It's a wrap! More than a Market Forum and Awards Gala 2021!
IT'S A WRAP!
For the sixth time the German Chamber of Commerce in China and the German diplomatic missions hosted the CSR initiative's highlight event, the More than a Market Forum and Awards Gala - this time, under the umbrella of "Sustainable Mindsets for Sustainable Business" on 16 September 2021 in Shanghai.
With over 20 partners and more than 200 guests both events were a great success!
The Awards Gala
At the More than a Market Awards Gala, once again, an independent jury was honoring exceptional CSR projects by German companies in China with awards in five different categories. This year, we are awarding outstanding examples in the areas of:
"Education"
"Environmental Protection"
"Diversity & Inclusion"
"Sustainable Supply Chains"
"Jury Selection" - a mix of CSR projects!
The Awards Gala was moderated by Brigitte Wolff, President at EIM Executive Interim Management China and Dr. Sigrid Winkler, Executive Chamber Manager at the German Chamber of Commerce in China | Shanghai, with opening remarks by Maximilian Butek, Executive Director at the German Chamber of Commerce in China | Shanghai.
We were extremely honored to welcome Pit Heltmann, the new Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Shanghai who highlighted the importance for companies to include CSR into daily business.
At glance at this year's winning projects:
In the Awards Category "Education" Covestro China received an award for their project "Covestro MagicMaterial School." The award was presented by Pit Heltmann, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Shanghai.
About the project:
Covestro China leveraged its technology and material expertise to create a Covestro science classroom in the Zhelin School, a local elementary and high school located in the Fengxian district, Shanghai for children of migrant workers ranging from six to sixteen years old. So far, the "MagicMaterial School" has reached 6,000 students and 10,000 people.
Read more about the project!
Congratulations to all nominees!
· Porsche (China) Motors Limited - "Porsche Art Healing Project"
· Crossboundaries - "Design Thinking Studio"
. Covestro China - "Covestro MagicMaterial School"
· LANXESS Chemical (China) Co., Ltd. - "Clean Water for Better Life"
In the Awards Category "Environmental Protection" Trolli Guangzhou Confectionery Co., Ltd. was honored for their "Waste Water Treatment Plant(WWTP)Upgrading Project." The award was presented by Callen Fang, Deputy CEO of Legal Center for NGO.
About the project:
Trolli Guangzhou Confectionery has worked closely with its partner vendors to upgrade wastewater treatment processes and enhance the processing capacity by installing new, high-efficiency equipment. As a result, the company has increased its capacity of wastewater treatment from 2.25 tons COD per day to 9.5 tons COD per day and is exploring new energy-saving solutions to achieve the ultimate goal: zero waste.
Read more about the project!
Congratulations to all nominees!
· Lautsprecher Teufel GmbH - "30 Green Days"
· Continental Tires (China) Co., Ltd. - "Green Plant_Air Treatment with Innovative Technology RTO & Cold Plasma"
· Trolli Guangzhou Confectionery Co., Ltd. - "Waste Water Treatment Plant(WWTP)Upgrading Project"
· Bosch Automotive Aftermarket (China) Co., Ltd. - "Bosch Nanjing Photovoltaic (PV) Project"
In the Awards Category "Diversity & Inclusion" Bosch Automotive Products (Suzhou) Co., Ltd was awarded for their outstanding efforts in the company's project "Hand in Hand-Caring Children with Autism." The award was presented by Oliver Ye Yang, Trustee at Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation.
About the project:
Bosch Automotive Products partnered with Sunflower; an organization dedicated to supporting children with autism. Bosch supports Sunflower by providing financial assistance, organizational skills and, training opportunities for the organization's teachers. In the past four years, Bosch Suzhou has successfully held 235 events, involving more than 1,000 volunteers and 839 direct beneficiaries.
Read more about the project!
Congratulations to all nominees!
