Ant Group released its sustainable development report for the seventh consecutive year for the first time in a row to conduct a comprehensive review of "Scope 3"
On June 13, Ant Group released the "2023 Sustainable Development Report"(hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which disclosed that the company's operating emissions (Scope 1 and 2) have decreased year by year since 2021. It has been verified by Zhonghuan United (Beijing) Certification Center verification and evaluation, and has achieved carbon neutrality of the company's own operating emissions for three consecutive years.
The "Report" shows that Ant Group continues to adopt "reduction", that is, emission reduction measures such as green buildings and green operations; plus "replacement", that is, to replace more than 90% of the electricity in the self-operating park with green electricity, so that the absolute amount of operations in 2023 The emissions dropped by 43.19% compared with 2020; supplemented by "offset", it has passed the carbon offset of high-quality forest carbon sinks certified by VCS+CCB to achieve carbon neutrality in operations.
The first comprehensive review of "Scope 3" disclosed a total of 764,200 tons of carbon emissions in 11 categories
The reporter also noted that the "Report" disclosed that Ant Group conducted its first comprehensive "Scope 3"(referring to carbon emissions upstream and downstream of the value chain) in 2023, identifying 12 categories related to Ant Group, and disclosed 11 categories with high data quality, and calculated that the total emissions of the 11 categories of Ant Group's "Scope 3" were approximately 764,200 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, providing a scientific basis for promoting carbon emission reduction in the value chain.
"Scientific quantification and public disclosure of Scope 3 is a tough nut for most companies. The difficulty lies in the lack of local factors, calculation models and other tools, as well as the availability and accuracy of carbon emission data for many other companies upstream and downstream of the value chain."Zhao Lijian, President of Carbon Trust Carbon Trust China, said that Ant Group's focus on" Scope Three "The attention and exploration of clarifying the family background, as well as the carbon information disclosure that is progressing year by year, will set an example and example for domestic companies.
Regarding this comprehensive review of "Scope 3", Ant Group stated in the "Report": The comprehensive review of "Scope 3" is not the ultimate goal. Using technological innovation to improve carbon reduction efficiency and help sustainable business development is its pursuit. Goals, we will continue to deepen green computing technology, increase the use of renewable energy, and explore greener and low-carbon products and service solutions in the future.
Intelligent tools provide ISSB disclosure services for small and medium-sized enterprises, reducing costs by more than 50%
Ant's above statement is based on a series of solid actions for low-carbon development in recent years. This also marks that ants are "taking another step forward" starting from the carbon reduction and emission reduction of their own operations, and relying on their scientific and technological capabilities to deflect their "own low-carbon development" into the larger issue of "assisting the green transformation of society."
In terms of serving the green transformation of small and micro enterprises with "large quantity and wide scope", the "Report" also disclosed the practical progress of ants: in 2022, the "Green Evaluation Standards for Small and Micro Enterprises", the first domestic green evaluation group for small and micro enterprises, will be released. On the basis of this, the online merchant bank initiated by Ant Group has further increased cooperation with financial institutions to provide green financial services to more small and micro enterprises. As of the end of 2023, the "Green Evaluation System for Small and Micro Enterprises" has supported a total of 8.39 million small and micro business entities, obtaining free green ratings through intelligent tools "one click"; online merchant banks have provided preferential green services to 1.31 million small and micro enterprises. Financial loan support guides small and micro enterprises to transform into green and low-carbon production and operation methods.
"The approval and disclosure of sustainable information come with costs, and the current disclosure costs are also unaffordable for many small and micro enterprises. Providing ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Council) disclosure services to small and medium-sized enterprises through intelligent tools can reduce costs by more than 50%, and some even 90%."Ma Jun, president of the Beijing Institute of Green Finance and Sustainable Development, believes that the" Green Evaluation System for Small and Micro Enterprises "explored by Ant Group and Online Merchant Bank is leading on a global scale, opening up a new way to use intelligent tools to help small and micro enterprises obtain green financial support at low cost.
"From the practice of Ant Group and other companies in promoting sustainable development, we can see that ESG has gradually transformed from the widely understood 'cost burden' to the 'value engine' that promotes the continued growth of enterprises." Representative of the 14th National People's Congress, Xiamen Professor Huang Shizhong, former dean of the National Accounting College, said that practicing the ESG concept, focusing on long-term sustainable development, and constantly shaping new development momentum and new advantages are the mission and requirement of the times, and it is also the historical task that enterprises are duty-bound.
Adhere to long-term doctrine and continuously expand the scope of ecological public welfare projects
"Adhere to long-term doctrine and believe that every small effort will become more valuable due to long-term persistence." Peng Yijie, chief sustainable development officer of Ant Group, believes that promoting sustainable development is not a one-day effort, but a long-term effort. Only by focusing can we make real changes in some areas that society needs. Since 2017, Ant drew on the ESG concept and proposed for the first time its commitment to "jointly build a better society for the future". This year is the seventh consecutive year that this company has released its annual sustainability report. Almost simultaneously with this, the ecological public welfare project "Ant Forest" initiated by Ant Group has also gone through more than seven years.
According to public data, as of August 2023, more than 475 million trees have been planted through applications from Ant Forest users and the Ant Group's cumulative donations of more than 3.4 billion yuan, helping ecological restoration work in 11 provinces across the country. 90% of the tree species are in the three landmark battle areas of the "Three North" Project; The social welfare protection area donated by ants reaches 4800 square kilometers and is involved in protecting biodiversity in 13 provinces across the country; in terms of marine protection, the ant forest not only restores more than 1000 acres of seaweed beds in Shandong, but also restores mangroves in Fujian. The area exceeds 2000 acres, and continues to promote marine biological rescue and ocean beach cleaning and plastic reduction.
Photo: Populus euphratica forest, an ant forest located in Jinta, Gansu, taken in 2023
"From land ecological restoration to biodiversity protection to marine ecological protection, the scope of ant ecological public welfare projects continues to expand." Dr. Zhu Chunquan, general manager of the Nature Initiative Greater China Region of the World Economic Forum, believes that Ant Group's attention to ecological protection and corresponding public welfare support have not only persisted for many years, but also presented clear and systematic thinking and actions.
The World Economic Forum said in its article "Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction, Ecological Restoration, and Industry Transformation: How Chinese Companies Can Contribute to Global Climate Goals": In the process of realizing dual carbon goals and natural benefit transformation, the public welfare project "Ant Forest" initiated by Ant Group and as the main donor is a model that combines ecological restoration with its own business, demonstrating the positive impact of its green and low-carbon living concept to more than 600 million users. For example, Ant Group also cooperates with non-profit organizations, professional organizations and more than 600 corporate brands to use Ant Forest's "green energy" as an incentive to jointly advocate the public to choose green and low-carbon products and services, and promote tourism, transportation, The transformation of related industries including clothing, and electronic products, and achieve a larger range of coordinated actions.
"Green has always been the gene of Ant Group and one of the starting points for us to understand dual value creation. Nowadays, under the global ESG consensus, we not only start from the company itself and strive to be a practitioner of green development, but we also hope to become a driver of green transformation of society and an explorer of green technology."Ant Group ESG Yan Meng, global head of the Office of Sustainable Development, said that the invention and application of new technologies should be the best way to solve the problem of climate change. Ant Group will continue to increase exploration and openness in the future to provide more innovative models and technical solutions for high-quality green development.
