Development Strategy of Green Marketing of Pharmaceutical Enterprises against the Background of Building a Beautiful China

Wang Shuling,Wang Mingzheng,Yu Chang

(School of Business Administration,Shenyang Pharmaceutical University,Shenyang 110016,China)

Abstract Objective To study the key issues and links in the construction of green marketing for pharmaceutical enterprises combined with the law of scientific development,so as to make joint efforts for the construction of beautiful China.Methods The literature and interview methods were used to demonstrate that green civilization was to pursue the harmonious coexistence between environment and human beings.Besides,the responsibilities and problems that pharmaceutical enterprises faced in the context of building a beautiful China had to be solved urgently.Results and Conclusion China should summarize historical errors and face the current situation while building a beautiful country.In addition,pharmaceutical enterprises should clarify the key links of green marketing to solve the problem of “three wastes”.Meanwhile,they should bear other responsibilities to promote green civilization and social development.

Keywords: beautiful China;green marketing;development strategy

With the constant development of market economy and the great effort made by China’s government in the environmental protection,the green development of enterprises is advancing.Compared with the traditional concept of social marketing,green marketing pays more attention to social benefits such as energy saving and environmental protection.Based on the concept of sustainable development,it focuses on the social and economic interests and longterm interests around the world.Green marketing can speed up the construction of the new green civilization,which pursues a harmonious coexistence between human and environment.Pharmaceutical enterprises can coordinate enterprise development,environmental protection and social progress through green marketing,which can not only meet the needs of society,but also not harm the survival of future generation and the progress of social civilization[1].

1 The development of beautiful China

1.1 The concept of beautiful China

The content of ecological civilization construction in the report of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) further emphasized the integration of beauty with the goal of socialist modernization.It also regarded the harmonious coexistence between human and the nature as the basic strategy of the new chapter of developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.Therefore,it means that China’s “Five-sphere Integrated Plan” is more comprehensive,marking the Communist Party of China’s better understanding of socialism with Chinese characteristics.The construction of beautiful China is to perfect ecological civilization,which is an inevitable choice for Chinese government.They supplement each other with great significance[2].

The exploration of green development of pharmaceutical enterprises can help them to see more clearly the internal and external situation facing the domestic green transformation,which also help the government to accelerate the transformation of the practice of Marxism in China,thus promoting the harmonious coexistence between human and nature,man and society.

1.2 The course of building a beautiful China

China has been building ecological civilization while developing its industry.The leaders of successive generations have been constantly reflecting on the past and summing up experience.On the one hand,they stick to the road of industrialization.On the other hand,they also adhere to the harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

At the beginning of new China,some leaders put forward the strategic decision for developing heavy industry first.Chinese people were in high spirits and determined to surpass the GDP of British and the USA,which brought China’s environment serious problems after a series of industry projects.The environmental pollution resulted in great losses that drew much attention of the leaders.Therefore,some related measures were introduced to stop destroying the environment.Meanwhile,the protection of nonrenewable resources such as water and forests were made,but the overall effect was not obvious.It is the early exploration of environmental problem in China[3].

In the stage of reform and opening-up,people did not forget the lesson of fishing out of the pool.The government never stops the construction of beautiful China.The central government of China attaches great importance to the environmental protection.Through the government’s propaganda of planting trees,greening the motherland,and benefitting future generations,Chinese people began to solve the pollution problem.

We all know that environmental protection is the foundation of social and economic sustainable development.In 1998,the State Environmental Protection Administration was established,and the State Council issued the “National Ecological Environment Construction Plan” and the “National Ecological Environment Protection Program”.Besides,the state financial funds for environmental protection also increased year by year.With the improvement of the environment,people’s sense of integration and belonging also arises spontaneously.

Since the 18th National People’s Congress of the CPC,President Xi has promoted the construction of ecological civilization to new heights.While working in Zhejiang,Xi Jinping put forward the idea of protecting both green hills and clean rivers,which means environment can help to develop the economy.After becoming the General Secretary of CPC,Xi Jinping made a more profound and systematic theoretical summary and interpretation on the “theory of two mountains”.He pointed out that protecting the environment means productivity,and improving the environment means developing the productivity.We can no longer seek temporary economic improvement at the cost of destroying the environment.Nor can we follow the old path of pollution first,treatment later[4].

