SHANGHAI, Oct. 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Controls, Alibaba Cloud, and Accenture announced an alliance intended to drive the digital transformation of multiple industries to promote sustainable development in China, under a memorandum of understanding signed at the Alibaba Cloud Digital Ecosystem Innovation Forum of 2021 Apsara Conference. Pursuant to the memorandum of understanding, the three parties intend to launch a long-term collaboration in areas including smart operation of data centers, sustainable development of intelligent buildings and parks, and development of new technologies for related fields.
Johnson Controls, Alibaba Cloud, and Accenture announced an alliance with a memorandum of understanding signed at the Alibaba Cloud Digital Ecosystem Innovation Forum of 2021 Apsara Conference
Visal Leng, Vice President and President, Building Solutions, Asia Pacific, Johnson Controls, Lancelot Guo, VP of Alibaba Group and President of Ecosystem and Sales Operations, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, and Samantha Zhu, chairperson of Accenture Greater China and a member of Accenture's Global Management Committee, attended the signing ceremony.
"We are very excited to announce our alliance with Alibaba Cloud and Accenture at the Apsara Conference. Joining hands with the two industry leaders means a lot to Johnson Controls in building an industry ecosystem for sustainable development," said Visal Leng, Vice President and President, Building Solutions, Asia Pacific, Johnson Controls. "For many years, Johnson Controls has been operating in the China market, whilst providing full support for China's high-quality development. When it comes to digital transformation, innovation, and sustainable development, Alibaba Cloud has been a leading advocate, and Accenture, a renowned global professional services firm, has devoted much effort to address this, so we have a shared vision. We are also looking forward to leveraging our OpenBlue digital solutions for sustainability, including our smart building technologies, to work with Alibaba and Accenture and contribute to China's sustainable development."
The three parties intend to collaborate closely with each other on developing digital and integrated IoT solutions for data centers, intelligent buildings and parks, liquid cooling, indirect evaporation cooling and more. These solutions will incorporate cloud, middle platform and front-end applications. The memorandum of understanding contemplates the establishment of a unified team across the three companies, where they will focus on providing more efficient and intelligent chiller solutions to the companies' customers. This strategy will be supported by a joint marketing plan for the China market.
"As one of the world's top three cloud service providers, Alibaba Cloud is committed to helping customers achieve green and sustainable development through technical means. The tripartite alliance we have with Johnson Controls and Accenture is a brand-new attempt for us to fulfill our commitment," said Lancelot Guo, President of Ecosystem and Sales Operations, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence. "In future, Alibaba Cloud will leverage its leading technology and ecosystem advantages to build a powerful platform to propel the transformation and restructuring of key vertical industries that we serve."
"We believe Sustainability is the new digital and is one of our greatest responsibilities. Today, companies must firmly accelerate digital transformation alongside sustainability efforts to stay competitive and viable. We are glad to join hands with Johnson Controls and Alibaba Cloud to help Chinese companies deepen their transformation journey and pursue development in a more sustainable ecosystem, creating multiple values ranging from technology, organization, environment, ecosystem to society," said Samantha Zhu, chairperson of Accenture Greater China and a member of Accenture's Global Management Committee.
As the global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, Johnson Controls is committed to providing energy-efficient solutions and empowering sustainable buildings through innovation and digitalization. Johnson Controls joined The Climate Pledge in February this year, pledging to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, ten years ahead of the goal set out in the United Nations' Paris Climate Agreement. Johnson Controls has also pledged to invest 75 percent of new product development R&D in climate-related innovation to develop sustainable products and services in areas such as digitalization, HVAC, and building automation system. Its OpenBlue platform for optimizing building sustainability will be central to fulfilling these goals and ultimately creating an environment for healthy people, healthy places and a healthy planet.
The signing of the memorandum of understanding by Johnson Controls, Alibaba Cloud, and Accenture lays a solid foundation for both collaborative innovation and sustainable development. Visal Leng said: "Achieving the vision of sustainable development requires the efforts of not just a single organization or company. It requires the collaboration and innovation of many different parties, and it also requires an ecosystem." In the future, Johnson Controls will continue to pursue win-win collaborations and alliances to create an open and collaborative ecosystem, to help China achieve its peak carbon emission and carbon neutrality goals, and promote sustainable development.
About Johnson Controls:
At Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) we transform the environments where people live, work, learn and play. As the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, our mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet.
With a history of more than 135 years of innovation, Johnson Controls delivers the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centers, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through its comprehensive digital offering, OpenBlue. With a global team of 100,000 experts in more than 150 countries, Johnson Controls offers the world's largest portfolio of building technology, software as well as service solutions with some of the most trusted names in the industry. For more information, visit www.johnsoncontrols.sg or follow us Johnson Controls Asia Pacific on LinkedIn.
