Answering the future with the present and deciphering the ESG practice code of consumer companies This salon gives the answer

What kind of chemical reaction will MOLLY, an IP celebrity in the hipster industry, produce when he meets the chicken of Ant Manor?

Recently, the cross-border cooperation between Bubble Mart and Ant Manor has become popular among young people, MOLLY little painters appear in Ant Manor, you can invite MOLLY to be a guest of Chicken Manor, you can also get "MOLLY Little Painter" costumes through tasks, this cooperation project has attracted nearly 10 million user attention and support, and has been internally evaluated as a phenomenal case of digital public welfare, this effect not only exceeded the expectations of the two teams, but also brought more inspiration to the future ESG practice of the two companies, bringing " Unintentional willow" surprise.

In the past two years, with the increasing severity of global climate change and environmental problems, environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors have become increasingly important in investment decisions. More and more consumer companies and investment institutions are focusing on ESG as an important way to drive business sustainability and achieve long-term value. This new green revolution is attracting industry-wide attention.

Salon Roundtable Dialogue: Sustainable Opportunities and Challenges for Chinese Consumer Enterprises Image source: Courtesy of the organizer

On October 19, a closed-door consumer ESG salon with the theme of "Invest in the future, answer the future with the present" hosted by Black Ant Capital and co-sponsored by Daily Economic News was held in Beijing. At the salon, He Yu, Founding and Managing Partner of Black Ant Capital, Lu Peng, Director of the Research Office of Sociology of Economics and Science and Technology, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Liu Linpeng, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Daily Economic News, had an in-depth discussion on the necessity and methodology of ESG of consumer enterprises from the perspectives of investors, academia and media.

The classic case of "cross-border cooperation between Bubble Mart and Ant Manor" also comes from the sharing of Bubble Mart at this closed-door salon. In addition, representatives of well-known consumer enterprises such as Bethany More, Catch Fish, and SmartAir also shared their innovations and thoughts on social value exploration at the meeting. Yufei Jiang, Program Director of B Corps China B Corps China, delivered a keynote speech entitled "7,000 Possibilities for Sustainable Business" at the sharing session, while revealing the commonalities and opportunities behind sustainable enterprises.

For consumer companies, ESG should not be a task, but a long-term sustainable concept. So, while practicing ESG to bring social value, how should enterprises integrate with their own business to obtain business value and sustainable development of ESG? And how to organically combine ESG with its own advantages to form a new core competitiveness?

The emergence of the ESG ecosystem deciphers the practice code of consumer enterprises

Since it was first proposed in 2004, ESG concepts have been expanding their connotation and extension over the past decade.

With the increasing attention of all walks of life, enterprises, investment institutions and policy makers have begun to realize that ESG is not only an investment concept, but also a manifestation of corporate social responsibility and a new business model. By integrating ESG factors into business and investment decisions, companies and investment institutions can better achieve sustainability and long-term value creation.

In the ESG ecosystem, how should enterprises, investment institutions, academia and media exert their respective values?

Lu Peng, Director of the Research Office of Sociology of Economics and Science and Technology, Institute of Sociology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Image source: Courtesy of the organizer

Lu Peng, director of the Research Office of Sociology of Economics and Science and Technology at the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that if an enterprise wants to realize social value, there are two issues that are very critical at the level of "Tao". The first is "the beauty of each other", that is, the realization of self-worth, which includes many companies' own experience of exploring environmental governance, thereby forming some new self-worth. The second is how the company's own ESG practices form synergistic values with other social organizations, and ultimately achieve the sustainable development of the entire ecosystem.

He Yu, Founding and Managing Partner of Black Ant Capital Image source: Courtesy of the organizer

He Yu, founding and managing partner of Black Ant Capital, said that consumption can be regarded as a very large ecology, which links all aspects of the whole society. When it comes to the social value of the consumer field, consumer enterprises play a great role in this dimension, and will also play a great creative role, consumer enterprises should be able to play a very important role in ESG practice, bringing positive impact to both upstream and downstream.

"In the future, social value will become an important part of building business value and forming the core competitiveness of the brand, which is very important and needs to be recognized by enterprises more." With social progress, the increase of income, the user's knowledge cognition, the richness of his spiritual world, consumption is not only material consumption, it carries an important carrier of countless users who want to experience the world, their wishes, and their lifestyle, and social value itself is a theme that users need to realize their personal value. He Yu shared at the meeting.