1.3 The key to building a beautiful China

To promote the construction of ecological civilization from the perspective of people-oriented welfare system is the key to the construction of beautiful China.The goal of the ecological civilization is to realize and safeguard the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of people.As to improving people’s livelihood,President Xi Jinping stressed that the government should focus on what people are concerned about most.Besides,the government should always comply with public opinion and put the construction of ecological civilization in the important position.The government should not climb a tree to catch a fish,but to develop the economy while protecting the environment[5].Some solid and effective work should be carried out.For instance,relevant departments must strengthen their supervision and investigation to form a pushback mechanism.In addition,pharmaceutical enterprises can be guided to carry out green production and operation.Social media should also advocate people to carry out green life.Lastly,the rights and interests of relevant consumers should be protected to realize the coordinated development of population,resources and environment.

2 Analyzing the green marketing of pharmaceutical enterprises

2.1 The concept of green marketing in pharmaceutical enterprises

Green marketing,which was the guiding ideology of enterprise management,appeared in the 1960s.it came into being after the concept of production,product,and marketing.Its contents include green production,green price,green service,and green marketing.The green marketing refers to pharmaceutical enterprises take the corresponding environmental protection measures to safeguard their own corporate code of conduct in the process of research and development production and sales of logistics and service for sustainable development of social resources under the norms of the laws and regulations[6].The concept is put forward and implemented to ensure the harmony of consumers and pharmaceutical enterprises in the society.The specific content of green marketing of pharmaceutical enterprises includes the following points.

(1) As to the link of research and development,pharmaceutical enterprises should focus on the concept of environmental protection during the research and development period,rather than the beginning of the market.

(2) In terms of production emission reduction,pharmaceutical enterprises should adopt new technologies and processes to reduce the emission of harmful wastes gradually until they are eliminated.

(3) For the selection of drug packaging,pharmaceutical enterprises should recycle and use waste products,such as drug packaging materials,or adopt green packaging.

(4) In terms of drug certification,pharmaceutical enterprises should change common drugs into green drugs,striving for the green mark actively to establish a good brand image.In particular,we should cultivate green awareness and strategies for traditional Chinese medicine.

(5) In terms of corporate public relations,pharmaceutical enterprises should take the initiative to participate in environmental public welfare activities,such as publicizing laws and regulations,strengthening environmental protection education and training for employees,and building a consciousness of beautiful China.

2.2 Standard of green marketing for pharmaceutical enterprises

Nowadays,there are many opinions on the standard of domestic pharmaceutical enterprise green marketing,but the following two aspects are recognized by the public.On the one hand,China’s pharmaceutical enterprises should be in line with the international and domestic laws,in any case they should not pollute environment.They need to learn and improve constantly in the process of green marketing,which means they must build a healthy concept of green marketing and a sense of social responsibility.On the other hand,pharmaceutical enterprises should have their priorities.According to their production situation,they must focus on the problem of pollution,such as PM2.5 emission and industrial wastewater filtration[7].We should make a concrete analysis of specific problems so that specific methods can be implemented to solve the non-standard production mode one by one.

2.3 The role of green marketing in pharmaceutical enterprises

From the perspective of their own interests,green marketing can help pharmaceutical enterprises to expand market sales network and increase their market share.Enterprises can promote product research and development,production,sales,and after-sales service in the process of sustainable production by bearing social responsibility of protecting the environment and using resources effectively,which will not only enhance the brand,but also help occupy the market.Therefore,it can achieve enterprise marketing goals.

Second,according to the analysis of the overall effect,measures taken by pharmaceutical enterprises can build green civilization,guide consumers’green consumption and increase their satisfaction and loyalty.Besides,it will further optimize the configuration of the limited resources,maintain consumer mental environment,and realize the reasonable allocation of social interests between enterprise and customers[8].In addition,improving the level of green marketing is also an important way for Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises to participate in international competition and deal with international green trade barriers.

2.4 The overall situation of green marketing in pharmaceutical enterprises

The development of green marketing in China started relatively late.Therefore,most pharmaceutical enterprises have not established green marketing concept yet.Their production management mode is still behind the developed countries.In addition,the social demand for green marketing is not high.In order to solve this contradiction caused by the global ecological environment crisis,international environmental treaties have issued a number of bans,which requires high environmental and technical standards in countries with different products and production processes.Besides,laws and regulations related to environmental protection are strict.Therefore,big international enterprises in many developed countries have had the quite mature concept of green marketing.

Relevant instances prove that many large enterprises have huge demand for green marketing in the international market.For instance,the multinational pharmaceutical giant DSM Group has such green marketing practice.It applies the new enzymatic technology to the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients in amoxicillin and other antibiotics.Through technical innovation,it improves the efficiency of raw materials.At the same time,it also labels the company’s production of raw materials as environmental protection.In addition,it uses nontoxic harmless materials in the packing of the drugs to avoid pollution to the environment[9].Bayer also established the “Award of China Young Environmental Journalists” to reflect the company’s humanistic care and promote the contributions of young journalists to environmental protection.

