Firms share tips on sustainability and innovation
The event includes keynote speeches and communications among award-winning enterprises, media and the government.
Multinational companies exchanged their experiences on innovation, sustainability and corporate social responsibility at the “Innovation and Sustainability” 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility Forum held by Shanghai Daily yesterday.
The event aims to showcase various initiatives and cases of enterprises’ innovation and sustainable development, and contribute to the sustainable and healthy development of the city’s economy and society.
A total of 30 companies were given the honor of Honored Partner of the 20th Anniversary of Shanghai Daily, including UFI Filters Group, 3M China, Bayer, JP Morgan China, Merck and Sabic.
Twelve companies won Excellence Awards for Innovation 2019, including Corning, the State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company and LANXESS.
Excellence Awards for Sustainability were given to 21 companies, including Covestro, Bright Dairy and Dow.
Innovation awards are selected based on the city’s favorable investment environment factors (including policy, talent, market, capital, etc) in the construction of a “technological innovation center with global influence,” while taking into account the multinational enterprises’ actual development in Shanghai.
Sustainability awards are chosen on the basis of multinational enterprises’ contribution to the city’s green development.
Initiatives, methods, mechanisms and experiences of the award-winning companies will be shared among enterprises and promoted by media.
The forum showcases various initiatives and cases of enterprises’ innovation and sustainable development.
Wang Liming, director from the Corning Research Center China, shared his experience on driving innovation through research and development.
“Focusing on the most critical problems of the daily life and trying to find ways to solve them works in helping accelerating innovation,” Wang said.
In the eyes of Dr Wang, air pollution is a tough and urgent problem and therefore innovative air purification systems were invented.
Roy Lin, head of Covestro’s material science center, shared Covestro’s experience on driving sustainability in the chemical industry. Creating a closed-loop for carbon and turning waste material into feedstock for production are feasible solutions.
Luca Biagini, chief operating officer from UFI Filters Group shared his view on corporate social responsibility.
“Corporate social responsibility is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable — to itself, its stakeholders and the public,” he said.
Instead of setting a special time, Luca said, CSR should be treated as a daily mission, which means products should help the planet.
Yang Jing, chief of the International Communication Division and Service Development Division of Shanghai Information Office, said: “Shanghai Daily has been a bridge connecting the government and multinational companies. Through the forum, we get to know the latest innovation and sustainability achievements by enterprises.
“We also know that, besides striving for business success, they care about the society and help to tackle with difficult problems in the fields of low carbon, clean energy and healthcare.”
Twelve companies won Excellence Awards for Innovation 2019, and Excellence Awards for Sustainability were given to 21 companies.
