Gasgoo Munich- Speaking on July 22 at the 2026 China Auto Forum— specifically the session titled "Chinese Standards · International Vision — Benchmarking and Integration of Automotive Industry ESG Evaluation Systems" — Yang Yuntong, Senior Director of Sustainability at Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, argued that as the global industrial landscape reshapes, ESG has become a new value threshold for market entry worldwide. Chinese companies, he noted, must transform it from a passive compliance cost into a strategic asset that underpins long-term global expansion.Image Source: China Auto ForumAccording to Yang, Geely has established a "2045 Full Value Chain Carbon Neutrality" goal and is transitioning into a nature-positive enterprise. On the green manufacturing front, it has built 26 national-level green factories, 13 zero-waste factories, and 5 zero-carbon factories. By 2025, Geely Auto had reduced full-lifecycle carbon emissions per vehicle by 25% and cut supply chain emissions by 1.476 million tons, beating its targets ahead of schedule.In terms of ESG governance, Geely continues to lead Chinese automakers in S&P CSA ratings. It is the only Chinese carmaker included in the *S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2026*, ranking in the top 1% of Chinese companies assessed. At the COP30 UN Climate Change Conference, Geely released the industry's first "Nature and Biodiversity Report". Regarding the circular economy, vehicle recyclability reached 98.3%, and scrap material recovery utilization hit 97.9%.Given the vast scale of the automotive supply chain, Yang stressed: "One company's carbon neutrality is not the industry's carbon neutrality". On May 22, Geely — acting as a founding chair — joined forces with the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, various OEMs, and supply chain partners like CATL and Bosch China to launch the Electric Vehicle Sustainability Alliance (EVSA). Together, they released the inaugural *Research Report on Core ESG Issues for the Global Expansion of China's EV Industry*."With the world's largest EV production, China deserves a matching voice in ESG governance. Industry standards are the ultimate moat", Yang said.Yang proposed Geely's "Three-Stage Drive" path for ESG practice: Strategic Embedding—integrating ESG into the board's core responsibilities and embedding it upfront across all business processes; Trust Transfer—building a unified digital ESG management platform and introducing third-party assurance; and Ecosystem Synergy—leveraging its position as a supply chain leader to empower suppliers, actively connecting with international standard setters, and using the EVSA platform to elevate Chinese automakers' influence in global standard-setting.Yang noted that the industry's green transition is a marathon, "Breakthroughs at single points win applause, but systemic capability wins the future". Geely, he added, stands ready to work with the entire industry to build ESG into a foundational capability for the high-quality global expansion of Chinese automobiles.
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