3 The status quo of pharmaceutical enterprises and environmental protection

3.1 Environmental pressure faced by Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises

The production capacity of biological fermentation in China accounts for about 70% of global market.Therefore,China is a big active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production country.However,a large number of “three wastes” become an obstacle to environmental protection.Due to the complex composition of waste and its serious contamination,API enterprises face many difficulties in protecting environment.Several pharmaceutical enterprises had to be limited in production or stopped production for their substandard environmental protection[10].

Since 2017,the environmental protection department has strengthened the inspection of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas,and listed the province of Shandong and Hebei as key inspection provinces.API enterprises with the market dominance and pricing power are mostly concentrated in the above two provinces.Upgrade in environmental protection has a great impact on API industry.With the implementation of limited production or stopped production for some API enterprises,API prices begins to rise quickly[11].Under the pressure of environmental protection,firms have to close down backward production facilities or large-scale relocation.However,the relocation costs are high with more time consuming.This process may change the market share and accelerate industry consolidation.In recent years,the relevant environmental protection standards and policies have also gradually compressed pharmaceutical industry’s survival space.In 2010,the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued“Discharge Standard of Water Pollution in Pharmaceutical Industry”.In 2013,the Ministry of Environmental Protection took the comprehensive investigation and remediation of environmental pollution in pharmaceutical industry as the third major task of the environmental protection special action.In 2015,API manufacturing was listed as the target of key regulation.In 2016,the “Environmental Protection Tax Law” was issued,and environmental protection fees were renamed as environmental protection taxes.Heavy taxes were levied on industries with bad pollution,such as API drugs.

The API production process is long,and there are many different kinds of raw materials and auxiliary materials which are dangerous chemicals.At the same time,because of the low conversion rate for the materials,and the characteristics of biological toxicity,the recovery rate of single waste is not high,and it is difficult to recycle the waste.Therefore,they can only be regarded as industrial waste.For example,Vitamin C only has 14% of production.According to the estimation,China’s annual output of Vitamin C is 200 000 tons in 2012,and it would use 1.43 million tons of raw materials.Therefore,200 000 tons were converted into finished products,the remaining 1.23 million tons became waste,which caused environmental pollution.

This year,pharmaceutical industry is facing great pressure on environmental protection than ever before.Implementation on environmental protection and clean production is crucial for pharmaceutical enterprises.The control of pollution and cost will be core competitive factor for pharmaceutical enterprises in the future.In the face of increasingly stringent environmental requirements,it is difficult for enterprises to survive due to their low level of production pattern,which is at the expense of the environmental pollution.

3.2 The status of dealing with waste liquid,waste gas,and waste residue in pharmaceutical enterprises

Pharmaceutical enterprise is one of the basic industries that can guarantee people’s health.While protecting people’s health,its emission of a large number of poisonous and harmful waste also seriously damage people’s health.The main reason is that pharmaceutical factory has complex production process,which uses large quantities of raw materials.Besides,most enterprises have low utilization rate of raw materials that also lead to large amount of three wastes.

Pharmaceutical waste liquid mainly includes the residual liquid (solvent recovery of residual liquid by product recovery of residual liquid,etc.) and auxiliary process wastewater,such as sealing water.The most commonly used methods for waste liquid treatment are physical method,chemical method,biochemical method,and other combination of processes.Physical method is based on the quality characteristics of pharmaceutical waste liquid,which needs to be adopted in processing physic-chemical treatment for pre-processing or post-processing of biochemical treatment.It mainly includes coagulation,air floatation,adsorption,ammonia electrolytic ion exchange,and membrane separation,etc.Chemical method includes iron carbon method,chemical redox method,deep oxidation technology,etc.

Pharmaceutical factory exhaust gases include suspended waste gas (from raw materials of crushing,powder drugs,intermediates and boiler combustion,etc.),gas containing inorganic substances (such as HCL,NO,etc.) and organic waste gas.Industrial waste gas treatment process is mainly divided into physical method,chemical method,and biological method.Among them,the physical method cannot change the chemical property of the waste material,but mask and dilute the smell of it with a substance.or shift the waste gas into a liquid or solid phase.The common methods have a masking function (dilution condensation method and adsorption method).Chemical method is to use another kind of substance that can have chemical reaction with the waste gas.It can change the chemical structure of waste gas and transform it into non-toxic substances without odor or with low odor.The common methods are combustion oxidation chemical absorption method and acid-base neutralization method.The biological purification of inorganic or organic waste gas is to use some special means and unconventional methods to achieve high removal rate and harmless purpose.

