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XI'AN, China, June 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2022 UN Global Compact Leaders Summit was held virtually on June 1 and 2. LONGi founder and president Li Zhenguo took part via video in the session "China Town Hall: Sustainable, Inclusive and Just Transition Towards a Shared Global Development Vision" at the CEO Roundtable: Race to Net Zero—Chinese Companies Step up.
LONGi Founder and President Li Zhenguo speaks at 2022 UNGC Leaders Summit
During this session, he engaged in an in-depth and fruitful discussion on topics, such as zero-carbon development and sustainability, with representatives from a wide range of stakeholders, including the United Nations, governments, businesses and civil society organizations.
As the world's largest annual event for sustainable business leaders, the UNGC Leader Summit aims to evaluate progress made to date on the Ten Principles and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), addressing shortcomings in leadership, knowledge, resources and funding. LONGi is one of the important business partners of UNGC and has always supported its global action towards sustainability.
"From the perspective of the entire life cycle of the industry chain, reducing carbon emissions in the photovoltaic industry chain needs to be done from two dimensions, which are improving the power generation of photovoltaic products and reducing the carbon emissions of products themselves," Li Zhenguo said at the summit. In 2018, LONGi proposed the development concept of "Solar for Solar", which aims to create low-cost clean energy for the world while practicing the concept of clean production and green manufacturing.
Technological innovation is the core competitiveness of enterprises. LONGi hopes that the entire photovoltaic industry will return to the main circuit of improving solar cell efficiency, and strengthen R&D investment in new solar cell materials and technologies to reduce costs and increase benefits. "LONGi's essential responsibility and mission is to do our main business well and contribute to green and low-carbon development," Li Zhenguo told the summit. It is precisely because of this "First Principle" that LONGi invested CNY 4.394 billion in R&D in 2021, becoming the enterprise with the largest investment in the global photovoltaic industry for five consecutive years, and breaking the world record of solar photovoltaic cell conversion efficiency 7 times in a year. Since this year, LONGi has refreshed the conversion efficiency record for p-type HJT solar cell and indium-free HJT solar cell, pushing the conversion efficiency to 25.47% and 25.40% respectively.
As a socially responsible company headquartered in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, LONGi actively engages in sustainable development initiatives. In 2021, the company announced an ambitious plan at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15), pledging to convert the company's Baoshan production base in Yunnan Province into its first "Net-zero Plant" by 2023. The announcement will see the beginning of "Net-zero LONGi" and the establishment of a test field for the company's "Solar for Solar" sustainable development concept.
According to LONGi's 2021 sustainability report, the company has reached 40.19% of renewable electricity use in its global operations and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1,687,933 tons, through the three disciplines of self-owned power generation facilities, procurement of third-party power generation facilities and contract procurement of green power. On April 24, LONGi also officially released the "Supply Chain Green Partner Empowerment Plan" at the company's 2022 supplier conference, aiming to promote suppliers to carry out energy conservation and emission reduction actions through carbon management empowerment training. While directly reducing the carbon emissions of partner suppliers, LONGi can also enhance the carbon emissions of the base value chain and the carbon footprint of LONGi photovoltaic products.
Moving forward, LONGi will continue to enhance technological innovation with ambitious goals and continuously work toward the reduction of product cost and green zero-carbon development, continuing to support UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UN Global Compact's initiatives and actions towards sustainability.
