On March 12, 2025, the "2025 Green Park Spring Tea Conference of the ESG GBA Sustainable Growth Promotion Association" was successfully held at the Aiyue Public Welfare Foundation in Wisdom Plaza. The theme of this spring tea conference is "Dual-wheel drive of digitalization and low-carbon technology, a new model of sustainable development of green parks". People from all walks of life in the ESG field from cities in the Greater Bay Area such as Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Guangzhou gathered together to conduct in-depth exchanges and discussions on topics such as green park construction, digital transformation, carbon management strategies, ESG ratings and investments.

The event was co-hosted by the ESG GBA Sustainable Growth Promotion Association and Shenzhen Fangzhongtian Network Technology Co., Ltd., independently organized by the ESG Global Communication Center, and co-organized by Shenzhen Aiyue Public Welfare Foundation and Shenzhen Aizile Reading Center; it aims to promote the implementation of ESG concepts in corporate parks, promote enterprises to accelerate green transformation under the background of "dual carbon", jointly explore low-carbon sustainable development models, and contribute wisdom and strength to building a green, inclusive and responsible economy.

Opening speech: Gathering the power of the Bay Area and jointly seeking a green future

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Gao Yichuan, President of the ESG GBA Sustainable Growth Promotion Association, delivered a keynote speech. 2024 is known as the first year of ESG in China, and national policies are accelerating the construction of the ESG system. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with its location advantages, economic strength and innovative environment, is becoming a focal area for global ESG practices.

Since its establishment, the ESG GBA Sustainable Growth Promotion Association has always been committed to building an ESG ecosystem, providing companies with ESG assessment, standard setting, green investment and financing support, and helping companies achieve sustainable growth in the process of ESG transformation.

Facing the new situation of ESG global competition, President Gao proposed an action plan from three dimensions: 1) Strive to formulate the "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area ESG Park Certification Standard" by the end of 2025; 2) Jointly establish the "ESG Green Bond Special Board" with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to provide low-cost financing channels for park enterprises; 3) Create the "Asia-Pacific ESG Park Innovation Alliance". He also called on the government, enterprises, academia and the media to work together to transform carbon management from a "cost center" to a "value center" and jointly promote the construction of green parks in the Greater Bay Area to a new height.

Keynote speech: Frontier technology empowers precise carbon management

Dr. Cheng Shi: Zero-carbon park practice driven by digitalization and low-carbon technology

In the keynote speech, Dr. Cheng Shi (a postdoctoral fellow at Tsinghua University and a national carbon neutrality policy expert) deeply analyzed how technological innovation can solve the problem of green transformation, the policy opportunities and technical paths of zero-carbon parks. He pointed out that the current national policy has provided strong momentum for the construction of green parks. Park enterprises can use smart grids, energy storage technologies, digital management, etc. to improve energy efficiency, build a full-chain green supply chain, and achieve industrial collaborative development.

He introduced, "Whether it is for a single building or a group of buildings in a park, we can use relatively advanced technologies such as AI and big data to build a smart energy body to save energy and reduce emissions." Based on previous explorations, his team has formed three sections: 1) Smart energy and virtual power plants; 2) Comprehensive smart energy carbon management platform; 3) Low-carbon energy-saving technical transformation measures. Digital twin technology is the "smart brain" of a zero-carbon park. The WECS intelligent body platform developed by his team has achieved "visible, measurable and controllable" building and park energy by building a virtual power plant and an AI-driven energy dispatching system. For example: In an independent energy storage project in Shandong, the annual peak-shaving revenue reached about 20 million yuan.

Mr. Zou Yichong: Digital base breaks the data island in the park

Mr. Zou Yichong (Master at Tsinghua University, R&D director of Digital Dual Carbon Company) put forward the view that "digital base helps the value transformation of carbon footprint management", which directly hits the current pain points of green park construction: despite the increasingly improved hardware facilities, enterprises still face data islands, high compliance costs and static reporting difficulties. He emphasized that carbon management should not be a last-minute effort, but should be achieved through a digital foundation to achieve dynamic value transfer and upgrade carbon management from passive compliance to active efficiency.

He proposed three breakthrough paths:

1. Data integration: connect the data islands of the park's energy, logistics, environmental protection and other systems, build a unified digital foundation, and form real-time and dynamic carbon data assets;

2. AI empowerment: automatically generate carbon footprint reports and carbon reduction suggestions based on large model technology;

3. Value closed loop: apply data to green financial docking, virtual power plant scheduling and carbon asset development.

Corporate practice: ESG exploration from strategy to implementation

BYD Battery ESG Sustainable Development Practice

Dr. Li Shicai (RMC Director of BYD Battery Business Group) shared BYD Battery ESG system construction experience. BYD Battery is based on the new energy industry and has been deeply involved in the battery field for more than 30 years. It has the ability to 100% independently develop, design and produce batteries. Products cover power batteries, energy storage and new batteries, consumer batteries and components, and have built a complete battery industry chain.

He introduced that BYD Battery aims to achieve operational carbon neutrality in 2035 and full value chain carbon neutrality in 2045. BYD optimizes carbon emission management through AI and big data, and is expected to invest about 1.4 billion in emission reduction in the next five years; it has deployed bases, outlets, and after-sales 4S stores across the country to recycle retired batteries, and has solved the problem of overseas battery material reflow through black powder recycling technology.

Dr. Li Shicai concluded: "Our mission is to 'let people use batteries without worries', which is a social responsibility. Don't provide unsafe products to our users, we take it as the first consideration."

