10.06.2022 - Ramping-up green power, improving organisational efficiency and scaling the Sungrow Forest Programme are some of the corporate and social responsibility actions covered in Sungrow’s latest Sustainability Report. Based on the Task Force on Climate-related and Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Sungrow is upgrading its climate risk management capabilities and information disclosure, focusing on four key areas: strategy, governance, risk management, and indicators and goals.
As a leader in the global clean power sector, Sungrow is deeply aware of the far-reaching impact of climate-related risks and is committed to upholding the highest level of environmental practices across the business and operations.
Chief among these practices is increasing the use of green energy and being an example to other businesses looking to decarbonise their operations. Electricity accounts for a large percentage of Sungrow’s consumption, and continuously increasing the use of renewables across the company’s operations can dramatically cut its carbon emissions. Since joining the RE 100, Sungrow has made steady progress and increased green power use by about 10% each year, with a commitment to reach 100% renewable power across the business.
Conserving energy by renovating energy-intensive equipment is another path Sungrow is pursuing. The company is exploring options for using low-carbon and high-efficiency equipment at its sites and has established an intelligent centralised control platform for lighting, air conditioners, air compressors, and other energy-intensive equipment. In the future, Sungrow will continually promote energy conservation in production, testing and other equipment. In terms of improving operation efficiency, the company joined the EP100 in March 2022 and made commitments to deploy the company's energy management system by 2028 and increase energy productivity by at least 35% by 2028 compared to 2018 data.
Sungrow strives for the protection of local natural and community resources, whilst maximising business advantages and benefitting local communities as much as possible. In 2021, Sungrow launched its plan for the Global Public Welfare Strategy which focused on ecological environmental protection, supporting science and technology innovation, education and talents, community development, poverty alleviation, and disaster recovery assistance. Across these areas of work, the company made a total donation of over €700,000 in 2021 alone.
The rollout of the Sun Forest programme continued in 2021, to reach a global scale. As one of the corporate sponsors for the national forest parks, Sungrow partnered with The Nature Conservancy to plant adaptive trees and edible bamboos across 66,667 sqm. of adaptive trees and edible bamboos planted in the Sichuan Giant Panda National Park. This partnership also resulted in the recruitment and training of community ecosystem rangers to carry out monitoring conservation, and carbon sink measurement. The programme has a total afforestation scale of 333,333 sqm, expected to absorb 7,500 tons of CO2 in the next 30 years, ecologically restoring 3,000 hectares of potential habitats in the region. In Europe, Sungrow cooperated with the non-profit foundation Plant-My-Tree and planted over 1,200 saplings to support the afforestation programme in Germany and offset the carbon dioxide emissions from exhibiting at the Intersolar Europe trade event held in the country.
Sungrow is taking direct steps to further embed the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into its business practices. The company gained an AA rating from MSCI ESG, ranked number one among China’s top 500 ESG excellent enterprises, and was included in the HangSeng Corporate Sustainability Index.
Prof. Cao Renxian, Chairman of Sungrow said:
“This year, we have upgraded the corporate social responsibility report to a sustainability report, covering the company's specific actions and performance during 2021, for better communication with all parties. In future, we must remain humble, stick to our main business with clean power conversion technologies as the core, take tangible actions for the UN SDGs, and provide clean, efficient power for all. We also look forward to expanding our collaboration with global partners to jointly contribute to a more sustainable future.”
As of December 2021, Sungrow shipped a total of 224GW inverter equipment globally, which, when combined, helped to avoid 252 million CO₂ emissions. Sungrow will continue to innovate both its product offering and internal operations to continue reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with Science-based Targets and contribute to net-zero goals across Europe and internationally.
Read more and download the full sustainability report here.
About Sungrow
Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd. (“Sungrow”) is the world’s most bankable inverter brand. Founded in 1997 by University Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial & industrial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions. With a strong 25-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow products power installations in over 150 countries.
As a leader in innovation in the solar industry, Sungrow possesses a dynamic technical R&D team. The Company has also invested in its own in-house testing centre approved by SGS, CSA, and TÜV Rhineland. In 2019, Sungrow launched the world’s largest inverter factory. The company’s global annual production capacity reaches 140 GW, including 20 GW of overseas production.
Offering a wide range of solutions and services, Sungrow is committed to providing clean power for all and is steadfast in its efforts to become the global leader in clean power conversion technology. Learn more about Sungrow by visiting https://uk.sungrowpower.com/.