What "green opportunities" can you see from here?, The First Carbon Expo Comes to an End | Enterprises | Opportunities
On June 14th, the first International Carbon Neutrality Expo came to an end in Shanghai. This year's Carbon Expo invited nearly 600 enterprises from 15 countries and regions to participate. Each enterprise organized 453 supporting activities such as new product launches and cooperation signing ceremonies on the booth, achieving 173 one-on-one trade matches and receiving over 80000 visitors. Many exhibitors of the Carbon Expo have expressed that the exhibition is very popular, and their willingness to cooperate and purchase exceeds expectations.
The busyness of exhibitors reflects the increasing demand for low-carbon transformation in economic development. From this year's Carbon Expo, it can be seen that this demand is no longer entirely led by the government. When the low-carbon concept of the market reaches consensus, new business growth points are formed, and new green industries are emerging. Under the green wave, enterprises can only seize the opportunity for high-quality development transformation by seizing the anchor point of low-carbon development.
The new economy is on the rise
At this year's Shanghai Carbon Expo, carbon footprint management companies have become the most popular consulting targets.
"This exhibition is definitely beyond expectations. We originally only sent four colleagues over, but now we can't receive them at all. Some people came to the booth and walked away, and we haven't had time to talk yet." Pi Xuanming, the head of the East China business of Carbon Barrier Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters while sending business cards to customers. At 3 pm, all the business cards brought by Pi Xuanming were sent out.
Pi Xuanming works for Carbon Barrier, a company focused on carbon footprint management, founded in 2011. In recent years, with the increasing demand for carbon accounting in the market, the business of carbon footprint has continued to expand. In 2021 and 2022, it has successively obtained investments from Hillhouse, Jingwei Venture Capital, Sequoia Capital, and completed Series B financing.
To achieve carbon neutrality, enterprises must first clarify how much carbon dioxide they have emitted. This work has a certain degree of professionalism and is not within the traditional business scope of the enterprise, which brings new business opportunities to the market. Pi Xuanming introduced that Carbon Resistance started with carbon data calculation, but due to increasingly diverse customer needs, it has now formed a full process carbon management consulting service for enterprises to achieve carbon neutrality goals, and is expanding its business in the East China region.
A carbon data management company is surrounded by visitors
At the Carbon Expo, those who came to discuss cooperation with Pi Xuanming included downstream companies that needed to outsource carbon accounting and management work, as well as peer companies that were more focused on technological carbon reduction and could serve as their suppliers. From this perspective, carbon management and consulting companies have become intermediaries connecting the upstream and downstream of low-carbon technology enterprises, forming a new track for green industries, and thus receiving a lot of attention at this year's Carbon Expo.
This year's Carbon Expo has attracted many green service enterprises of this kind. Some enterprises are similar to carbon footprint, and they are transformed from data companies that started cloud computing. Many founders of enterprises have Internet "big factory" background; Some companies were originally engaged in quality testing services, such as Intertek, the first third-party foreign-funded testing agency to enter the Chinese market. Riding the wave of green economy, they are gradually transitioning towards low-carbon solution businesses; Some companies belong to the consulting industry, such as the traditional "Big Four" accounting firms, which are gradually exploring new consulting services in the ESG wave.
Intertek showcased to reporters its developed carbon management system, "Detective Carbon ICD," where user companies can automatically calculate preliminary carbon emissions values by filling in production data.
Low carbon is changing business logic
The rise of the green service industry and the increasing demand for low-carbon transformation in the industry are inevitably related to government guidance and national strategies. But at this year's Carbon Expo, more and more companies have also begun to talk about the economic value of green transformation.
"Chinese enterprises are currently doing two things for high-quality development. One is to go global and consider low-carbon 'compliance' when selling to European and American markets. The other is differentiation, as not doing brand differentiation can easily lead to a vicious cycle of low price competition. ESG will provide new potential value for brand differentiation," said Zhong Xiaoyang, Managing Partner of ESG Sustainable Strategy and Operations at PwC China.
A report released by PwC at the Carbon Expo shows that with the awakening of sustainability awareness, Chinese consumers are willing to pay a premium of up to 20% for ESG products and services that are trustworthy and in line with their own value proposition, higher than the global average.
"Premium is the commercial value. To make consumers accept a premium, the prerequisite is to make them have a sense of identification with the brand or product." Zhong Xiaoyang believes that for enterprises, low-carbon transformation is more of a medium-term strategic plan, and may not necessarily see immediate returns, but it is an important business growth opportunity for future development. Enterprises need to actively embrace change, respond to industry disruption, and actively try business model innovation.
The market is the key to promoting low-carbon economic transformation. Mobilizing the enthusiasm of enterprises for sustainable development cannot rely solely on government guidance and entrepreneurial sentiment, but also on market promotion. Only by enabling enterprises to discover business opportunities through transformation can sustainable development become more sustainable.
Improving the efficiency of market resource allocation, green finance is also making efforts. In the context of a downward trend in global demand, the ESG concept is expected to give birth to new growth points in the global economy, and the ESG investment concept is becoming a consensus in the field of financial investment. On the contrary, the capital market is also a "booster" and "catalyst" for low-carbon development, which helps to form a virtuous cycle of "technology industry finance".
At present, Shanghai is promoting the construction of an international green finance center. Multiple banks have participated in this year's Carbon Expo and released the latest green finance products. Liu Jun, Chairman of the Lujiazui Financial City Council and President of the Bank of Communications, stated at the Green Finance Parallel Forum of the Carbon Expo that Shanghai is currently exploring the development of a transformation finance catalog with local characteristics. Bank of Communications and other banks will participate in the formulation of relevant standards and continue to provide supporting financial services for carbon reduction and transformation activities.
