The future appearance of a company can actually be measured with a value scale.
The outside world often uses various indicators in financial reports, including revenue, profitability, solvency, etc., to judge a company's past and present.
But in the business world, the competition is about who can survive longer and have the last laugh. So, is there a set of indicators to measure sustainable development?
Now, more and more people are hearing the name ESG, which is Environment, Social and Governance. These three items are not directly related to financial indicators, but reflect the sustainability of the enterprise and the social value generated.
To put it figuratively, ESG is a company’s “physical examination report” and a standard for measuring corporate development from a higher dimension.
In the past, ESG was just an accessory for some companies to enhance their image. But now, it has become a new business growth point and a bellwether for business operations, and has very critical practical significance.
Among many industries, the hydrogen energy industry is an industry with strong "ESG attributes". However, for a long time, there was no independent ESG report on the market for the hydrogen energy industry.
You know, according to the China Hydrogen Energy Alliance, the output value of China's hydrogen energy industry will reach 1 trillion yuan between 2020 and 2025, and the market space is very large. If we can promote the development of the industry through a series of ESG reports, it will undoubtedly create greater value.
Some industry players have already taken action. On September 1, hydrogen energy company Weishi Energy released its first independent version of the ESG report - "Weshi Energy 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). This report not only fills a gap in the market, but also brings a value revelation to the industry, that is, companies that can successfully implement ESG must be:
Social enterprise.
“Social Enterprises” under the ESG craze
In 2004, the United Nations proposed the concept of ESG for the first time, advocating that companies no longer only focus on a single profit indicator, but pursue long-term sustainable development from multiple aspects such as environment, social impact, and corporate governance.
Subsequently, ESG gradually set off a capital boom abroad. PwC predicts that the global ESG asset management scale will reach US$33.9 trillion in 2026, accounting for 22% of the global asset management scale.
Looking at China, as early as 2006, the two major stock exchanges of Shanghai and Shenzhen had required listed companies to submit social responsibility reports. However, due to the lack of unified reporting standards and disclosure requirements, ESG did not receive widespread attention at the time.
Therefore, domestic ESG development seems to be lagging behind. In the capital market, according to GSIA data, China's ESG investment scale accounted for only 1% of the total asset management scale in 2020, which is far lower than the levels of Europe (42%) and the United States (33%), and there is still large room for growth. .
Dr. Xie Chaopeng, Vice President of Weishi Energy, told "Yidian Finance" that whether a company can develop in the long term and whether it has long-term competitiveness cannot be reflected only through financial statements, but also depends on ESG. Because in addition to current operating performance, ESG also values a company's ability to build an everlasting business. The domestic regulatory system has relatively early understanding of ESG, but not all companies are proactively disclosing ESG reports, or have recognized the supporting role of ESG reports. For a period of time, more companies are still in the process of understanding ESG.
In recent years, with the guidance of the country's "dual carbon strategy" and the continuous improvement of social awareness, ESG has begun to be taken seriously by many companies. From the perspective of A-share listed companies, the number of companies disclosing ESG will increase year by year from 2020 to 2022: 1,021, 1,138, and 1,450 respectively.
No matter which industry these companies are in, the information disclosed is mainly concentrated in three aspects:
Environment: Mainly focuses on the impact of enterprises on the natural environment, including resource utilization, energy efficiency, carbon emissions, etc.
Social: Mainly focuses on the impact of enterprises on employees, customers, supply chains and other stakeholders.
Governance: Mainly focuses on corporate decision-making, management structure, transparency and accountability systems.
Among many industries, the hydrogen energy industry has a clear “ESG mark”.
In an exchange with Dr. Xie Chaopeng, Vice President of Weishi Energy, "Yidian Finance" learned that the hydrogen energy industry itself is an industry derived from the transformation of energy structure and the application of renewable energy. Under the domestic energy transformation situation, the proportion of renewable energy must reach 20% or 30% in the short term, and the long-term goal must reach 80%. This requires a medium that can store large-scale, long-term energy, and hydrogen energy is indispensable. .
