On October 26, the "14th Five-Year Plan for E-commerce Development" was officially released. The plan points out that "guide e-commerce enterprises to actively adapt to the requirements of green and low-carbon development, establish the concept of green development, actively fulfill their social responsibilities for ecological environmental protection, and enhance the level of green innovation".
On the same day, a communication meeting entitled "Double 11 Low Carbon Time" was held in Hangzhou. This year, Tmall Double 11 based on the "Double 11 Carbon Reduction Plan", advocating a green and low-carbon lifestyle, this communication meeting, as one of the series of activities.
Expert of the International Resources Expert Committee of the United Nations Environment Programme and Professor Jin Min of the School of Environment of Renmin University, Cheng Li, partner and chief technology officer of Alibaba Group, Chen Long, president of Luohantang and head of Alibaba ESG, Zheng Liqing, head of Tmall Double 11 Project, and Niu Zhijing, vice president of Cainiao and head of green project, attended the communication meeting.
Alibaba's chief technology officer, Cheng Li, started with a bottle of water in his hand. "Even if it's a bottle of water, there is a carbon cost in online trading, behind the transaction is computing power, behind the computing power is energy." He believes that the low-carbon double 11 in the technical sense must answer three examination questions: first, how to make the data center more "green" and more energy-efficient; second, how to improve the unified scheduling efficiency of resources through the sharing of computing power; third, how to maximize the efficiency and value of the unit computing power.
Carbon reduction faces cost-benefit trade-offs. "From a technical point of view, many times carbon reduction and cost reduction are one thing," Cheng Li said. However, he also believes that the opportunity cost of carbon reduction must exist, whether to invest in upgrading the business or low-carbon development, is a choice. "Ali has made a lot of adjustments this year, putting carbon reduction targets and indicators in a very important position, and putting them in the same position as our business growth, corresponding to which we are willing to invest costs in this place," he said.
In Cheng Li's view, double 11 is not only a huge consumption field, but also a huge carbon reduction test field, "double 11 peak 600,000 times per second is dozens of times the daily, in the past we also have to buy more resources to support the double 11 peak, this year through the peak of the peak filling, we supported a larger peak, this year 618, we each order carbon emissions dropped by almost 18%. Looking back, it's about 50 percent down in three years. ”
In April this year, Cheng Li made a judgment that the orderly promotion of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals will bring about systematic changes in technology, and he proposed that there are "three rings" for platform carbon reduction: to achieve the reduction of emissions in the development of enterprises themselves is the "inner ring"; to help platform enterprises and industries decarbonize as the "central ring"; to promote consumption of low-carbon environmental protection is the "outer ring" with a larger radiation range.
On October 19, at the Alibaba Yunqi Conference, Alibaba Cloud officially released the chip Yitian 710. "One of the core optimization indicators of this chip is that the power consumption is smaller, so that the smaller energy consumption produces greater computing power," Cheng Li said.
In the view of Chen Long, president of Luohantang and head of Alibaba ESG, technology, energy and the economy constitute a triangular relationship: energy raises questions, economic stimulation engines (costs), and technology answers questions. The future of double carbon will move towards a "circular economy driven by digital technology".
Chen Long believes that compared with the traditional "owner economy", the digital economy is a "participant economy" and an economic form that affects everyone. "In this era, green must truly become a development factor, driving the behavior of changing production and consumption. The significance of Alibaba as a platform here is not only to connect merchants and consumers with digital technology, but also to use a business innovation ecosystem to help string all the capabilities together and move forward with various partners in the whole society," he said.
Professor Jin Min of Renmin University has long been concerned about the circular economy, cleaner production theory and practice, and renewable resources. She believes that in the process of green consumption, the biggest problem is the supply of green products in the market. A healthy green consumer market requires rules, technology and trust mechanisms.
She sees the platform as a bridge between supply and consumption. "Because the e-commerce platform connects consumers at one end and connects with merchants at the other end, it has the natural advantage of promoting green consumption and can effectively promote the green supply chain of the whole life cycle of products", "In the face of 12 years of double 11, there is a green consumer market worthy of being leveraged, which is a very influential and social effect." ”
As the project leader of this year's Tmall Double 11, Zheng Liqing saw that green consumption is becoming more and more of a trend on the platform when preparing for the event a few months ago. Therefore, when designing this year's Double 11 venue, she asked herself a question: Can green consumption change from a trend to a proposition and a mainstream?
As a result, the 13th Double 11 was held, the green venue was launched for the first time, the green certification products were marked for the first time, a total of 100 million yuan of green shopping coupons were issued to consumers for the first time, and a green merchant alliance was established.
Pay attention to how much consumers buy, but also pay attention to what they buy and the experience of buying. In Zheng Liqing's view, the reason why the platform is willing to spend two or three months to mark the nationally certified green goods in the double 11 venue and screen human flesh is an important focus: "I hope that these consumers who have the willingness to consume green can see the goods of enterprises that really have input in green production for the first time."
Similarly, Niu Zhijing, vice president of Cainiao and head of the green project, also observed a phenomenon from the express packaging recycling in recent years: packaging recycling, the participation rate in the community is about 20%, and the participation rate of campus groups can generally reach 30%-40%. He feels that young consumers voting with their feet are constantly pulling companies to invest.
This year, Cainiao prepared 7.5 million eggs for consumers participating in the green box return, "Before, we have always said that the peak of Double 11 will become the norm in the second year, and we hope that after Double 11, this low-carbon trend will continue to be maintained and continue," he said.
For the green logistics cost issue that the public is more interested in, Niu Zhijing, vice president of Cainiao and head of the green project, chose to respond with a larger vision. He said, "Double carbon is not only a responsibility, but also an opportunity for high-quality development." Any short-term cost input will become competitive in the long run and will become an opportunity for high-quality development in the future."