Born in 1951, he is the founder of Vanke Group and the chairman of Vanke Public Welfare Association. In 1984, Wang Shi founded Vanke, which became one of the earliest listed companies in China in 1989, the largest listed real estate company in China in 1998, and a Fortune Global 500 company in 2016. Since 2001, Wang Shi has successively become one of the founders of social organizations such as "Zhongcheng Alliance", "Alxa SEE** Association" and "Yi**". Since 2009, he has participated in the United Nations Climate Change Conference and founded the C-Team in 2015. In 2003 and 2010, Wang Shi climbed Mount Everest twice, and in 2005, he completed the "7+2" (summiting the highest peaks on seven continents and trekking to the South and North Poles). From 2010 to 2019, he was a visiting scholar at Harvard, Cambridge, Hebrew and other universities, and was awarded a Fellow of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge in 2015.
Once upon a time, Wang Shi believed that the freest state of life was to be imaginative and unconventional, and he also felt that he was such a person. At the age of 57, he ushered in the most "grasping horse" chapter in his life, and the "inflection point theory" and "donation gate" knocked him into the darkest moment, and also made him re-understand the relationship between himself and society.
Now, at the age of seventy, he says that he is far from "not exceeding the rules". After retiring in 2017, he was dazzled by the constant switching between business and public welfare, career and interest. Biotechnology, rowing, climate change, deep diving, deep rock, biosphere 3 ......There are many fields and brands he has set foot in, and only he knows best what the main line is.
In 2020, China's dual carbon roadmap made him find excitement again, in his own words, "like an old war horse hearing the charge". He wants to show his skills again in the tide of the dual-carbon economy, and his excitement is no less than that of going to Shenzhen to start a business at the age of 32.
Wang Shi spoke with great interest about the changes at the Dubai climate conference and imagined the ideal picture of a carbon-neutral community. Stories that take place in strange places and distant futures are difficult for the public to empathize with, but he enjoys them and is very self-consistent.
At the same time, the hotly discussed on the Internet was his three-year-old daughter. He seems to live in two quadrants, one is the elite Wang Shi who cares about food, the climate, and the future and destiny of mankind, and the other is the mortal Wang who nagged in front of the live broadcast camera. Both characters are very real, and he enjoys them, just like he says he cherishes his reputation and loves to be in the limelight.
Wang Shi is a tiger, because of his hot temper, people give him the nickname "Wang Laohu". Now he is thinner and more peaceful than when he was younger, and he looks at him as if he is also warm. If you get used to running, you won't stop. At the age of 73, he is like an old horse, with innate sensitivity and loneliness, and he rushes to the journey of fate without hesitation.
Gong Puguang, vice chairman of the Social Construction Committee of the 13th National People's Congress, first secretary of the Party Committee and president of the China Charity Federation, presented the award to Wang Shi. Photographer Zhang Xu.
Hindsight
Wang Shi's road to environmental protection began at the turn of the century.
In 1999, he resigned as CEO of Vanke. In order to fully decentralize his authority and free himself from managing affairs, he chose to climb the mountain. Mountaineering enthusiast was one of the notable labels of his years.
In 2002, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, but instead of seeing Hemingway's snow-capped peaks, only glaciers. After learning about it, I learned that because of the warming climate, the snow melted quickly, and Kilimanjaro had become a seasonal snow-capped mountain. This gap prompted him to start thinking: What does climate change have to do with individuals, Vanke, and the country? After digging deeper, he realized that the relationship was too big.
One of the causes of climate change is the massive deforestation of primary forests, where China is the world's largest importer of timber, a large part of which goes to construction sites. Vanke, the largest residential developer in China, consumes a lot of this wood. These causal relationships made him feel that he had to change his thinking, not to take the old road of development first and then governance, but to take the road of green environmental protection.
Wang Shi hopes to convey the concept of carbon neutrality and water environment protection to people through rowing.
He calls himself an environmental watcher, but it's better to be aware than not to be aware.
In 2003, Wang Shi proposed the road of housing industrialization to build houses like cars, leading Vanke into the era of green building. In the age of real estate "lying to earn", this seems to be a thankless move. Wang Shi's logic is that green buildings will spend more energy and make less profits, but in the future, they will become the core competitiveness of Vanke. In 2007, Vanke released its first Corporate Social Responsibility Report, which clearly listed environmental and social responsibility as the main topics. In 2009, Vanke introduced the first LEED Platinum certification in China, which is the highest level of the Green Building Assessment System established and implemented by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Not only does his own business practice, but he also mobilizes more entrepreneurs and the real estate industry to participate.