· Würth (China) Holding Co., Ltd. - "Christmas Wish List"
· Bosch Automotive Products (Suzhou) Co.,Ltd.- "Hand in Hand-Caring Children with Autism"
· Linde (China) Investment Co., Ltd. - " 'Women Elite Engineer Club' Program"
· Henkel (China) Investment Co., Ltd. - "Diversity Talk Series"
In the Awards Category "Sustainable Supply Chains" the jury honored BRUGGER Magnetsysteme GmbH and its "Increasing Sustainability in Magnet Supply Chains" project. The award was presented by Richard Zhang, CEO at Kern-Liebers Taicang and Board Member of the German Chamber of Commerce in China | Shanghai.
About the project:
BRUGGER Magnetsysteme decided to focus on the risks associated with rare earths because it was concerned about the consequences of its sourcing activities in China. In 2014, it launched a project to increase sustainability in magnet supply chains. The project team carried out initial audits and a comprehensive upstream supply-chain study and organized training sessions in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Read more about the project!
Congratulations to all nominees!
· BRUGGER GmbH Magnetsysteme - "Increasing Sustainability in Magnet Supply Chains"
· Volkswagen Automatic Transmission (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. - "Business Partner Compliance Management"
· Siemens China - "Siemens SCM China Leads the Way in Building a Sustainable Supply Chain"
In this year's Special Category "Jury Selection" ALDI CHINA has been selected for its "Cooperation with Food Bank to Avoid Food Waste." The award was presented by Rolf Koehler, Principal at Koehler & Co and the German Chamber's Honary Member and one of the founders of the More than a Market initiative.
About the project:
ALDI CHINA officially launched a partnership with Green Food Bank to reduce food waste and give back to the community. The project first started in the company's warehouse on Tmall, where ALDI CHINA sorted food items close to their expiry date and donated them to the food bank. Through Green Food Bank's distribution network in Shanghai, these food items were distributed to families in need, closing the gap between food surplus and food shortage.
Read more about the project!
Congratulations to all nominees!
· Borussia Dortmund China - "Black & Yellow in Hubei Province"
· GSN Electronics (Shenzhen) Ltd - "The See Your Child Program"
· ERGO (China) Management Company Limited - "Access to Healthcare - ERGO Healthy Days"
· ALDI (China) Investment Co., Ltd - "Cooperation with Food Bank to Avoid Food Waste"
Congratulations to all winners and further 69 submitted projects!
All projects can be found in the More than a Market 2021 publication on www.morethanamarket.cn
"Sustainability is not a 'nice to have' anymore, but doing business sustainably is quickly becoming a license to operate for manufacturing companies - and the More than a Market initiative is highlighting this importance!"
Ulf Dressler, Head of Corporate Communications, LANXESS APAC, at LANXESS Chemical (China) Co., Ltd.
Some snaps from our CSR ambassadors:
Gold Partner Panel
During the Awards Gala, our More than a Market Gold Partners 2021 had the chance to introduce their biggest CSR and Sustainability milestones as well as give a lookout on the way ahead.
Special thanks goes to Ling Tianxu, Vice President, Integrity & Compliance, Volkswagen (China) Investment Ltd., Ulf Dressler, Head of Corporate Communications, LANXESS APAC, LANXESS Chemical (China) Co., Ltd, Beijue Tang, Head of Legal & Tax, Wuerth Group Asia, Phipps Xue, Director, Strategic Partnership and Innovation, SAP Labs China and Covey Wang, Head of Environment, Safety and Health, Continental Tires (China) Co., Ltd.
The Forum
During the More than a Market Forum participants were benefitting from a wide range of CSR-related workshops as well as high-level panel discussions and keynotes. On top of that, guests were networking with NGOs and further social enterprises during our Social Market.
The Forum kicked off by the moderators Dr. Sigrid Winkler, Executive Chamber Manager at German Chamber of Commerce in China | Shanghai and Oliver Ye Yang, Jury Member of More than a Market and Trustee of the Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Foundation, with greetings by Maximilian Butek, Executive Director at the German Chamber of Commerce in China | Shanghai and Richard Cuntz, Head of Science & Technology; Economic Affairs at Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Shanghai.
The Forum continued with a keynote by Zhang Yifei, Secretary General at Fosun Foundation. He shared Fosun's approach and engagement in CSR and gave insights on the way ahead of CSR in China.
"I loved the format of the afternoon within the More than a Market Forum - such informative and stimulating workshops! Great speakers and overall, a very lively conference! A really worthwhile afternoon!"
