The Group has been committed to achieving the sustainable development goal of environmental protection and energy saving. By implementing the Environmental and Quality Management System to manage the environment in a systematic manner, the Group strives to deliver the development strategy of balancing environment, society and economy. The Group has adopted the management concept of life cycle in all the business activities worldwide to minimize adverse effect on environment while producing and offering services, perform its compliance obligations and enhance environmental performance, thus contributing to the better prevention of environment pollution and the sustainable development of society.
(I) EMISSIONS
To implement relevant laws and regulations promulgated by the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) such as Environmental Protection Law (《環境保護法》), the Law on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution (《大氣 污染防治法》), the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution (《水污染防治法》), the Group sets a goal of environmental management to achieve pollution reduction and emission control and strictly monitor waste discharge during the course of production by setting up ISO14001 Environmental Management System and carrying out environmental control procedures as well as environmental monitoring and measurement control procedures pursuant to the working guideline of “standardizing the works of environmental management, taking precaution as the main task, fulfilling regulation requirement, satisfying the standards of emission to make sure that it is under control and continuing to save energy and reduce consumption”, with the aim to ensure the management and control of pollution at source.
The Group is committed to achieving environmental and social sustainability in its daily operations. In terms of environmental aspects of the 2020 sustainable development goal, we ensured zero fine in exhaust gas emission. Designated dumping areas in each production base segregated wastes by licensed waste collectors and the garbage in the bases was strictly sorted and recycled.
During production process of the Group, there is no emission of industrial wastewater, except for little air contaminant discharged by its administrative cars and standby generating sets. Wastes in each production area are discharged after treatment in accordance with the approved requirements based on the evaluation on the impact on the environment and the production areas shall perform annual review to ensure legal and compliant emission of exhaust gas. All the toxic waste generated by the Group, including batteries, bulbs and coolant oil, will be conducted professional recovery and processing by qualified waste recovery and processing companies. The Group has entered into contracts for hazardous waste treatment with companies that have obtained national qualification for hazardous waste treatment to carry out regular waste disposal. The Group has also signed treatment orders for hazardous wastes to be regularly reported on the government website for reporting hazardous wastes. Non-hazardous waste mainly includes domestic waste generating from daily office works and canteen of the Company, which has been treated in strict compliance with the sorting principle. Raw material wastes such as vegetables, roots and animal offal should be treated as domestic wastes; swills should be disposed into swill buckets as required; canteen garbage should be dumped into the garbage pool in a centralized manner and dumping at will is prohibited. Indirect emissions from external production of electricity and employees’ business trips are the major source of the Group’s greenhouse gas emission. In 2020, the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emission for sales revenue per ten thousand was 0.058 tonnes. The emission density of greenhouse gas increased comparing with that of 2019. The increase in hazardous waste was mainly caused by used coolant oil. Since historical data has not been sorted out from the data of the previous year, the data of this part is not available.
In 2020, the Group continued to optimize solutions and scope for using administrative cars. Administrative cars can only be used for important corporate business entertainments. The fleet arrangements during daily operation shall be reasonable and user-friendly to avoid unnecessary car rent. For non-essential business, staff are encouraged to take public transport or choose ride-hailing services via more affordable third party platforms. The Group also consolidated the frequency and route of the Company’s shuttle buses for many times based on the actual situation. The Group has carried out regular supervision over and assessment of the service quality of the outsourcing service companies, enhanced the degree of informationization of its documents, optimized offline working procedures, formulated online working procedures to encourage paperless office work so as to reduce paper consumption while printing, at the same time conscientiously implementing the relevant PRC laws and regulations and strictly implementing waste sorting system, thereby effectively controlling emission of pollution.
(II) RESOURCE UTILIZATION
The Group takes a careful consideration of environment factors throughout the life cycle of its products and services to provide its products with the characteristics of energy and natural resource saving and non-pollution in each procedure of R&D, production, sale, transportation, utilization and abandonment. Manufacturing base in Guangzhou Development Zone has been certified by the Green Manufacturing System (綠色製造體系) since 2018. The Company effectively manages the water consumption and waste water treatment to reduce environment pollution, actively promotes the concept of water conservation through publicity and educational activities, energy conservation column on the Company’s WeChat account and regular reporting and posting of wasting behaviours. To save water resources, the Group also sets water usage and conservation targets, striving to lower the usage by 6% year-on-year. The Group did not encounter any difficulties in seeking appropriate water sources. The Group also increases the frequency of daily inspection and perform around-the-clock regular and non-regular inspections on power and water utilization in each floor and each department of the base; maintains proper inspection records and publicly criticizes the departments with behaviours of wasting; reduces the utilization of hazardous and toxic substances in each procedure, proactively seeks, develops and uses new environmental technologies and materials and encourages recycling of all materials, while for resource and energy consumption, the Group promotes active application of energy efficient products, equipment and techniques to reduce energy consumption.
During the year, the Group continued to optimize and reform its product packaging. The Group prioritized the adoption of environment-friendly technologies in the construction of new projects, during which an inspection report shall be submitted regarding the materials used so that all materials can meet national requirements for environmental protection and will not cause contamination to the surrounding environment when used. The Group also reduced the use of packaging accessories and packaging materials, at the same time planting more trees in the Knowledge City. During the year, the Group established 5G workshops by expanding the existing workshops and added production equipment with flow processes for certain production lines, resulting in an increase in power consumption but a decrease in water consumption.
(III) ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES
The Group is proactive in enhancing staff awareness of and responsibility towards environmental protection. All the employees in each of its branches worldwide are required to comply with local laws and regulations in respect of environment, safety and health. In the absence of local laws and regulations, they are encouraged to provide assistance in solving environmental issues as possible as they can under relevant standards of the Group.
The Group has set up scientific goals in environment and energy consumption, and continuously evaluates, improves and consolidates the synergy among the Group’s operating activities, products and the environment. In addition, the Group communicates environmental information with stakeholders in a timely manner. Furthermore, the Group also focuses on environmental factors in selecting and managing suppliers and outsourcers.
The Group has reduced its negative impact on the environment and natural resources by pursuing high quality products, including the reduction of repair rate of products and reported damage rate of machines. The Group has implemented flexible layout and upgraded its intelligent manufacturing equipment in its production workshops during the reporting period. All pieces of equipment have been connected to optimize the intelligent deployment in the life cycle of products so as to improve operation efficiency of products, reduce the repair rate in the market, and increase the useful life of machines.
(IV) CLIMATE CHANGE
Mainland China, Hong Kong and other regions in PRC and abroad where the Group’s major sales offices located pay attention to major climate policies and comply with local laws and regulations related to environmental protection. Currently climate factors have no material impact on the Company’s production and operation. The Company will closely monitor the impact of extreme weather conditions, such as typhoons, strong wind, extreme cold and humidity, on the production and logistic processes, make corresponding predictions and take preventive measures such as upgrading and optimizing environmental protection products and enhancing product performance so as to reduce the impact of climate change on product performance and direct operation.
(V) CARBON NEUTRALITY
Achieving green and low-carbon development is a top-listed strategy at the national level and a necessary condition for the long-term healthy and sustainable development of our economy.
Comba continues to keep a close eye on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) proposal on the 1.5 °C target and subsequent changes. Comba is committed to halving our total greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, in alignment with the 1,5°C ambition. Comba will adopt vigorous measures to constantly integrate the concept of low-carbon development into product design and all aspects of our operational activities. At the same time, we will work with partners, customers, and suppliers to seek a sustainable low-carbon business environment.