Reducing carbon emissions is not something foreign customers ask companies to do, but a social responsibility that companies should assume

In recent years, my country's photovoltaic products have faced many trade barriers in the export process, and the "carbon" threshold is one that must be crossed.

As a company in the photovoltaic and energy storage industry chain, Goodway Technology Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Goodway)'s main business involves photovoltaic grid-connected inverters, energy storage inverters, charging piles, energy storage batteries, optoelectronic building materials and smart energy management platforms.

Kong Mohan, Goodway's domestic marketing director, told this reporter that Goodway had launched a sea trip plan as early as its establishment in 2010, and is still continuing to promote its internationalization strategy.

So, as an export-oriented enterprise, how do you feel about the "carbon" threshold set by foreign countries in recent years, and how does the enterprise face it internally? Our reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Kong Mohan.

China Environment News: How do companies feel about the "carbon" threshold set by foreign countries? How does Goodway respond to customer requirements related to carbon emissions?

Kong Mohan:As an early company in the new energy industry to go to sea, Goodway launched its plan to go to sea as early as 2010. Over the past 14 years, in the process of adhering to the development of globalization, Goodway has on the one hand enjoyed the dividends of new energy manufacturing going abroad. On the other hand, as a vanguard, it has indeed experienced many thrilling challenges.

Especially in recent years, in order to support the localization of the new energy industry chain, developed countries such as Europe and the United States have continuously adopted various green trade measures to restrict the import of new energy products. The most important one is to grade imported products based on indicators such as carbon footprint., and then add various expenses.

In order to meet customer requirements, Goodway launched product carbon footprint certification in 2022 and completed the carbon footprint certification in accordance with ISO14067 PAS2050 standards. As of May 2024, the company has obtained a total of 17 inverter products certificates, and another 2 inverter products have passed Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certification. These measures have effectively improved product competitiveness and consolidated the company's share in the European and American markets.

In order to cope with the increasing number of green trade barriers, we actively identify and manage environmental, social and governance risks. In 2024, Goodway officially established the ESG Strategy and Management Committee, which clarified the "decision-making level-management level-execution level" from top to bottom. The three-level management system and work responsibilities incorporate ESG as an important consideration into our operations. In the just-released "2024 Top 100 Sustainable Development (ESG) List of China's Energy Listed Companies", Goodway's ESG performance ranks 18th.

China Environment News: At present, calculating the carbon footprint of some export products is becoming increasingly important. Faced with this trend, what challenges do you think companies in the industrial chain will face? What kind of responsibility should a company have?

Kong Mohan: Objectively speaking, ESG work such as corporate carbon footprint certification does face many challenges.

The first is that supply chain carbon accounting management is difficult. The power and power equipment supply chain has a long link, a wide range, many suppliers, and many product types. Comprehensive carbon footprint assessment and accounting are carried out, focusing on both direct and indirect carbon emissions in the product production process (such as emissions caused by electricity and heat), and more attention should be paid to carbon emissions in the entire chain of product production. How to take suppliers 'carbon emission reduction into consideration is a big challenge. Suppliers have different understanding and emphasis on carbon emission management, and may lack the technology and financial resources to conduct carbon footprint accounting and carbon emission reduction measures.

Secondly, data collection is difficult and cannot be accurately traced. Taking the life cycle assessment method as an example, the data that must be collected and compiled for accounting includes raw and auxiliary material consumption, main raw and auxiliary material suppliers and their transportation distances to the factory, energy consumption in the production process, packaging material consumption, energy and greenhouse gas consumption during the product use stage., data collection is difficult and multi-source data is inconsistent. The data collection method mainly relies on manual recording and regular reporting. The real-time performance of data filling is poor, and there is an urgent need to improve the level of carbon footprint management through digital and intelligence integration.

Although the challenges are great, on the one hand, Goodway has incorporated environmental, social and governance-related factors represented by carbon management and hazardous substance process management into the scope of supplier qualification review and evaluation, and has formulated internal systems such as "Procurement Control Procedures" and "Supplier Control Procedures" to standardize supplier management from the perspective of the entire life cycle of supplier screening, admission, assessment and evaluation, and actively carry out training and digital empowerment to assist enterprises in the chain in their green transformation.

On the other hand, Goodway is not only deeply promoting corporate ESG work, but is also looking for new opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and empower companies. For example, Goodway has established a project to develop carbon inventory Digital tools starting from 2023 to optimize the carbon footprint management process, comprehensively monitor and analyze carbon emission data, and use intelligent algorithms and models to accurately predict and optimize carbon footprints to improve the efficiency and response speed of carbon emission management.

As enterprises 'understanding of green and low-carbon has gradually deepened, the concept of low-carbon development has become more and more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. We now feel more and more strongly that enterprises have begun to change from doing carbon emission management to coping with customer trials to truly Clean up the company's carbon base, find suitable ways to control carbon emissions, strive to reduce carbon, and achieve true green development. Because, for enterprises, carbon reduction is not something that foreign customers require enterprises to do. For green, low-carbon and high-quality development, enterprises should also assume such social responsibilities.