Simon Aliband, Founder and CEO of Keystone (Shanghai) Business Consulting Co., Ltd.
About the Workshops
Workshop 1:
"Why Diversity and Inclusion Needs To Be a Top Priority for SMEs"
In partnership with our Think Tank Partner, D&I Consulting
In this workshop, Charlene Liu and Ivy Wong, both Executive Directors at D&I Consulting defined what D&I means by breaking down the terms diversity and understanding inclusion. During this interactive session, participants learnt to understand and articulate why diversity and inclusion matters to business and how to take steps to establish a diverse and inclusive business culture.
The workshop concluded with a Fireside Chat and Q&A with Sebastien Denes, VP & Head of Mission Control Center APJ/GC at SAP Greater China.
Workshop 2:
"残障包容的双赢价值" ("The Win-win of Disability Inclusion")
In partnership with our Think Tank Partner, Taicang Inclusion Factory
Wang Li, Program Development Manager at Taicang Inclusion Factory shared why employing people with disabilities makes good business sense for private companies as well as how the power of a large company can help to promote inclusion. Catherine Wu, HR Manager at Brose China introduced how Brose is integrating inclusion in their business strategy. Zhao Hongcheng, freelancer blogger,shared her experience of working, traveling and growing up in a wheelchair and her work as a full-time blogger in which she is dedicated to helping people with disabilities to better integrate into society. Fu Gaoshan, Founder and Partner of Youren Foundation and One Plus One Group for Disability, shared the seven systemic challenges in diversity and inclusion employment and the eight concerns of employers when it comes to hiring people with disabilities. He also introduced the experience of Youren Foundation in developing data annotator positions for Chinese internet companies.
Workshop 3:
"Inspiring & Empowering Your Employees on Sustainability"
In partnership with our Think Tank Partner, Collective Responsibility
In this workshop, Richard Brubaker, Managing Director of Collective Responsibility shared the key issues and mega trends for CSR and sustainability in China so that participants were able to understand the core elements for developing a China-centric CSR or sustainability strategy. In interactive sessions, participants were gaining insights into how to effectively educate and empower their teams and also identified CSR and sustainability initiatives that they can implement in their company of all sizes.
Workshop 4:
"Make Environmental Protection Your Competitive Advantage"
In partnership with our Think Tank Partners, Konrad-Adenauer Stiftung Shanghai Representative Office and Business Ecology
During this workshop, hosted by Chengzhan Zhuang, Program Manager at Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Shanghai Representative Office and Sun Haiyan, Co-Founder and Chief Editor of Business Ecology invited speakers from various industries to share their sustainability strategy and introduce projects that reduce the company's environmental footprint. Among the best practice sharinig sessions were Ketin Lei, Corporate Affairs General Manager and the Special Assistant for Group Executive Board Member's China Affairs at Beiersdorf China, Covey Wang, Head of ESH at Continental Tires (China) Co., Ltd., Chunlei Liu, Founder of Shanghai Minhang District Qingyue Environmental Information Technology Service Center and Hanna Zhao, Manager of Sustainable Development Department, Energy Officer, Engineer at Zhejiang Weixing Industrial Development Co., Ltd (SAB Group)
The Panel
In the high-level panel on "The Supply Chain of CO2 Emissions - Best Practices and Long-Term Solutions" representatives from German companies were discussing what their company's overall approach for reducing CO2 emissions is, and how they are planning to further decarbonize their supply chains. Among the panelists were Bradley Morrison, Senior Vice President of Operations & Site Management at Greater China, BASF, Michael Haendel, Corporate SCM Head China and Asia-Australia at Siemens China and Zixi Zheng, CEO of SupplyOn Asia-Pacific. The panel was moderated by Jens Hildebrandt, Executive Director and Board Member of German Chamber of Commerce in China | North China.
Thank you to our Partners!
The More than a Market initiative relies on valuable partnerships of all kinds.
Thank you to everyone who supports us!
Contact us
For more information about CSR initiative More than a Market, please contact:
Veronika Glauberman
Manager for Social Responsibility
German Chamber of Commerce in China | Shanghai
Glauberman.veronika@china.Ahk.de
