With a view to further expanding the project’s training impact in the Guangdong region, a two-day training workshop was conducted in Zhaoqing on 26 and 27 December 2011, with the support of the South China Household Electric Appliances Research Institute. Around 100 participants attended, including experts from the Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE), the China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute (CHEARI), Renmin University and Peking University as well as managers and engineers from Guangdong Fenghua Advanced Technology (Holding) Co., Ltd. and its suppliers.

The agenda of the workshop consisted of detailed presentations by project partners and experts on laws, regulations and standards affecting the electrical and electronics sector as well as targeted training on environmental strategy and eco-design. The classroom training was followed by an interactive session in which some of the participants exchanged with the experts their opinions and ideas on how to further improve environmental and safety performance of their companies.

Opening the workshop, Ms. Su Hongjuan from the Technology Center of Fenghua introduced the trainers to the workshop participants and also spoke about the importance of periodical training for continuous improvement and upgrading of an enterprise’s operation and brand image. Following the opening speech, Ms. Yang Dongjing from CIE gave a comprehensive introduction of the SWITCH Project including project’s achievements, activities and benefits entailed by participation in the capacity building and assessment programme. Following Ms. Yang’s introduction, Mr. He Chuangxin from CIE and Ms. Tian Hui from CHEARI presented respectively relevant national and international laws and standards affecting the electronics industry. Professor Jin Min from Renmin University then introduced the significance and benefits of eco-design for production, marketing and recycling as well as a series of technical approaches on how to improve eco-efficiency of an enterprise with a focus on electronics components.

The lectures were followed up by an interactive discussion between project experts and interested representatives of the workshop audience. In a smaller group, representatives from different enterprises introduced respectively their companies’ current environmental and safety measures as well as approaches of compliance with international requirements, clean production, energy saving, pollution reduction and supply chain management. Through the open discussion, experts pointed out the improvement potential in different areas for each enterprise and gave them a series of tailored suggestions. In the closing session of the discussion, participants defined and expressed their needs in terms of further training, capacity building and assessment activities.

During the two days workshop, the project team also paid a visit to the production base of the company Guan Hua, a chip ceramic capacitor manufacturer.

The workshop provided participants with practical tools for implementing sustainable and environmentally compliant production methods. By building up the capacity of suppliers, the training workshop successfully contributed to the improvement of environmental and safety standards throughout the supply chain of Fenghua. Moreover, the workshop provided a useful platform for further expanding the project outreach through future capacity building and assessment activities in the Guangdong region.