ESG investment·Unlocking the hidden value of enterprises

Ms. Wang Zhaoyi (Partner of Xirong Venture Capital) proposed the concept of "Shan-ESG", emphasizing the synergy of social value and commercial value, and sharing how to help enterprises do ESG planning from an investment perspective and unlock the hidden value of enterprises.

Shan-ESG (S-ESG): Combining the positive and negative screening mechanisms in ESG, ESG integration, sustainable investment, impact investment, company and shareholder actions, through the dual mechanisms of the Investment Committee and the Social Committee, give full play to the initiative of enterprises, bring higher safety margins to the screening and management of project commercial value and social value, and create greater and more sustainable social value and commercial value.

She concluded: "I hope investors can practice this theory and incorporate ESG into the core logic of asset allocation. In the future, start-ups should turn social value into a social value multiplier for them to become a model in the valuation of enterprises. Therefore, 'ESG is not a multiple-choice question, but a must-answer question for the survival of enterprises in the next 50 years.'"

GRESB Rating: Helping Real Estate Create Sustainable Value

Mr. Wu Bin (Head of Marketing and Communications of GRESB) introduced the application value of GRESB, the global real estate sustainable development rating system. GRESB, a global ESG benchmark for physical assets, combines international mainstream ESG frameworks, protocols and disclosure standards, and is widely recognized by global financial and capital markets; it mainly targets the real estate and infrastructure sectors, covering more than 80 countries and regions around the world, and more than 3,000 real estate and infrastructure funds, developers, asset operators and other related companies use GRESB's products and services to make decisions.

He pointed out: "The real estate industry accounts for nearly 38% to 40% of carbon emissions." Global investors are accelerating their transition to net zero, and ESG's influence on real estate financing has increased significantly. GRESB quantifies ESG performance as a "pass" for the capital market through a dynamic scoring mechanism.

Top 10 hot spots and pain points of corporate ESG and countermeasures

Mr. Zhou Guoyin (Chief ESG Expert of IPC International Electronics Industry Connecting Association China and Chairman of IPC-1401 ESG Standard Technical Group) redefined ESG from the perspective of enterprises as a component of quality and an attribute of products and value chain activities; and based on statistical results, he introduced in detail the top 10 hot spots and pain points of corporate ESG in 2024. He pointed out that ESG is not an empty slogan. The essence of ESG is to eliminate evil and promote good, and the core is responsible products and services (RPS) and responsible business behavior (RBC).

Mr. Zhou Guoyin specially introduced the IPC-1401 ESG management system standard formulated by him. This standard focuses on the ESG pain points of manufacturing companies, adopts the ISO PDCA cycle and the OECD 6-step method of responsible management; proposes seven levels of compliance obligations (regulations, ethics, industry standards, customers, investors, employee requirements, and corporate commitments); clarifies four expected results (compliance assurance, risk management, customer satisfaction, and efficiency improvement), helping companies to sink ESG from the reporting level to the execution level.

EEKA Fashion: Brand Upward·Fashion Good·Governance Stable

Mr. Chai Linlin (Vice Chairman and Secretary General of Winner Fashion Charity Foundation) shared how Winner Fashion Group enhances brand value through ESG strategy.

As a leading Chinese women's clothing company, Winner Fashion has deeply embedded ESG into its brand genes:

- Green production: sustainable materials are used; about 1,500 stores use green and environmentally friendly decoration;

- Empowering women: "Flower Girls School" trains ethnic minority craftsmen, promotes intangible cultural heritage, and helps rural revitalization;

- Employee care: "Lunch break culture", "Reimbursement of travel expenses for visiting relatives".

Aiyue Charity Foundation: Irrigating the future with reading

Ms. Yuan Quan (Secretary-General of Aiyue Charity Foundation) deeply analyzed the current situation of children's reading and shared the innovative practice of Aiyue Charity Foundation in promoting social equity and sustainable development through professional projects.

She pointed out that children's reading currently faces significant urban-rural differences, and there is a serious lack of concept and practice for accompanying children in reading. Aiyue Charity Foundation takes "professionalism, exploration, fun, and growth" as its values, and solves reading problems through a dual-track model of funding and operation. Operational projects include the Reading Buds Project and bibliographic development, and funding projects include the Reading Forest Project, the Reading Farming Project, the IBBY-iRead Love Reading Award, and the Zhao Yuanren Language Science Award, which help the industry build and develop and build a scientific reading ecosystem.

In the free exchange session, the guests discussed in depth on topics such as technical security and standard co-construction, sparking sparks of wisdom with great practical value.

At the end of the event, the guests, corporate representatives and ESG investment institutions conducted in-depth exchanges to promote business cooperation and resource docking in the ESG field. Many companies expressed strong interest in ESG ratings, carbon management digital solutions, etc.

The "2025 Green Park Spring Tea Conference" ended successfully, but the journey of ESG development continues.

In the future, the ESG GBA Sustainable Growth Promotion Association will continue to play a bridging role, linking international ESG cutting-edge concepts with local innovative practices, and helping Greater Bay Area companies build green competitiveness. The association's vision is to explore and practice the Chinese solution for ESG and contribute to building a sustainable, fair and transparent business environment.

Looking back now, our choice is in line with the strongest pulse of the times - using the open gene of the Bay Area to solve the "bottleneck" problem of global ESG certification and build an ESG empowerment center "at the doorstep" for Chinese companies going overseas. When the spring tide hits Shenzhen Bay, we hear not only the sound of waves, but also the surging heartbeat of the green economy!