This means that the hydrogen energy industry is an indispensable link in green development and environmental protection. In the "Report" of Weishi Energy, there is a core goal:
Create green and sustainable value.
Achieving green development may incur certain costs for enterprises, but it also creates new opportunities. Weishi Energy has developed a carbon emission reduction method in the field of hydrogen energy this year, which allows Weishi Energy's end customers to trade by creating carbon credits, thereby creating value for customers' development.
Obviously, hydrogen energy companies and industries themselves can create value at both the environmental and social levels.
If hydrogen energy companies want to truly achieve this goal, they first need to adjust their positioning and vision.
Management guru Drucker once said:
Enterprises are organs of society. Any enterprise survives because it meets the needs of a certain aspect of society and achieves some special social purpose.
If a company wants to survive in the business world for a long time, it must embed itself into the social structure and provide unique value to the entire society. Only then can it continue to survive.
This is the now popular concept of "social enterprise", that is, participating in the creation of social value and at the same time gaining momentum for its own development.
Under the wave of ESG, for a hydrogen energy company, the more worthy goal is not profit growth, but the depth of embedding in the social structure, so as to achieve long-termism.
“Value Sample” for practicing ESG
Although the hydrogen energy industry has an obvious "ESG" background, some hydrogen energy companies still don't know enough about it.
Through the "Report" released by Weishi Energy, we can find that it is a typical representative of "social enterprises", and thus performs relatively well in the practice of ESG, setting a value sample worthy of reference for the industry.
First of all, in terms of environment, Weishi Energy, under the guidance of the national "double carbon" strategic goals, will improve its "green and low-carbon" operations as the first battlefield to implement the ESG strategy.
For example, Weishi Energy has tapped into its own potential to reduce emissions and increase efficiency by developing paperless offices, advocating energy conservation and electricity consumption, and building green and smart manufacturing, thereby continuously improving the level of low-carbon operations.
After all, in order to contribute to the outside world, you must first be good enough.
Externally, Weishi Energy is still making contributions to environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction through various implementation scenarios. For example, it teamed up with Ant Logistics to create a demonstration application scenario for "medium and short-distance transportation" of hydrogen-powered heavy trucks. It has the characteristics of high efficiency, low noise, zero pollution, fast energy replenishment and long cruising range, truly helping the logistics industry achieve green and low-cost transportation. Carbon transition.
Secondly, at the social level, Weishi Energy enhances the interests of all parties through "ecological thinking".
Dr. Xie Chaopeng, vice president of Weishi Energy, revealed to Yidian Finance that with the development of the economy, the supply chain actually has requirements for ESG. Because ESG is not just a matter for one company, but is related to the entire industry chain or industry ecology.
At present, Weishi Energy has built an integrated industrial chain ecosystem of "production-storage-transportation-addition-application". Through actions such as upgrading technical products, improving the hydrogen energy ecology, participating in the compilation of industry standards, and establishing quality alliances, it has driven the industrial chain and Green and high-quality development of the ecosystem.
Last year, Weishi Energy advocated the establishment of an industry quality alliance, with industry leading supply chain companies jointly establishing industry quality standards in accordance with vehicle regulations. In addition, Weishi Energy also proposed to establish a coordinated research and development mechanism and a joint response mechanism to share technology and experience, truly connect needs, form common development standards, and promote the rapid resolution of problems.
This is actually the "altruistic thinking" proposed by Japanese entrepreneur Kazuo Inamori - if you think of others in everything, things will always go surprisingly smoothly.
Finally, in terms of governance, Weishi Energy attaches great importance to ESG management from top to bottom.
On the one hand, the company has established a top-down ESG management structure, with the chairman of the board as the top decision-maker to supervise, support and make decisions on ESG-related matters.
