Oakdene Hollins represents remanufacturing in Beijing
David Fitzsimons was part of a UK delegation to the recent Global Remanufacturing Summit in Beijing hosted by the Chinese National Key Lab for Remanufacturing.
David Fitzsimons was one of an eight-person UK delegation, led by Clare Marett (Head of Manufacturing at DBIS) and sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Chinese Government, to the recent Global Remanufacturing Summit in Beijing. The delegation was hosted by the National Key Lab for Remanufacturing based in Beijing.
As Director of Oakdene Hollins, David was in China representing both the Centre for Remanufacturing and Reuse (CRR) operated by Oakdene Hollins, and the European Remanufacturing Network (ERN) of which the CRR is a partner.
During the visit David took the opportunity to announce the inception of the new Remanufacturing Council.
On Day 1 David attended an invitation-only meeting of senior people to find the agenda had been changed to allow him to present a certificate to Academician Xu on behalf of the ERN.
On Day 2 David addressed the Global Remanufacturing Summit in Beijing - as did Ben Peace, Sustainability Lead of Knowledge Transfer Network Ltd, and Kim Jansson, Senior Scientist from the ERN project. They then travelled to Shanghai to see the remanufacturing industrial area within the Lingang Free Trade Zone. A visit to Caterpillar's Remanufacturing centre and a laser technology business that supports remanufacturing operations was followed by a formal meeting and then dinner.
The CRR and Oakdene Hollins came in for some high praise for supporting remanufacturing over the last 12 years. In that time the company has built up top quality relationships with the most senior team on remanufacturing in China, where the sector has a target to grow from $5 billion to $60 billion by 2020. Oakdene Hollins’ remanufacturing work in the UK is the flagship of our circular economy theme, and our relationship with Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an important aspect of our leadership position in the promotion of remanufacturing.
David will be speaking at the SMMT automechanika event at the NEC about his experience in China and how to interpret the counter-intuitive policy enthusiasm for remanufacture in the Chinese 13th five-year plan.