In 2004, Wang Shi and many well-known domestic entrepreneurs jointly initiated the establishment of Alxa SEE Ecological Association, which has become an important force for Chinese people to participate in ecological and environmental protection. From 2008 to 2009, Wang Shi served as the second president of Alxa SEE, and green environmental protection began to become an increasingly obvious label on his body.
In the 80s of the last century, Wang Shi went to the United States for the first time to learn how to make money, and more than ten years later, in 2008, he led a delegation of more than 20 people to visit the United States as the president of Alxa SEE, and learned how to spend money from American companies. In more than ten days, they visited 15 top institutions such as the Rockefeller Family Association and the Ford Association, and systematically learned professional knowledge such as strategic planning, governance structure, and asset preservation and appreciation.
In 2009, Wang Shi attended the United Nations climate conference for the first time. That year, only three representatives of Chinese companies attended the meeting: Wang Shi, entrepreneur Feng Lun, and a secretary general. Standing on an unfamiliar international stage, they were a little at a loss: they didn't know how to organize a climate declaration for Chinese companies, and they didn't have a venue for an event, so they had to install two balloon installations in the corridor. "We just stood there, and no one paid any attention to us. Wang Shi recalled.
But that hasn't dampened Wang's enthusiasm, and he has attended the United Nations climate conferences for the past 15 years.
To the outside world, the topics of each year's climate conference seem to be similar, often accompanied by lengthy negotiations that end without a hitch. "From 2009 to now, 15 years have passed, and my hair has turned white. Wang Shi smiled. Despite the loneliness of the forerunners, he knew that this was the role he was supposed to play.
At the 26th UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, UK, in 2022, he said: "I hope that years from now, if someone passes by my graveyard and doesn't point a finger at me, I'll be happy." If they are diligent, check on the Internet, and find that our generation of entrepreneurs has done their part for the survival environment of future generations, then I will be blind to Jiuquan. ”
In 2023, Wang Shi will be at COP28.
Wang Shi is often asked what motivates him to persist in participating in the UN climate conference for so many years. In addition to the sense of responsibility, environmental protection has become more of a habit for him, from the initial afterthought to the later half-awareness, and then to the current unconscious. Before he knew it, he was at the forefront of climate advocacy and had completed the task of leading the way through more than a decade of travel.
From the first time in 2009, when 3 people from the Chinese non-governmental sector participated in the climate conference and 100 Chinese companies participated in the conference, to the 2013 Warsaw conference, there was a "China Pavilion" and "China Enterprise Day", more and more Chinese companies participated in the conference, and the number of people changed from 100 to 1,000. At the 2015 Paris climate conference, 1,000 became 10,000 again; In 2018 and 2019, that number became 1 million again.
The 2023 Dubai Climate Conference will have the largest number of participants in history, and more and more Chinese** and business delegations will participate, which is in stark contrast to the 2009 model. What makes Wang Shi feel relieved is that he is not the only leader in the team from China, there are already seven or eight leaders.
The climate conference is a good stage for publicity, a stage for attracting investment, and a stage for finding partners. He couldn't help but sigh. On this vast international stage, he once took the lead, and now, more than ten years later, he is surrounded by thousands of galloping horses.
Half-hearted
When he retired in 2017, Wang Shi asked the team to sort out how many social organizations he worked in, and the final result was 45. He said it must be reduced to 30. At the end of 2023, he asked his secretary to check how many of them have been reduced now, and the latest result is 52.
One**, Alxa SEE, Shenzhen Mangrove Forest**, Xi'an Rural Development ** will ......In addition to serving as the chairman of the Vanke Association, Wang Shi is also the initiator and director of many ** associations, and they all want to participate in meetings and make suggestions, and they will never do anything in name.
Xu Yongguang, the founder of the Hope Project and the honorary chairman of the Nandu Association, is the initiator of Wang Shi's entry into the public welfare circle, and the Hope Project, as a national public welfare brand, gave him the initial understanding of public welfare.
A visit on the way to Mount Everest in 2003 made him determined to devote himself to public welfare. In a school for the blind in **, a blind boy asked Wang Shi to squat down and touch and feel him with both hands. The child's unexpected actions and the sentence "Uncle, you are a good person" washed away Wang Shi's original condescension without a trace, and also shocked his heart greatly.
