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SHANGHAI, Feb. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai Electric Group ("Shanghai Electric" or "the Company"), the world's leading manufacturer and supplier of electric power generation equipment, industrial equipment and integration services, has been upgraded to A on the Hang Seng environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) sustainability rating scale, reflecting the Company's improved efforts in advancing its Covid-19 pandemic relief, poverty alleviation and environmental, health and safety (EHS) practices.
Shanghai Electric has performed well in developing its ESG strategy, which refers to environmental, social and corporate governance factors that measure a company's sustainability and societal impact on investment. The ESG rating report compiled by Hang Seng Indexes shows that the Company ranks in the top ten percent out of 332 industry peers and 1435 companies in terms of ESG performances in core areas such as corporate governance, environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues, as well as community involvement and development.
The rating came as Hang Seng Indexes recently included Shanghai Electric in some of its sustainability-related indexes - Hang Seng (China A) Corporate Sustainability Index, Hang Seng (Mainland and HK) Corporate Sustainability Index and Hang Seng (China A) Corporate Sustainability Benchmark Index. The rating upgrade underscores further recognition of Shanghai Electric's achievement to promote sustainability and corporate responsibility in recent years, after receiving an upgrade of its MSCI ESG Rating in 2020.
Hang Seng Indexes adopts a strict assessment model to rate constituent companies. It has appointed Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency, an independent and professional assessment body, to evaluate the ESG performances of about 500 Hong Kong-listed companies and over 1,200 A-shares companies.
As the pandemic has continued storming the world, Shanghai Electric has taken a series of measures to aid those who have been suffering from Covid-19. The Company has set up a team to develop machines to produce medical masks, and it aims to work with partners to scale up the production of surgical masks 100,000 to 120,000 per day by putting together ten production lines by February 20 2020.
Domestically, Shanghai Electric on January 29 2020 donated seven pieces of CT equipment worth over CNY24.75 million ($US3.8 million) to the Red Cross in Wuhan. Shanghai Electric's employees donated over CNY8.8 million as of last March to aid pandemic relief work in China.
As part of the Company's corporate responsibility practices, Shanghai Electric has actively participated in poverty alleviation work in rural areas in China. Since 2018, it has donated CNY2.25 million to villages in southwest China's Yunnan province. The donation has been used for road construction and new streetlamps and has helped improve living quality of over 4,400 local residents. The Company also donated a total of CNY12.48 million in 2019 to Fengxian, a poor suburban district in the south of Shanghai.
The Company also aided overseas projects and partners during the first peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. In March and April 2020, Shanghai Electric has donated surgical masks to Fuji Electric Japan, Sarawak Energy in Malaysia, the Wassit Thermal Power Plant in Iraq and the Thar Block-1 Integrated Coal Mine-Power Project in Pakistan.
Shanghai Electric has ramped up its EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) efforts, establishing a health and safety management system and setting up committees in its regional offices to advance EHS practices. For example, to protect the safety of employees, it worked with local partners in Dubai since the outbreak of COVID-19 to put together a virus control team on-site. Both local-hired and Chinese personnel received guidelines and advisory handbooks with on-site safety training sessions arranged in both English and Arabic.
The Company has also made efforts to ensure minimal impact on natural habitats. It worked with ecologists and environmental experts to relocate wild animals and 180 mesquite trees across a 40 square kilometer area of land near its Dubai solar power project construction site.
