On December 3, at the eighth special meeting of the "Understanding China" International Conference, Nandu Bay Finance Society released the "ESG Index Report of Private Enterprises in the Bay Area" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The report was modeled, captured, and cleaned by think tanks such as the founding of the United Nations (Institute of Smart Rule of Law and Social Governance) of Nandu Bay Finance Society, the "Legal Artificial Intelligence Laboratory" of the Shenzhen Advanced Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Hong Kong Center for Globalization.
The report shows that while private enterprises in the Bay Area maintain an annual growth rate of 5% or more, the ESG index can also achieve an average annual growth rate of more than 2%. Liu Jiangtao, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and editor-in-chief of Nanfang Society, pointed out in the introduction of the report that while maintaining high growth, private enterprises in the Bay Area have also made important attempts and achieved good results in the field of sustainable development. In the future, private enterprises in the Greater Bay Area need to give full play to their own advantages to meet the challenges.
Liu Jiangtao, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and editor-in-chief of the Southern Society, interpreted the report.
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The dynamic process of high-quality development of private enterprises in the Bay Area
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is one of the regions with the greatest development potential in China, and the private economy is a new force in promoting Chinese-style modernization. The report continuously observes, analyzes and evaluates the sustainable development of private enterprises in the Greater Bay Area, and uses data to show the dynamic process of high-quality development of private enterprises (private enterprises) in the Greater Bay Area, so as to further enhance the vitality of high-quality development of cities in the Greater Bay Area. By releasing ESG indices, Chinese private enterprises, including private enterprises in the Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta, can promote "Created in China" to the outside world, help the outside world understand "Made in China", and demonstrate the sustainable development capabilities of Chinese private enterprises to the world.
It is understood that the report takes the private enterprises (A-shares) in the nine cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing in the Greater Bay Area as the research object, and takes the annual reports and ESG reports of these private enterprises as the main data**, focusing on the theme of "sustainable development of private enterprises", using the "3-10-33-113" four-level indicator data, and comparing the environmental friendliness, social responsibility, and social responsibility involved in the sustainable development of private enterprises (A-shares) in Jiucheng from 2018 to 2022. Objective and comprehensive evaluations were conducted in areas such as corporate governance. The research group collected a total of 19,658 relevant reports, about 2.4 million words of text and related data.
At the same time, the report takes the market value of 100 billion yuan in 2022 as the classification standard, and takes the release of ESG reports and social responsibility reports as the research objects, and divides the selected 50 private enterprises into quality development private enterprises (market value of more than 100 billion yuan) and quantitative development private enterprises (less than 100 billion yuan), and evaluates and ranks two different types of private enterprises according to the three dimensions of environmental, social and governance. According to cluster statistics, there are 9 quality development private enterprises and 38 quantity development private enterprises among the 9 private enterprises (A-shares) in the Greater Bay Area, and 9 quality development private enterprises and 35 quantitative development private enterprises among the 5 private enterprises (A shares) in the Yangtze River Delta.
The sustainable development of private enterprises in the Bay Area has performed well
Awareness of ESG information disclosure needs to be raised
Data analysis shows that while private enterprises in the Bay Area maintain an annual growth rate of 5% or more, the ESG index can also achieve an average annual growth rate of more than 2%. It fully shows that while maintaining high growth, private enterprises in the Bay Area have also made important attempts in the field of sustainable development and achieved good results.
The study found that the private enterprises involved in the report have good capabilities and performance in sustainable development, such as chain management, innovation ability, governance structure, community responsibility, product value, response to emergencies, and social response ability.
In the reports of the private enterprises involved, the private enterprises have elaborated on the social responsibilities and specific work undertaken in the process of poverty alleviation and response to the new crown epidemic. This also shows that listed companies have set a good example in actively serving major national strategies and fulfilling social responsibilities.
It is worth noting that less than 40% of the 752 private enterprises listed in the Bay Area (A-shares) have released ESG reports. This shows that some listed companies (private enterprises) need to improve their self-sustainable development capabilities and awareness of information disclosure in these areas.
At the same time, the large gap in the standard deviation of ESG shows that the degree of attention and management of these private enterprises in ESG is characterized by industry imbalance. At the same time, the data shows that the development of private enterprises in the industry is unbalanced, and the data reflected is not comprehensive enough. This requires the national regulatory authorities and legislation to strengthen the formulation and improvement of laws and regulations on private enterprises in the field of ESG, and strengthen the guidance and supervision of private enterprises in different industries in ESG.
