The concept of "green growth" has been introduced by many organizations. According to the United Nations Commission on Socio-Economic Asia - Pacific (UNESCAP), green growth is a strategy to achieve sustainable development.
Green growth advocates GDP growth that maintains or restores the quality of the ecological environment, while meeting the people’s needs with the lowest possible impact on the environment. It seeks for harmony in economic growth and environmental sustainability by promoting fundamental changes in the production and consumption of the society.
At the business level, it means the management and coordination of environmental, social and financial demands and concerns to ensure a business’s responsiblity, ethics and ongoing success.
In Vietnam, the National Strategy on Green Growth vision to 2050 calls for widespread application of cleaner production, improvement of efficiency of using natural resources, reduction of emissions and pollution, protection of environmental quality, human health and promotion of sustainable production and consumption.
Vietnam is ranked #29 in the list of world’s carbon emitters by the Global Carbon Atlas. Vietnam is also one of the top emitters of the South East Asia region, after Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Lowering greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts is critical to Vietnam’s sustainable future.
ABB Electrification‘s Mission Zero for smart cities
ABB’s Electrification business is committed to writing the future of safe, smart and sustainable electrification for everything from industry and buildings to infrastructure and transportation. Its vision is to support Vietnam to achieve a lower carbon emission society not only for the future but also today.
ABB has long encouraged the early and rapid adoption of sustainable technologies. With a 27-year history of supporting Vietnamese development ABB’s focus is on providing innovative solutions that help its customers improve energy efficiency and productivity while extending the life cycles of their equipment and reducing waste.
ABB’s commitment to Vietnam’s sustainable growth also includes limiting the environmental impact of its own operations.
Establishing a greener footprint
ABB has continued to invest into the technologies of its factories in Vietnam.
In Bac Ninh factories where ABB produces high voltage components and electrification distribution solutions, the factories are equipped with ABB AbilityTM Smart Sensors for motors which helps technical staff to supervise the condition and performance of the motors in real time from their computers or smartphones. The smart sensors monitor the motor's performance and detect issues that account for 70 percent of motor failures such as bearing faults, air gap eccentricity, cooling problems and overloading. They also enable the analysis of energy consumption patterns and help technicians to optimize processes to reduce energy use.
The factories also use ABB’s Manufacturing Execution System, or ABB MES, to improve manufacturing productivity, quality and flexibility by providing operators, supervisors, production engineers and plant managers with the insights to act and optimize.
Meanwhile, the use of robots enables the acceleration of the manufacturing process, while ensuring high-quality products and the maximum level of automation.
ABB also invested in a 90 kilowatt-peak photovoltaic plant using ABB technologies in the garage’s rooftop. ABB’s solar installation uses ABB Ability™ digital capabilities to assure optimal performance with high automation while ensuring cost and space savings. The electricity generated is currently powering a wastewater treatment system, a canteen serving more than 200 people, and the factory’s lighting network. Up to now, the solar system has helped ABB to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 170 tons.
The factories wastewater treatment plant uses ABB’s integrated control and instrumentation package designed for waste water and power management, an automation control and measurement system and SCADA. The instrumentation package includes electromagnetic flow meters, level transmitters and continuous water analyzers which allows wastewater to be discharged without any negative environmental impact.
The waste water plant runs on power generated from the solar panel installed on the rooftop and monitoring of energy usage helps ABB save energy, support peak hour demand and reduce dependence on the grid
In addition, ABB has recently installed ABB Terra HP charging stations in its factories in Bac Ninh and Hanoi to encourage its employees to use electric cars. ABB is also in discussion with vendors on the potential to introduce an electric bus service to meet employee’s daily transportation needs in the future.
ABB’s journey to write a greener future in Vietnam is ongoing. It will continue to expand its distribution solutions factory, equip its factories with the most innovative and sustainable technologies and open more robotics centers in 2020 as part of its commitment to develop a stronger and greener future in Vietnam.
