water, energy, climate and ecosystem objectives. Specific plans could include applying new financing approaches for energy efficiency in commercial and industrial buildings and implementing by-product synergy, a system that allows companies from diverse industries to work together to match their underutilized waste streams with potential users at other facilities.

The US BCSD and CBCSD are interested in extending the U.S. Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing framework to the Chinese economy, creating a new China PACE framework that is able to retain the advantages of the existing American structure. Together, our teams are working to come up with a viable option for accomplishing this transference to China’s industrial and commercial sectors. Ideally, this program could be promulgated under existing rules and regulations, obviating the need for additional Chinese legislation.

Participating businesses will benefit from the EcoPartnership through enhanced collaborative relationships that lead to new business and market linkages, resource and best practice sharing, joint project development, and bi-national innovation. The US will benefit from the EcoPartnership by having businesses more engaged with Chinese companies in the pursuit of sustainable development, increasing global competitiveness and leading to improved understanding of the triple bottom line values of social, environmental and economic sustainability.