BMW 2012 Annual Report Download - page 246

The work day begins at what is currently China’s most sustainable car plant.
Shenyang, a 90 -minute flight northeast of Beijing, is a
place of extremes. In winter, temperatures drop as low as
35 below freezing; in summer, they soar to a tropical
40 degrees Celsius. Not so long ago, this industrial city
used to belong to China’s notorious north-eastern “rust
belt” of mines and steelworks, coal-polluted air and
natural devastation. Today, it is home to a world-class
example of resource-efficient production.
To the north-east of this city of eight million people, the
BMW Group and its joint venture partner, Brilliance China
Automotive Holdings, have built the most sustainable
automotive manufacturing facility in China. The ultra-
modern car plant, with an annual capacity of
200 , 000 vehi-
cles, was raised from the ground in just two years on a
plot of land roughly two square kilometres, located in the
district of Tiexi. Environmental experts like Fiona Zhang
from China and her South-African colleague, Sean Dempsey,
brought fresh ideas and tried-and-tested approaches
from
around the world to Tiexi. At the same time, BMW
Brilliance Automotive’s (
BBA ) newest plant also took local
factors into account, choosing an architecture to fit the
surroundings and bringing in regional suppliers. “We were
pretty much able to give the plant the best of both worlds
from the beginning,” says Dempsey, “which is a lot easier
than optimising a production facility further down the line.”
A tour of the plant with Zhang and Dempsey reveals no
fewer than five dozen measures, small and large, to reduce
energy and water consumption, solvent emissions, process
wastewater and waste for disposal. Many of them involve
smart optimisation of details – but together they make a
huge difference. In this respect also, Shenyang is a city of
extremes – in the most sustainable sense.
“What do we do when we plan
a new plant? We bring
the best ideas in the world together
in one place.”
Fiona Zhang, environmental expert at BMW Brilliance Automotive ( BBA )
Rush hour in Shenyang,
a city which has rapidly grown to
eight million inhabitants.