Our reporter Cui Shuang
On July 27th, the world’s first report, the “Corporate Carbon Neutrality Roadmap” (hereinafter referred to as the report) issued by the United Nations agency to comprehensively guide enterprises to achieve carbon neutrality, was officially released by the United Nations Representative Office in China.
The report provides in-depth analysis of the 6 infrastructure industries with the most emissions-intensive energy use: transportation, agri-food, industrial manufacturing, construction, digital information, and financial services. It also includes 55 companies from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. With advanced practice, 13 Chinese companies including China Development Bank, Baowu Steel, Baidu, Lenovo, and Huawei were selected.
Setting a “carbon neutral” goal and realizing a just zero-carbon future is an important issue that requires decisive actions from countries and regions.
The report emphasizes that on the road to zero carbon, the participation of companies is essential.
Use digitization to drive low carbon
Carbon inventory and scientific carbon target setting are a good start for companies to save energy and reduce emissions.
The report pointed out that the carbon emissions generated by technology companies mainly come from the carbon footprint of their products and equipment, including raw materials, manufacturing, inbound and outbound transportation, sales, user use, and product and equipment recycling.
In this process, the collection of raw data is essential for carbon emission audit and monitoring.
It is worth noting that the selected Chinese companies are mostly affirmed in the use of digital technology.
According to the carbon reduction case of Yili, one of the top five in the global dairy industry and No. 1 in Asia, the carbon inventory audit is very time-consuming and requires highly detailed and complete data. The company needs to develop a complete IT system to standardize and standardize the collection of raw data. Automation, reduce manual workload, and improve the accuracy of interrogation.
The report mentioned that Yili's carbon inventory was so detailed that it even included small facilities such as fire extinguishers and switches.
"Checking and allocating carbon emissions from different activities is very complicated, especially for companies that operate across regions and fields. Digital tools such as energy management systems can help evaluate and track such activities," the report said.
Take Lenovo's manufacturing industry as an example. In 2017, it used low-temperature solder paste (LTS) manufacturing technology in its PC manufacturing business. This process can reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of the printed circuit board assembly process by 35%.
Through the digitization and intelligence of itself and the supply chain, achieve green and low-carbon.
Data center "to be green and efficient"
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Three-year Action Plan for the Development of New Data Centers (2021-2023)", proposing that within three years, a new type of reasonable layout, advanced technology, green and low-carbon, and computing power scale compatible with the growth of the digital economy will be basically formed. Data center development pattern.
Emphasize on accelerating the application of advanced green technology products, continuously improving the level of efficient and clean energy utilization, and optimizing green management capabilities.
The data center is recognized as a "big carbon emitter".
The report pointed out that the largest carbon emissions of Internet companies come from data centers.
Building a green data center is an inevitable requirement. According to the report, Huawei has reduced the energy efficiency of its data center to 1.2 by using advanced technologies such as modular uninterruptible power supply solutions and indirect evaporative cooling technology, avoiding a large amount of carbon emissions. .
Lenovo's ThinkSystem SD650 high-density server, launched in 2018, uses a direct water-cooled design. Through warm water and liquid cooling, it can achieve 85%-90% heat recovery and reduce energy consumption by 30%-50%.
The company built the country's first warm-water-cooled high-performance computing platform using 45°C warm-water-cooling technology a few years ago. Its power usage efficiency (PUE) value is only 1.1, which provides a powerful guarantee for the scientific research and innovation of Peking University.
Guide the industry to take responsibility for emission reduction
The report mentioned that Huawei used more than 400,000 pieces of green packaging in 2019, saved more than 90,000 cubic meters of wood, and established an e-waste management system around the world; Lenovo’s packaging R&D team used bamboo pulp and other plant-based fibers to pass The hot press molding process replaces the traditional plastic cushioning. Using this new type of bamboo pulp fiber as packaging cushioning is light in weight, small in size, smooth and delicate in surface, which can reduce packaging volume and transportation carbon emissions.
The financial services industry also plays a radiating role in carbon emission reduction.
In March of this year, the China Development Bank issued its first 3-year 20 billion "carbon neutral" green bond in Beijing to global investors, with a coupon rate of 3.07%. The funds raised will be used for wind power, photovoltaic and other carbon emission reduction projects , In order to effectively promote the decarbonization of the power system and help realize the transition of the energy system.
The report pointed out that achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality requires extensive, in-depth and systematic changes in the entire economy and society.