Two months later, he returned from Mount Everest and met Sabria Tenbeken, the founder of the school for the blind, a blind German girl who had come to ** alone. Wang Shi promised her that he would bear the school's annual administrative expenses in the future, which also opened his personal road to public welfare.
On January 8, 2024, during the "Breaking the Boundary: Influence Charity Forum 2023", Wang Shi introduced Sabria, the founder of ** School for Blind Children, who had a profound influence on him. Photographer Zhang Xu.
Advertising endorsement income plus one-third of my salary I once promised for public welfare, I spend almost 25 million yuan every year for public welfare, which has nothing to do with the company. At the 2023 Influential Charity Forum of "Chinese Philanthropist", Wang Shi said.
Despite this, he still positions himself as an entrepreneur.
As he says in his book "My Change: 40 Years of Personal Modernization", he never imagined that he would become an entrepreneur, and even after much success in business, it is difficult to identify himself as a businessman from his heart.
He likes to read Toynbee's "Historical Studies", and unconsciously looks at problems from a historical perspective. Looking at China and abroad, he saw Rockefeller, Ford, and Hu Xueyan in the dual dimensions of business and public welfare. After his retirement, Rockefeller devoted himself to philanthropy, and his donations in the fields of education and health care continue to benefit the world today. In 1936, Henry Ford and his son founded Ford ** world-famous, but it has little to do with Ford Motor; The red-topped businessman Hu Xueyan was in full glory for a while, and finally committed suicide by swallowing gold, but the Huqing Yutang he founded is still alive today. The glory of business may be short-lived, while the impact of philanthropy may span generations.
2008 is known as the first year of China's non-governmental philanthropy, and it is also the darkest moment for Wang Shi. After Wenchuan, it inspired unprecedented enthusiasm for national donations, but Vanke's donation of 2 million yuan and Wang Shi's response on the blog made him instantly the focus of attention. Some people on the Internet commented that although you have climbed Mount Everest, your moral height is not as high as the grave. Later, at the shareholders' meeting, he apologized unconditionally, and some shareholder representatives accused him in person: being able to say your true thoughts shows that you are open, but as a public figure, you can only speak your mind freely to represent your ignorance.
For Wang Shi, who is pessimistic about wealth but values reputation more than anything else, this is a huge humiliation and torture. He once said that giving up his stake in Vanke gave him more than 20 years of peace of mind. But at the moment in 2008, he was at a loss for words. The documentary "Zundao" truly recorded the moments that made him suffer a lot, and he sighed in front of the camera: "I now know how difficult it is to stick to the values I have believed in for many years. ”
At the same time, he also said that time will tell. In 2011, after the Guo Meimei incident, some netizens ran out to apologize to Wang Shi. But in Wang Shi's view, similar expressions are somewhat emotional, far from the truth of facts and rational thinking. Years later, he still reflects on himself, and in the face of catastrophe, those seemingly sober remarks that everyone is drunk and sober are actually the work of personal heroism and immaturity.
After retiring in 2017, he also experienced a period of going around and down**, once became interested in molecular biology, served as co-chairman of BGI for several years, and also initiated the establishment of the Rural Development Association, and wanted to grow crops in the Gobi Desert.
Wang Shi didn't want to be a public welfare person wholeheartedly, but he found that his personality was not necessarily suitable. He admits that he likes to be in the limelight very much, but he must be able to stand grievances and loneliness when doing public charity. In addition, time does not allow it, "To succeed, you must be wholehearted, and wholeheartedly may not be able to do well, and half-heartedly it is impossible to do well", he told himself.
With the advent of the era of carbon neutrality, he found that his strengths were still in the business field. "It's as if a lot of my work in the previous 20 years, entrepreneurship, environmental protection, and sports were all preparing for the cause of carbon neutrality. In other words, I started a new round of entrepreneurship, and at the age of 70, I found a career worth living for a lifetime. He said this in an interview.
Wang Shi participated in COP25.
Although he could not recognize himself as an entrepreneur from the heart, he believed in the social organization of entrepreneurs. What's more, many social issues, including global issues such as climate change, still need to be solved commercially.