Pharmaceutical factory common waste residue includes distillation residue,deactivation of catalyst,waste carbon,colloid residue,reaction residue,unqualified intermediates and products,as well as biological precipitation sludge residue.The treatment methods have comprehensive utilization incineration method and filling method.

Although the waste treatment in pharmaceutical enterprises has been relatively mature after more than one hundred years,there are still many problems.Only through the combination of various process treatment methods,stable discharge standards can be achieved and the resources can be utilized totally.

4 Relevant strategies to promote the construction of green marketing in pharmaceutical enterprises

4.1 A correct view of clear water and green mountains is basis of economy

Clear waters and green mountains are the basis of economy.This idea can help us promote the construction of ecological civilization in the economic and social transformation.As part of the state planning economy,pharmaceutical enterprises are responsible for the health safety of people.At the same time,they also undertake the responsibility of the ecological protection.Ecological civilization construction involves the interests of all people and pharmaceutical enterprises should become beautiful practitioners in China.

In order to build a beautiful China,the government needs to strengthen environmental protection.To solve the pollution caused by pharmaceutical factories,relocation of factories or restricting production or stopping production is not enough.Green development can be achieved by relying on scientific and technological progress from the perspective of establishing productivity and technology based on the scientific development.

4.2 To set a good example of environmental protection in medical service system

While China’s medical institutions perform their functions,they should protect environment,too.Firstly,the medical institutions should strictly carry out the “Management Regulations of Medical Waste”.Besides,medical waste disposal must be in conformity with the requirements of environmental protection standard.Secondly,the medical treatment must be based on the principle of classified collection processing of pollutants.The number of poisonous and harmful waste and infectious waste should be cut as far as possible,so as to facilitate waste recycling.Thirdly,three colored bags or more bags should be prepared for the wastes.Black garbage bags are for life waste,yellow bags are the medical garbage,and some bags with a special logo should be directly burned.Garbage bags should be biodegradable and durable.Fourthly,sharp wastes such as discarded needles and infusion sets shall not be mixed with other wastes,and they must be safely placed in special packing boxes.It is strictly prohibited to sell them to other non-designated units or discard them in household wastes.

4.3 Pharmaceutical enterprises to implement the task of green marketing

In the face of environmental problems,some large enterprises in China began to invest in green marketing.At present,many enterprises have adopted advanced purification technology to improve efficiency and reduce the cost and emissions.This is the best way of solving the pollution problems by biological pharmaceutical enterprises.In addition,to protect the environment,enterprises also need to acquire more advanced core technology.To break the foreign monopoly,localization of efficient fine purification technology is the key to solving the problem of pollution made by pharmaceutical enterprises.For instance,North China Pharmaceutical Group Corporation (NCPC) has effectively reduced the damage and pollution of organic matter to the environment through the extensive application of enzyme biotechnology represented by enzymatic amoxicillin,enzymatic cephalosporin,enzymatic 7-ADCA,one-step enzymatic 7-ACA and 6-APA.At the same time,NCPC has also introduced and developed vacuum distillation and ester alcohol extraction technology to improve the recovery efficiency and reduce the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC).The application of these measures not only reduces the source of pollution and production costs,but also achieves energy conservation and high efficiency[12].

4.4 Government departments to upgrade the regulatory measures of pharmaceutical enterprises

The government’s departments should pay more attention to pharmaceutical industry consolidation.Through acquisition and merger,enterprises can be screened at different levels.Pharmaceutical industry can be optimized by means of market regulation and optimization.Besides,the access level of pharmaceutical industry should be improved.Unqualified enterprises will be eliminated through the GMP and GAP certification.The small scale,large quantity and low level enterprises in China’s pharmaceutical industry will be completely changed,thus forming a powerful industrial chain[13].The government should improve laws and regulations.In addition,it must establish a scientific supervision system to strengthen environmental supervision and management.The related behaviors of enterprises must be regulated from the legal level,so as to ensure that pharmaceutical enterprises are the main body of green marketing,and the government makes the strategy of green marketing.

4.5 The public strengthen their awareness of rights and interests

Since the public is the ultimate consumer of green products,green marketing is directly related to the interests of the public.Consumers should improve their concept of green marketing.Besides,they must improve their capability of identifying good medicines and advertisement and avoid being deceived.Only when they are familiar with related law,can they safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.