Recently, the Enterprise Case Study Group of Institute for Global Sustainable Goal, Tsinghua University (TUSDG), together with domestic and international industry experts, conducted an in-depth investigation and research on the sustainable development of the Yili Group, a Chinese enterprise, and the following is the summary of the group's results.
Case Study of Chinese Enterprises Promoting Global Sustainable Development: 'Yili Group' Study Tour
Yili Group aims to survive and develop for the benefit of all, and its corporate responsibility stems from this. Since the world adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, Yili Group has been actively implementing the Sustainable Development Agenda actions and pursuing the dual goals of corporate development and civic responsibility. Recently, the Corporate Case Study Group of the TUSDG, together with other domestic experts in the field of sustainable development, heads of corporate sustainability departments, and founders of public welfare organisations, conducted a research and inspection of Yili Group's sustainable development work.
I. Activate the Long-board advantages and build a sustainable enterprise
Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd (Yili Group) was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in March 1996. 2008 and 2010, Yili provided services for the Beijing Olympic Games and the Shanghai World Expo, respectively, and on 30 August 2017, Yili Group became the official and sole dairy partner of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the same year, Yili was recognised by the relevant UN agencies for its commitment to the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its commitment to nine of the SDGs, which guides the company's development. Yili Group has remained in the top position in the global dairy industry for many years, and has secured the top position in the Asian dairy industry. Yili's proposal of 'Activating Long-board Advantage' refers to the fact that in the process of global cooperation, an enterprise should, on the one hand, look for the best partners in its own industry, integrate resources, and coexist and co-prosperity. On the other hand, it is also necessary to converge with the leaders in different industries to achieve the evolution of the business ecosystem.
II. Innovations in institutional mechanisms for sustainable business development
(i) WISH system. On the one hand, in accordance with the Yili Law of 'Balance First, Responsibility First', Yili Group has continuously upgraded and established the WISH system on the basis of its earlier social responsibility system, which incorporates nine elements such as zero hunger, climate action, and responsible consumption and production, and guides the company's production and operation activities; on the other hand, Yili Group insists on publishing social responsibility reports and biodiversity reports to take stock and consolidate responsibilities, and implement sustainable development goals through strategic and institutionalised means. On the other hand, the company insists on publishing social responsibility reports and biodiversity reports to take stock of and consolidate responsibilities, implement sustainable development goals by strategic and institutionalised means, and guide and achieve responsible consumption and production.
(ii) Commission on Sustainable Development. Yili leads by example in practice, building the Yili Sustainable Development Committee in 2017 to better promote the integration of sustainable development and business operations at the level of institutional innovation. On the other hand, Yili Group is committed to promoting the knowledge of sustainable development and biodiversity protection to the society, and continuously consolidates the connection between the enterprise and sustainable development through industry chain management for partners, public welfare activities for consumers, and education programmes for primary and secondary school students, especially in the areas of carbon emission reduction, climate change response, nutritional improvement and sustainable agriculture, so as to expand the corporate image and the communication effect of the sustainable development goals. We will continue to solidify the connection between the company and sustainable development, especially in reducing carbon emissions, combating climate change, improving nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.
(iii) Dairy Farmer Benefit Linkage Mechanism. Yili has created a mechanism of interest linkage with farmers and herdsmen to drive industrial development and increase farmers' and herdsmen's income. In recent years, Yili has vigorously promoted the construction of milk source bases, driven dairy farmers to upgrade their dairy farming mode, and taken the lead in the industry to achieve large-scale and intensive farming, forming a community of 'risk-sharing and benefit-sharing' with dairy farmers through financial linkage, technology linkage, industry linkage and risk linkage.
Yili Intensive Dairy Farming
III. Case studies on benchmarking the sustainable development goals
1. In line with SDG1 and SDG2, Yili is precisely alleviating poverty by improving children's nutritional status and the learning environment, and stimulating endogenous motivation in impoverished areas to promote sustainable development. On the one hand, Yili makes full use of its resource advantages in the food industry to meet the nutritional needs of children through the Yili Nutrition 2020 programme, which will help to achieve the sustainable development goal of eliminating all forms of malnutrition as soon as possible. At the same time, Yili is helping to alleviate poverty and raise the quality of rural education by providing educational facilities on the basis of eliminating malnutrition. On the other hand, Yili actively promotes the doubling of agricultural productivity in poor areas and the doubling of incomes of small-scale food producers.