The public generally thinks that green development is more of a public welfare attribute, but when green technology and business are combined, they create a low-carbon economy, and sustainable green development can only be achieved through commercial means. The 2023 UN Climate Conference has two themes, the first is solidarity and the second is action. The action must be a commercial act, and the money for public welfare and charity alone is simply not enough. "He decided to go out again.
When to walk the road
The three years of the epidemic have turned an eye in the blink of an eye, but the past is not as good as smoke. Wang Shi said that Mahler's symphony once brought tears to his eyes.
In 2019, before the pandemic, he published the book "My Change: 40 Years of Personal Modernization", in which he candidly dissected himself. The intersecting narrative of personal encounters and the times in the book is real and infectious.
The epidemic has brought many things to an abrupt end, and the troubles for a "cosmopolitan" can be imagined. But he is still not idle, first seeking supplies for the domestic epidemic, and then sending supplies to the international community; From Glasgow to Sharm el-Sheikh, he must attend the UN climate conference every year; In 2020, he launched the World Canal City Crossing Project, which aims to cover 100 cities and eventually crosses 123 cities.
The cost of "willfulness" is also significant. In order to participate in the conference and study, he sometimes had to endure the torment of traveling to many countries and quarantining for a long time - he was quarantined for a total of 9 weeks in 2020 and 2021, and 13 weeks in 2022. But he took bitterness as joy, and even shared his life during the quarantine period, and also published a new book "Return to the Future-Wang Shi's Fourteen Countries Canal Crossing".
On April 2, 2020, the establishment of the Vanke School of Public Health and Health of Tsinghua University is a major donation of science and education by enterprises. In that year, Vanke employees donated 200 million shares of Vanke to the Tsinghua University Education Association to jointly build the School of Public Health and Health. On the day of the establishment of the college, Wang Shi posted a ** in the early years on Weibo with the text: "36 years, I feel that the monarch trusts me to be righteous, and I will never live up to my original intention!" ”
In 1988, the fourth year of Vanke's establishment, the founding team led by Wang Shi gave up the shares that could have been allocated to individuals and established Vanke's corporate equity assets. Subsequently, the Vanke employee congress unanimously decided to contribute the assets to the society and eventually use them for public welfare, and the total asset value also increased from 5.2 million yuan in 1988 to 5.3 billion yuan in 2020. Wang Shi said: "For Vanke's corporate stock assets, this is its best destination. ”
It is precisely because of the various rushes during the epidemic that he has a sense of gain after the epidemic. "After three years of the epidemic, I said how I came to the front again, because when many people were lying flat, I didn't lie flat. ”
In 2011, he went to Harvard to study alone, and then traveled to Cambridge and Hebrew, and the epidemic ended his study plan, but it also gave him the opportunity to start anew. He knew that he was not a scholar after all, and that applying what he had learned was the goal.
On April 19, 2020, 69-year-old Wang Shi climbed the climbing wall in Vanke Dameisha Carbon Neutral Experimental Park, Yantian District, Shenzhen. Figure cnsphoto
Although he does not deliberately plan for the future, in the field of carbon neutral economy, he has "accidentally" prepared for ten years. From the earliest environmental protection and corporate social responsibility, to the current ESG and carbon neutrality, he seems to have stepped on the beat of the times inadvertently. His wife, Tian Pujun, commented, "He is not a Chinese of today, he may be a Chinese of the future." He may have lived more ahead of his time, more like the people who came after him."
Forty years ago, he keenly stepped out of the system to go into business in the sea, and developed Vanke into the largest real estate developer in China, and created a residential aesthetic known as a modern enterprise and "let architecture praise life". The advent of the era of a carbon-neutral economy has made him determined to devote himself wholeheartedly to "making the carbon-neutral community celebrate life".
He has a wonderful vision of a center and four dimensions: to build a future living picture from the four dimensions of sports and health, biodiversity, beautiful community and carbon neutrality, with "making life better" as the center. He also has a clear timetable, 5 years to run through the business model, 8 years to return funds, and 12 years to go international.
The community is a small city, and the city is a big community, and if this model works, we will be able to provide a feasible model and method for China's carbon-neutral communities and cities. Judging from practical experience and industry response, Wang Shi believes that the projects he is doing now are already in the first phalanx in the world.