On the other hand, the company has established an ESG Management Committee, authorized by the chairman, to identify its own ESG risks and opportunities, take the lead in formulating sustainable development strategies, goals and management policies, and coordinate the resources and implementation of sustainable development goals.
It is worth mentioning that each department also specially dispatched specialists to form an ESG working group to clarify the ESG responsibilities of each department of the company and be responsible for daily ESG work.
Many companies are good at making plans, but they always talk about it on paper and lack execution capabilities.
The valuable thing about Weishi Energy is that it not only outlined a blueprint through the "Report", but also stepped into the game and achieved ESG goals by forcing itself forward.
Dr. Xie Chaopeng, Vice President of Weishi Energy, told "Yidian Finance" that Weishi Energy has summarized its ESG management work by publishing the "Report". Because although companies have made a lot of efforts in various aspects, they lack a systematic review from an ESG perspective. This sorting out also forces Weishi Energy to build a more complete ESG management system.
"Key variables" to the future
In the future, ESG will inevitably form a more turbulent wave in China.
According to CICC research and forecasts, my country's ESG investment scale is expected to reach 20 trillion to 30 trillion yuan in 2025, accounting for 20% to 30% of the total asset management industry. During the communication with Dr. Xie Chaopeng, Vice President of Weishi Energy, "Yidian Finance" learned that companies need to lay out ESG in advance so that investors and potential investors and other capital parties can see the company's efforts in ESG. , and then allow them to explore the company's investment value and future development potential.
So, how should companies prepare in advance to cope with the turbulent waves in the future?
The "Huawei Basic Law" mentioned a growth logic. Opportunities, talents, technology and products are the main driving forces for the company's growth. Opportunities lead to talents, talents lead to technology, technology leads to products, and products lead to more and greater opportunities. Increasing the traction of these four forces will accelerate the company's growth.
Faced with the huge opportunity of ESG, in fact, the “key variable” that companies should plan in advance is talent. It can bring excellent technologies and products, and also allow companies to perform better on ESG. This is what management guru Drucker said:
A business has only one real resource, people.
Take Weishi Energy as an example. Whether it launches the "Jupiter" vehicle-mounted liquid hydrogen storage system or the vehicle-grade "Hydrogen Technology" full-scenario solution, these technologies and products require talent to support them, making them more Implement ESG goals well.
The "Report" shows that Weishi Energy has established a large-scale and international R&D team since its establishment, bringing together senior foreign experts and industry experts from Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea.
Weishi Energy currently has nearly 450 R&D personnel, including 30+ foreign experts, 20+ PhDs, and 160+ masters. It is the largest and highest-level fuel cell R&D team in the country, and has formed a national and even global fuel cell industry. Talent high ground.
If companies want to continue to seize ESG opportunities, in addition to attracting talents, they must also retain talents. The key to retaining talents lies in two points:
Are there enough attractive incentives? Is there room for continuous promotion?
After all, no one wants to stay where they are forever.
The "Report" pointed out that Weishi Energy has implemented a strong incentive talent strategy, including equity incentive plans and special incentive plans. For example, the company has established three partnership operating platforms to grant equity to employees, and the dynamic total amount of equity pool incentives is capped at 15% of the company's equity.
In addition, Weishi Energy has also clarified the correspondence between levels and formed a management framework of "four channels, seven directions, vertical ranks and horizontal positions".
This can ensure and encourage the healthy and orderly flow of internal talents. Employees can choose their promotion direction according to their own wishes and expertise, ensuring:
Everyone uses their talents to the best of their ability.
With strong talent strength, Weishi Energy's technology and product capabilities will also be improved, and it will perform better in the environment, society and corporate governance.
The wheel of history is always rolling forward. Many industries, including hydrogen energy, have already felt the approach of ESG. This will be a major change that will affect the whole society and test the sustainability of each enterprise.
Companies such as Weishi Energy have extended their tentacles to many areas of society and truly become a social enterprise, which will also help them get tickets to the future faster.