Compared with the private enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta cities, the research team found that the sustainable development capacity of quantitative private enterprises in the Bay Area is far behind the development gap with those in the Yangtze River Delta. However, these private enterprises and the relevant departments of their registered places still have room for further improvement in implementing the new development concept, building a new development pattern, and achieving high-quality development. The location of private enterprises can carry out reforms in key areas, such as improving the business environment, manufacturing strong areas, and higher-level opening-up.
Under the "dual carbon" goal, private enterprises need to accelerate their digital transformation and upgrading
"e" is a direct manifestation of the "double carbon" achieved by private enterprises in the Bay Area. "S" is an important starting point for "double carbon". "G" is the guarantee for the realization of the "double carbon" system. In the context of "dual carbon", the private enterprises involved in the ESG report have expressed their commitment to carbon reduction and carbon reduction. At the same time, the private enterprises involved in the report have specific and clear discussions on "greenhouse gas emissions" in their 2022 ESG reports or social responsibility reports.
Judging from the calculation data, some of the private enterprises involved in the report still have a lot of room for improvement from developed countries in terms of water consumption per unit of product, water consumption per unit of profit, material consumption per unit of revenue, material consumption per unit profit, non-renewable energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions per unit of product, and greenhouse gas emissions per unit of profit.
The gaps in related fields need to be solved by private enterprises by improving scientific and technological innovation and digital and intelligent capabilities. The realization of the "dual carbon" goal is not only the vision of private enterprises to implement sustainable development and green transformation, but also a new track for the future development of enterprises.
According to the report, the Greater Bay Area should accelerate the development of a domestic green energy trading market and green financial products, and continue to support private enterprises, including private enterprises in Shanghai, to invest in green assets and innovative projects, so as to help private enterprises achieve a new model of sustainable development.
In addition, among the top 50 private enterprises (47) in the Bay Area by market capitalization studied in this report, they are all enterprises in the real economy, and most of them are concentrated in 19 industries such as new energy, electronic products, power equipment manufacturing, home appliance manufacturing, food manufacturing, light industry manufacturing, and biomedicine.
The study finds that in the future development of these private enterprises, they can only achieve sustainable development by relying on digitalization and intelligence to empower them. According to the report, private enterprises in the Greater Bay Area (especially those involved in the report) should pay more attention to the collaboration, integration and empowerment of digital and intelligent technologies and the native technologies of private enterprises, which will also give rise to new capabilities and projects of private enterprises. Due to the geographical advantage of being adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, private enterprises in the Greater Bay Area can better carry out international development, enhance their self-innovation capabilities and market competitiveness through platforms such as Hong Kong and Macao, play a leading role in the industry, and force them to accelerate their development and take a green and sustainable path.
Some private enterprises should pay attention to the ability to disclose ESG data
It is worth noting that in the ESG reports of the 92 Shanghai and Shenzhen private enterprises (48 in the Bay Area and 44 in the Yangtze River Delta) in Shanghai and Shenzhen covered in this report, the environmental indicators are the least disclosed, the "E" indicators are also the lowest, and the "E" resource use and consumption disclosure rates are the lowest. A similar conclusion is found in the ESG data report from 2018 to 2022. This shows that when private enterprises disclose ESG reports, the published indicators are uneven, there is no unified standard, and most of them are qualitative expressions, and there are few specific quantitative descriptions. For these problems, private enterprises themselves should pay attention to and pay attention.
The report suggests that these private enterprises should pay attention to ESG data disclosure capabilities and basic data accumulation and collation. It should be pointed out that the standards of ESG evaluation systems are different, evaluation methods are still being explored, and the scope of evaluation needs to be standardized. Therefore, it is believed that ESG evaluation indicators and systems are more suitable for the evaluation of private enterprises facing the public and making data open. At the same time, private enterprises should actively participate in ESG evaluation activities formulated by relevant state departments, so that ESG evaluation standards can be adapted to China's industrial structure and capital market. When formulating and improving ESG evaluation standards, relevant departments should fully integrate with international standards, take into account the reality of domestic enterprises (especially private enterprises), and help enterprises achieve sustainable development by improving the ESG evaluation system from the perspectives of guidance, support and empowerment. This can not only improve the benign development level of China's ESG investment market, but also echo the international ESG evaluation indicators, forming a set of scientific, objective and applicable evaluation index systems that are not only in line with China's national conditions, but also oriented to the world.
Written by: Aoyi News reporter Guan Yuhui Lin Sisi