After so many years of experience in entrepreneurship, I don't do this, I don't play this role in this business tide, I am sorry for myself. ”
Lao Ji is in the woods, and his ambitions are thousands of miles. Age doesn't seem like a problem for him, and Mr. Wang, 73, says he's changing rapidly. He once said that entrepreneurs can always start a business as long as they are healthy and sober-minded. "At least I have a very strong desire to do things. What am I most worried about? If there is no desire, it means that life is over. ”
Talk to Wang Shi
It's much harder to be a philanthropist than it is to be an entrepreneur
Chinese Philanthropist: Before the epidemic, in 2019, you published the book "My Changes", have you made any new changes in the three years of the epidemic?
Wang Shi:My perception of the future is very much in line with this book. Some of the problems I knew in 2019 are now just accelerated by the epidemic, and there is nothing new. For example, China-US relations, the Russia-Ukraine war, and artificial intelligence, are these problems caused by the epidemic? Nothing has changed in the past three years.
Chinese Philanthropist: During the epidemic, Vanke donated its corporate assets to help Tsinghua University establish the School of Public Health and Wellness, what do you think of this decision at that time?
Wang Shi:It just so happened that the pandemic gave me the opportunity to solve the common problems facing humanity, and I am very happy that this money is used here.
Chinese Philanthropist: Would you define yourself as a philanthropist or a philanthropist?
Wang Shi:I am an entrepreneur, neither a philanthropist nor a philanthropist. To be a philanthropist, you must be wholehearted, I am still half-hearted, I have to do other things, the main energy is still in the enterprise. It's much harder to be a philanthropist than an entrepreneur, and my personality doesn't necessarily fit perfectly. I really like to be in the limelight and I know my shortcomings.
In an interview with this magazine, Wang Shi said frankly that it is much more difficult to do public welfare than to be a business. Photographer Zhang Xu.
Chinese Philanthropist: What is the difference between doing business and doing public welfare?
Wang Shi:It is much more difficult to do public welfare than to be a business. Entrepreneurs talk about efficiency, how much money do I invest, how long do I invest, and when can I get a return? It's real, it's clear. How to evaluate doing public welfare? It's hard to say, right? Sometimes it takes several generations to evaluate. Just like Rockefeller, Ford, and Hu Xueyan, they are now their fifth generation to praise their ancestors. We are still the first generation, how to measure us?
China Philanthropist: How do you view the development status of philanthropic organizations in China?
Wang Shi:Generally speaking, there are three forces in society: ** to manage the country, enterprises to create wealth, public welfare and charitable organizations to participate in the third distribution, and promote social stability and balanced development. In Chinese society, ** plays the most important role, accounting for at least two-thirds, and how can the remaining one-third be balanced between enterprises and non-profit organizations? Obviously, the development of public welfare and charitable organizations in China is far from enough, but today, 40 years later, there has been great progress.
Chinese Philanthropist: 15 years have passed since the 2008 donation turmoil, do you think the soil of philanthropy has changed?
Wang Shi:I see it this way, the younger generation has risen. For the post-80s, post-95s, and post-00s, they take it for granted to do public welfare and environmental protection. Because this generation is more international, these things are already part of their cognitive cultivation from an early age. It's a big difference, and it's very gratifying.
Reasons for the award
40 years ago, he founded Shenzhen Vanke, adhering to the humanistic spirit of "let architecture praise life", and achieved great commercial success while also making modern enterprise civilization blossom and bear fruit. At the turn of the century, he set his sights on the field of environmental protection and public welfare, and became a leader in fulfilling social responsibilities and participating in social governance among Chinese entrepreneurs. Over the past 15 years, he has attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference consecutively, and his followers have grown from a single figure to a single response, contributing China's strength to addressing the climate challenge. In 2020, China announced the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and the 70-year-old is like an old war horse who hears the trumpet, full of enthusiasm and dedication to the better future under the dual carbon vision.
Acceptance speech
I am 73 years old, and every time I am awarded after the age of 65, I am given a lifetime honor award. What does that mean? It's just that you're over, so I'm worried about whether the award I've been given today is also this award. I looked at it, no, I said it was because of the response to climate change, and I was very happy. At least our "Chinese Philanthropist" and Weibo have no upper age limit in terms of charity. I have been attending COP15 since 2009, and if I had attended for another five years, I would have participated in the UN climate conference the most times in China. So I still have to persevere, thank you!
Author: Cheng Xinming.
Portrait photography: Zhang Yanwen (axstudio).
*Editor: Zhang Xu.
Duty Editor: Yang Yongjie.