Changsha, a provincial capital and another Chinese city of 6 million that few westerners can pick out on the map, is on the move. A local manufacturing hotbed with, Sany, China’s version of Caterpillar, and a spate of domestic car and truck companies, the city is pushing to become more international.  The doubling in size of the Huanghua International Airport and ground breaking of the RMB 5billion Fiat-Guangzhou Automotive Industry Group plant, to churn out a quarter million cars a year when complete, are bellwethers of Changsha’s opening up and going out.

But countless Chinese cities can tell this story.  What is Changsha doing that the Dalian’s, Chengdu‘s and Wuhan‘s aren’t?

Broad Town rests on the eastern outskirts of Changsha.  Founded in 1988 with RMB 30,000 as a non-electric central air conditioning manufacturer, Broad has grown into a company dedicated to “Preserving Life.”  Energy efficient, low emission, Broad central air conditioners operate in over 60 countries around the world.  Broad air purifiers help maintain healthy indoor environments in offices and residences – a serious challenge in a country with 16 of the world’s 20 most worst-air quality cities. Fresh air heat exchange systems maintain indoor temperatures while ensuring proper ventilation and reducing heating and cooling loads.

These building energy efficiency systems combined with knowledge gained first hand from Freiburg, Germany and other sustainable building centers around the world, led to the creation of the Broad Sustainable Building (BSB).  Factory-built, energy efficient, no-construction waste, low cost, this building system draws on the sustainability work that Broad has done of the past 20 years.  The Chairman and CEO of Broad, Zhang Yue, began designing the BSB after the Wenchuan Earthquake, so it is also earthquake resistant, earning the highest earthquake resistance rating of any building in China in its recent test in Beijing at the China Academy of Building Research.  As a building system, the BSB can be adjusted to fit local conditions and available materials while maintaining high levels of energy efficiency and safety.

Following, or, more accurately, continuing to lead Changsha’s international growth, Broad will use the BSB as a building block for sustainable communities across China and throughout the world.

Buildings account for 40% of world wide energy use, and over 30% of GHG emissions.  Sustainable buildings need to be one of the focal points of COP15.  The use of the BSB and similar sustainable building systems around the world will create the sustainable building revolution that we need.

I work for Broad, and although this blog had no relationship to the company, I am talking my book in this post.  And I hope that you’ll do the same with your company, your profession, your passion.

Here at Palisades China Group, I hope that we can identify and discuss companies like Broad.  I hope that we can share ideas about industry trends.  And I hope that although we will have interests in different sectors and types of work, we will collect our discussions under the framework of how to foster bilateral investment, and entrepreneurship, in the heartlands of China and America

Warm regards,

Mike