2. Endeavouring to practice SDG4, Erie focuses on disseminating knowledge and promoting quality education for all. Yili Group and the China Children and Teenagers' Fund (CCTF) jointly launched a children's science popularisation project, “Yili Future Park”, to promote the growth of young people through donations of books, lectures, visits to left-behind children and other activities, and to disseminate science knowledge in a highly scientific and technological way. In July 2018, 'Yili Future Park' launched the 'micro-video collection platform for youth science and technology innovation', which has attracted more than 410,000 people's attention. 'Yili Future Park' has created a massive, diversified and fair science popularisation learning platform for young people across the country. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) state that access to high-quality education is the foundation for improving people's lives and achieving sustainable development, and 'Yili Future Park' is step-by-step promoting the achievement of the SDGs of providing inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all.
3. Highly compatible with SDG 12, SDG 13 and SDG 15, the 'green industry chain' contributes to biodiversity conservation and promotes environmentally sustainable development.
The 'Green Industry Chain' is the substantive strategic plan of Yili, which signed the 'Commitment on Business and Biodiversity' of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, and realises the comprehensive extension of the green concept to the whole industry under the trinity of 'Green Production, Green Consumption and Green Development'. Yili has realised the comprehensive extension of the green concept to the whole industry under the trinity development concept of 'green production, green consumption and green development'.
Through its unique industrial chain attributes, Yili extends the requirements of ecosystem and biodiversity protection to its upstream and downstream enterprises, and develops its green industrial chain into a driving force for the sustainable development of the global economy. Strictly selecting management partners, including Golden Dawn Milk, by using FSC green packaging, reduces the use of packaging paper by an average of about 2,800 tonnes per year, which is equivalent to promoting the sustainable management of 80,000 mu of forests. Meanwhile, it has built its own wastewater treatment plant with a daily treatment capacity of nearly 150,000 tonnes, degrading about 55,000 tonnes of organic pollutants annually, promoting the efficient use of natural resources, and is highly compatible with sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Yili's biodiversity conservation work has been included in UNESCO's Sustainable Development Casebook and promoted globally as a 'China Sample' due to Yili's first annual report on biodiversity conservation in the world, its highly efficient management model that drives biodiversity conservation projects, and its efforts in spreading the concept of biodiversity conservation to thousands of households. Yili's biodiversity conservation work has been included in UNESCO's sustainable development casebook and promoted globally as a 'sample of China'.
IV. Further sustainable development of Yili
1. Nutrition 2020 as a basis for the fight against poverty and hunger, continue to broaden the dimensions of poverty alleviation, and develop sustainable poverty alleviation industries
Among the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), poverty and hunger eradication, health and well-being, and education are at the top of the list, and these are also the goals of Yili Group's 'Nutrition 2020' programme. Although the 'Nutrition 2020' precise poverty alleviation project has deeply penetrated into the key areas of the 'Three Regions and Three Prefectures' and made achievements in nutrition improvement and health education, the problem of 'high investment and low return' still exists in the development of poverty alleviation industries. However, the problem of 'high investment and low return' still exists in the development of poverty-alleviation industries by enterprises.
2. Extend the 'green industry chain' to include upstream and downstream small and medium-sized enterprises in the value chain, with a view to achieving the goal of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth. The 'partnership for achieving the goals' defined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is projected to the development of the 'green industry chain' within Yili Group, and Yili Group should further give full play to the advantages of its own industry chain under this requirement, and support SMEs in terms of finance and technology. With this requirement, Yili Group should further leverage its industrial chain advantages and support small and medium-sized enterprises in finance and technology, while also strengthening industrial chain control and guiding the concept of sustainable development. Strengthening the standardisation, safety and sustainability of all links in the industry chain will achieve real mutual benefits, and at the same time will contribute to the realisation of responsible consumption and production, as well as the goal of lasting, inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
3. Invest in research and development to enable diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, to address climate change and its impacts, and to actively pursue sustainable and responsible production objectives In recent years, the ecological environment has become an important issue in sustainable development that concerns human survival. Among the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), three of them are related to the ecological environment, namely the climate, underwater organisms and terrestrial organisms. Yili Group, as a 'China Sample' of the UN Sustainable Development Cases, has an unshirkable responsibility to take the lead in practicing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In this context, Yili Group can further increase its investment in basic scientific research and product development, start from its own products to relate to the target agenda, and build up the image of a responsible producer and ecological environment protector with innovative production methods, green industrial chain construction, low-loss production technology and high-quality products, so as to promote the positive interaction between the sustainable development of the enterprise and the public welfare and responsibility of the society.
Research Group Members: Zhu Xufeng, Zhou Shen, Zha Hao, etc.
Interview researcher: Zhu Xufeng, Zhou Shen
Author of the case: Zhou Shen