However, He Yu also mentioned that there has been no specific content such as practices, standards or cases for Chinese consumer enterprises to practice ESG. Black Ant Capital hopes to serve as an enterprise connector to continue to accumulate relevant knowledge and related resources in this industry, and exert a little power to promote the behavior of consumption and the behavior of enterprises to develop more in a sustainable direction.

Liu Linpeng, deputy editor-in-chief of Daily Economic News Image source: Photo provided by the organizer

Liu Linpeng, deputy editor-in-chief of Daily Economic News, said that as an institution that connects all sectors of the corporate, academic and investment industries, and faces the public, the role of the media in ESG communication and consumer education is also irreplaceable.

First, the media itself has communication value and can help enterprises tell ESG stories well. Liu Linpeng said that many companies have done a lot of ESG practices, but they are often fragmented in the process of promotion, and the pace needs to be improved. How to help companies tell ESG stories well? The Daily Economic News launched the "China Action· ESG Communication Award" activity, hoping to find out some good cases of enterprises doing better in communication perspective through the professional communication ability of the media, so as to achieve the comprehensive promotion of ESG cases and concepts.

Second, from the practical experience of Daily Economic News, the media can build an ESG ecosystem. ESG is not only a corporate issue, it must involve the popularization of ESG concepts among consumers and the public in order to build a broader consensus. Specific to the consumer industry, it is closely related to everyone. "If everyone practices the concept of ESG throughout the consumption process, it will also push companies to do a better job in ESG." At the same time, the government, academic institutions, enterprises, and investment institutions are combined to build an ecology and form a benign promotion role, which is also what we are willing to promote and try. Liu Linpeng said.

He Yu also said that ESG should be a long-term work, but also a slowly accumulated work. Therefore, he hopes that Black Ant Capital can accumulate experience, knowledge and technology in the process of contacting enterprises and innovative projects by slowly accumulating, so that investment institutions can create more value in the process of corporate ESG practice.

On the same day, Black Ant Capital and the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released "New Challenges, New Values and New Futures: 2022 Research Report on the Social Value of Chinese Consumer Enterprises", which is also the first research report focusing on the social value practice of consumer enterprises in China.

Through research and visits throughout 2021~2022, Black Ant Capital and the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have in-depth observed 166 representative consumer enterprises (including 107 listed companies). Through the analysis of social value of 166 consumer enterprises, the report pointed out that at present, consumer enterprises have experienced a "triple differentiation" of head-to-tail differentiation, industry differentiation and interest differentiation in social value creation, and emerging enterprises have made a lot of innovation and contributions in social value creation. However, if consumer enterprises want to move towards a "century-old business" in the future, they also need to grasp the three keywords of "agility, stability, and common benefit".

Sample of consumer enterprises: social and business value brought by ESG

In addition to the support of academia, media and investment institutions, ESG is not only a responsibility, but also an opportunity for consumer companies. Under the global consensus of low-carbon environmental protection, if enterprises can make positive contributions to environmental protection, they can not only protect the environment, but also improve the reputation and attractiveness of enterprises.

Chen Xiaoyun, Chief Sustainability Officer of Bubble Mart International Group, keynote speech Image source: Courtesy of the organizer

At the closed-door salon, Chen Xiaoyun, Chief Sustainability Officer of Bubble Mart International Group, used the ESG practice story of Bubble Mart to inspire and think more about enterprises and institutions on the scene.

Chen Xiaoyun said that in recent years, Bubble Mart has mainly focused on several sectors in ESG practice, on the one hand, it is good at the field, that is, in the dissemination of aesthetic education and aesthetic education assistance, and at the same time has made new attempts in environmental protection, including public welfare innovation, recycled materials, and energy-saving and new energy in logistics, to minimize carbon emissions, and achieve carbon neutrality through the purchase of carbon sink projects, and finally passed the audit and certification of the third-party organization China Quality Certification Center CQC. and released the industry's first carbon-neutral tide play DIMOO Mengxin Beaver figure.

Zhong Wei, assistant to the chairman and director of public affairs of Bethany Group, delivered a keynote speech Image source: Courtesy of the organizer

The domestic skin care brand Bethany combines skin care with plant protection and skin health science popularization and other public welfare activities through its own characteristics. In 2013, only three years after its establishment, Bethany opened a road of public skin care: launched the National Skin Care Day activity, close scientific knowledge with consumers, and answered the problem of sensitive skin care, at the same time, Bethany made full use of its professional knowledge in the field of health and its dominant position in the industrial chain, made efforts to ecological protection and health science, constantly discovered and entered those unseen places, and used knowledge, products and industrial resources to change a region or a group of people more profoundly. For example, in the "Hope Bath" project, Bethenny built bathhouses to schools in remote areas, and improved the lives of rural students through changes in bathing methods and the transfer of physiological hygiene knowledge, benefiting more than 15 schools for three consecutive years.

