Social Value 99 | Business for Good will Become the Mainstream Consensus​

Business for Good will Become the Mainstream Consensus

2021 "Discovering China' Social Value 99'- A-share Listed Company Social Value Assessment"   

Promoting sustainable development requires putting concepts into actions such as ecological establishment and standard formulation. During the process, "quantification" by third-party evaluation institutions become a conducive force to measure the comprehensive ESG value of enterprises. China strives to achieve carbon emissions peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. This means that "carbon reduction" will be a heated task in the next 40 years.

Weihua MA pointed out in his opening speech that Social Value 99 (SV 99) has exceeded the return rate of CSI 300 index for six consecutive years, and it almost outperformed the return rate of all A-share capital market indexes. Such a comparison shows an obvious business trend in China's capital market. Therefore, implementing and promoting the concept of sustainable development and building a better human society should become enterprises' strategic choices.

Weihua MA, Member of the UNDP SDG Impact Steering Group, Executive Chairman of CASVI

Angela BAI, Founding Secretary-General of CASVI, and the Member of UNDP China SDGs Impact Financing Technology Advisory Committee, explained the "Blue Book" and the future sustainable development trends in detail:

Firstly, in the upcoming five years, all listed companies will consider a "Iron Triangle Factors" when implementing sustainable development practices, which is anti-epidemic, rural revitalization, and the dual carbon goal.

Secondly, the government, the market, and the public will form a joint force effect. On the one hand, the market will continuously orient towards profits. But on the other hand, national policy will continuously restrict heavy emission projects and economically subsidize green transformation projects. Driven by these two factors, we will see that some places have obvious first trial benefits. For example, Shenzhen and Chengdu are forming a cluster effect of politics, industry, finance, education, and society.

Thirdly, although the development performance of the top listed companies like "SV 99" continue to perform well, the mid-percentile companies are also catching up quickly.

Fourthly, from the capital market aspect, the proportion of sustainable development finance dominated by green credit, including green bonds, will increase sharply. At present, the proportion of green credit is still 7% - 9%, but it is expected to reach 30% within three years, and potentially exceed 40%.

Fifthly, we anticipate and hope that China can implement mandatory non-financial information disclosure of listed companies as soon as possible since transparency is the most important driving force to promote sustainable development.

Sixthly, China will accelerate the building of data infrastructure for sustainable development. The cost of independent infrastructure construction for any enterprise is very high, therefore, companies with core data competence will emerge. Sustainable development practices will continue to popularize when the ESG value is valued and the related products become practical. New leaders in sustainable development value evaluation will emerge in China.

Angela BAI, Founding Secretary-General of CASVI, Member of UNDP China SDGs Impact Financing Technology Advisory Committee

Li CUI, the Chief Development Officer of ZTE, on behalf of the "Social Value 99" enterprise, shared some sustainable practices of ZTE. Ms. CUI said, " carbon neutrality has become a widespread value and the goal of the world." When it comes to the goal of energy conservation and emission reduction in the whole industry, Ms. CUI believes digital technology can accelerate the progress of achieving the goal. As a path builder of the digital economy, ZTE uses scientific and technological innovation to layout a robust sustainable foundation for the industry. ZTE helps to achieve the dual carbon goal in four areas: green enterprise operation, green supply chain, green digital base, and green industry empowerment. In the future, ZTE will also continue to conduct research on sustainable energy, materials, and devices. In doing so, the industry can achieve breakthroughs in key technologies, increase the depth and breadth of integration of digital technology and sustainable development goals, and finally contribute to carbon neutralization.

Li CUI, the Chief Development Officer of ZTE

About "Social Value 99"

The 2021 "Blue Book" is researched and compiled by CASVI. Baed on the past three-years of experience, the new edition optimizes the research methods and technical routes, forming positive guidance for "Capital for Good and Value Creation." CASVI selects listed companies from CSI 300, comprehensively evaluates their performance in the ESG field, and rank the top 99 companies who exemplify a high value in ESG field. As the first authoritative research report focusing on the value evaluation of enterprise sustainable development in China, this series of "Blue Books" have won the special award of the 8th China Soft Science Award in July 2021.

The 2021 Blue Book consists of five parts: General Report, Industry Report, Selected Topics, ESG Technology, and the Appendix. It looks into the performance changes of "SV 99," analyzes the external effects of top listed companies, and identifies the path market forces in the process of practicing sustainable development. In the Blue Book, the general report describes the list and rating criteria, group portrait, and distribution characteristics of "SV 99." In the "Insight" part, the general report expounds on the relationship between "SV 99" and the national economy, social welfare, environmental protection, governance structure, and information disclosure. In the "Foresight" part, the general report reflects on the current system crisis and forecasts the nine driving forces of sustainable development.   

Compared with the traditional evaluation method that biases towards financial indicators, the Blue Book comprehensively evaluates the sustainable development contribution and comprehensive value of listed companies from the three dimensions of value creation driving force, innovation force, and transformation force. These dimensions formulated more than a hundred indexes, and they also evaluate whether these companies have adapted to the "business for good" trend, which   strengthens the evaluation of corporate social responsibility.

In Mr. MA's view, sustainable development has become the trend of the times, and the commercial value that considering both wellfare and benefit will be the tide of the times. In the future, the economic performance, social value, and environmental effects created by enterprises will all be incorporated into the value cycle system to achieve business for good. Besides, through the evaluation of the sustainable development value, we can find the consistence of those great enterprises: not only can they provide good products and services, but also make the world a better place.