The 2015 amendment of the Environmental Protection Law has been called “the most stringent environmental protection law in history” because of its tough regulatory measures. Ever since its release, the law has attracted intense attention and served as a new compliance topic for many enterprises.

At Shimano’s invitation, on Nov 22^nd, 2016 W&B presented a training course entitled “The New Environmental Protection Law and Compliance in Environmental Protection Practice” to several of Shimano’s China-based enterprises.

Attorney Qian Yiwen began the lecture with an introduction of the new Environmental Protection Law, and explained a series of recent major environmental protection cases in China. He also clarified the corporate legal and social responsibilities at issue in those cases. Mr. Qian then commented on the risk factors involved in previous incidents, and referred to W&B’s practice experience in order to shed light on corporate measures for environmental safety, environmental risk control and key points in compliance management.

The training session marks a milestone in Shimano’s global compliance training project and another successful cooperation between W&B and Shimano on compliance issues over the past three years. Quite a few employees who attended the training said that although they had heard about the new law, they lacked an insightful understanding of its application. This session exposed them to the pressure that enterprises face in their compliance efforts under the “most stringent environmental protection law in history”.

To enterprises, the issue of environmental protection is a double-edged sword. Along with the compliance pressure comes numerous preferential policies that have been frequently introduced by the government to encourage environmentally friendly businesses practices as well as new possibilities for enterprises to build a positive image through environmentally friendly practices. In recent years, W&B has also established a number of businesses aimed at environmental compliance in an effort to usher more enterprises out of environmental protection myths and into an exploration of methods of compliance with the new law.