Keynote speech by Jiang Yufei, Program Director of B Corps China B Corps China Image source: Courtesy of the organizer

Jiang Yufei, project director of B Corps China B Corps China, said that in the past two years, we can see that traditional business has also brought some problems in the process of development, whether it is for the environmental crisis and the loss of biodiversity, more people have begun to think about how stakeholders related to enterprises can achieve win-win growth under a new business model, and the judgment criteria for the success of enterprises have also changed from a one-way dimension to a more three-dimensional new triple bottom line, that is, profit, people, and the earth. Is it possible for these three to achieve a balanced sustainable development?

"This also puts a higher demand on entrepreneurial leaders, who need to have a systems thinking to see all our stakeholders, think about their needs, and how they can meet their needs and bring about long-term development." Jiang Yufei said.

Create long-term value How can ESG become the core competitiveness of enterprises?

There is no doubt that the ESG revolution is attracting industry-wide attention. Enterprises, investment institutions and policy makers are beginning to realize that ESG is not only the embodiment of corporate social responsibility, but also a new business model and investment philosophy.

In the future competition and development, how should consumer enterprises better practice ESG, and how can ESG become the core competitiveness of an enterprise, bringing more opportunities and innovation possibilities to the main business of the enterprise?

Wei Ying, founder of Multicatch Fish, said in the sharing that taking circular goods as an example, the launch of circular goods should not only consider the production process, but also consider whether circular goods are products with real market competitiveness. Circular goods must be good, good and obvious, in order to truly become a consumer trend, rather than hoping that moral enlightenment will make consumers pay for redundant and poor quality or extremely expensive circular goods. The circular business model itself is sustainable, and the sustainable development of nature and society can only be achieved.

This means that ESG should not only be superficial, but also deeply rooted in the DNA of a company, combined with the core business of the company, to bring more long-term value to the society. Looking to the future, how should a consumer company explore sustainability more deeply? In this regard, Lv Peng gave methodological suggestions.

The first suggestion is "mission-driven, unintentional". These two words seem contradictory, but in fact the best state for consumer companies to practice ESG concepts, for consumer companies, ESG practice should start from the company's mission, that is, "why do this?" "What's the point of starting this company?" Mission-driven is an essential element of ESG practice.

"'Unintentional willow insertion' means that companies should not always think that I will definitely be able to design particularly good social responsibility projects, many good projects are unintentionally inserted willows, such as ant forest and other projects, but suddenly you will find that this project may bring unexpected effects." Lu Peng said. However, to achieve this effect, it also involves the technical level of the enterprise, the volunteer system, cultural construction, employee KPI design, etc., and the company needs to give employees more space in these dimensions to explore projects that do not seem so "profitable".

The second recommendation is "public welfare first, business follow-up". "When you can't figure out if you can make money doing it, but you think it makes sense, you might as well do it as a public good." When this public welfare is achieved to a certain extent, you may suddenly realize that it has great value and business model one day, and you will go smoothly on this road. Otherwise, you are particularly stressed and have to think all day about how I can offset this cost. Lu Peng said.

Third, give full play to our advantages, and share the United States with the United States. Any social value innovation must give full play to the company's business advantages and technical advantages. At the same time, we must find more business partners and benefit partners to do this together.

"In a way, I think doing corporate social value is a particularly good opportunity to reintegrate your business model, supply chain and organizational model. I sometimes think of corporate social value restructuring as a knife for your company, which can help you reorganize the relationship that you had no way to reorganize, and ultimately achieve the optimization of the business model. Lu Peng said.

In general, ESG has become the focus of consumer companies and investment institutions. This new green revolution not only helps promote global sustainable development and address the challenges of climate change, but also provides new opportunities and development space for consumer enterprises and investors. By integrating ESG factors into business and investment decisions, companies and investment institutions can better achieve sustainability and long-term value creation. At the same time, governments, enterprises and investors also need to work together to promote the further development of ESG and lay a solid foundation for building a sustainable future.

Cover image source: Visual China-VCG111347969476