June 5 this year was the 47th World Environment Day, and it was also the 4th Environmental Day as stipulated in the newly amended “Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China.” To this end, this special edition of the World Environment Day is introduced. Focusing on the theme of the Environment Day this year in China, “Beautiful China, I am the actor”, the general environmental protection knowledge is popularized for the majority of Shougang employees, and the concept of environmental protection is deeply rooted in people’s hearts and lives, which led people consciously practice the green life and production methods of conserving resources and protecting the environment in daily life and production. Everyone takes action and uses his/her brains extensively to make efforts to build a green Shougang and contribute to building a beautiful China.

Shougang has always attached great importance to environmental protection work. Before suspending production and relocating, it invested a lot of money every year for environmental protection and governance. In the new century, Shougang has fulfilled the requirements of the national Olympic strategy and the optimization and upgrading of the steel industry structure, and has taken the lead in completing unprecedented relocation adjustments. Each new steel plant's technical process and environmental protection equipment have reached world-class standards. Jingtang Company has become the first demonstration of the new generation of recyclable steel manufacturing processes in China, and has been hailed as the “Dream Factory” from a large steel country to a strong steel country in China.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has delivered a series of important speeches, expositions, and instructions on ecological civilization construction and ecological environment protection, and put forward a series of new concepts, new ideas, and new strategies, forming the ecological civilization thought of Xi Jinping and planning a series of fundamental, long-term, pioneering work. Shougang Group actively fulfills its social responsibilities for environmental protection and implement green action plans to continuously improve the level of cleaner production in order to achieve accurate strategic and targeted pollution control.

In 2015, Shougang Group issued the first “Implementation of Green Action Plan of Shougang Group”, marking the official launch of Shougang Group’s green action plan. Through three consecutive years of implementation, till the end of 2017, 95 projects have been completed with a total investment of about 1.8 billion yuan. The implementation of the green action plan has resulted in a 100% compliance rate for fixed pollution sources in all units within the Group. Meanwhile, the emission reduction effect is obvious, and it has made great contributions to the improvement of regional environmental quality. In 2018, with the tightening of national pollutant discharge standards and further improvement of environmental protection requirements, there are as many as 102 projects under the green action plan with investment reaching 3.557 billion yuan. The quantity of projects and the amount of funds invested have reached a record high.

The restoration of contaminated soil in the Beijing Park has been promoted in an all-round way, laying a solid foundation for the development and construction of the new high-tech industrial comprehensive service area of Shougang, and it has also made active exploration and demonstration in the field of industrial contaminated site restoration of iron and steel metal relocation companies.

Shougang’s efforts have been widely recognized across the society and the public. Jingtang Company has won the honorable title of national air pollutant emission reduction contributor and has become a green demonstration factory in the domestic steel industry. In 2017, it became the only iron and steel company in China to receive the China Baosteel Environmental Protection Award; Qian’an Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. became a green factory in Hebei Province in 2017, from which, Shougang has established a good image in society.

From May 18 to 19, the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection was held in Beijing. This is the highest-level, largest-scale, most influential and most profound event in the history of environmental protection in China. General Secretary Xi Jinping made an important speech and summed up the historic achievements and practical experiences gained in the ecological civilization construction and ecological environmental protection work of the party since the 18th CPC National Congress. It was clarified that in order to strengthen ecological civilization construction, we must adhere to six important principles: human beings and nature live in harmony; lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets; a good ecological environment is the most popular welfare; landscapes, forests, lakes and grasslands are the community of life; protect the ecological environment with the most stringent system and the most important rule of law; seek for global ecological civilization. These six important principles are guidelines for ideological compliance and action to promote our country’s ecological civilization construction to a new level. It’s proposed that by 2035, the quality of the ecological environment will be fundamentally improved, and the goal of the beautiful China will be basically achieved; by the middle of the century, the goal of building beautiful China in two phases will be achieved; a command to build the beautiful China is issued.

As a large-scale state-owned enterprise with a history of nearly 100 years and glorious traditions, Shougang has thoroughly studied and implemented the spirit of the ecological civilization thought of General Secretary Xi Jinping and the National Conference on Eco-environmental Protection. As usual, we will actively perform the social responsibilities of state-owned enterprises, adhere to the concept of green development, and persevere in advancing environmental protection work. With enthusiasm, strict and efficient work standards, solid and effective work measures, we will stay true to the mission and forge forward to improve the quality of regional atmospheric environment and build a beautiful China.