ESG is undoubtedly the buzzword of the year in the corporate world in 2021. Environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance are becoming common knowledge and consensus among enterprises.

By the end of the year, major media and institutions have launched ESG lists and ratings. Among them, MSCI, one of the largest index companies in the world, announced that the MSCI ESG rating of SF Express Holdings has been upgraded by two consecutive levels to "BB" level, and has obtained the highest ESG rating in MSCI China's express delivery industry.

Although different institutions have different standards for ESG evaluation, in the macro and industrial trend under the new constraint of "two-carbon economy" (carbon peaking, carbon neutrality), the efforts of China's leading logistics enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities and practice the value of sustainable development are being seen and recognized by more investors at home and abroad.

SF Express Rarely Raised Level 2 Under Strict Evaluation

As an authoritative investor index compiling company in the world, MSCI's ESG rating has been recognized by the international capital market and is recognized as an opportunity or risk missed by traditional financial analysis. Every year, the institute evaluates the ESG performance of listed companies in its index globally to measure the resilience and risk management ability of enterprises to cope with industry-specific ESG risks. Its rating results have become the mainstream investment reference in the international capital market.

Due to the relatively short time for domestic companies to recognize the concept of ESG, the overall ESG rating level of domestic companies is not high at this stage. In the third quarter of 2021, MSCI has adjusted and published the latest ESG ratings of 238 A-share companies. Only two companies in the A-share market have received industry-leading ratings (AA or AAA), and more companies have received CCC or B ESG ratings, which represent industry laggards.

In this regard, Wang Xiaoshu, head of the Asia-Pacific team at MSCI ESG Research, said that China is still an emerging market. When MSCI first included A-shares in ESG rating coverage in 2018, it was normal for companies with lower ratings to dominate. But in the past three years, Chinese companies have shown very strong upward momentum and even emerged some ESG leaders.

It is worth noting that currently only a part of A-share listed companies have entered the scope of MSCI's investigation. Under the strict evaluation system, SF Holdings has been upgraded by two consecutive levels this time, demonstrating SF's sustainable development work in 2021. The results obtained on the website show the recognition of the company's ESG performance by the rating agencies.

SF Express’ Path Choice under the “Dual Carbon” Target

In recent years, in order to cope with climate change and solve the problem of carbon emissions, the government has proposed the goals of "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality". In 2021, "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality" will be included in the government work report for the first time.

In the express delivery industry, with the rapid growth of express delivery business, the business scale of express delivery has been the first in the world for many years, and will exceed 100 billion by 2021. But in the flourishing process of the industry, a series of problems such as resource consumption and environmental pollution have been paid more and more attention.

What path does the logistics express industry take to achieve sustainable development in the future?  SF Express offers their solutions.

In 2019, SF Express was the first to launch a sustainable development report, which began to disclose carbon emission targets according to international standards, leading the industry.

At the same time, SF Express has established a carbon emission management system based on green guarantee and new energy transport capacity solutions, and promoted the formulation and implementation of carbon neutrality goals.

It is worth noting that on June 5, SF Holding released the industry's first "White paper on carbon targets", which clearly proposed to increase its carbon efficiency by 55% and reduce the carbon footprint of each express parcel by 70% by 2030 on the basis of 2021, so as to create climate-friendly express delivery. SF Holding has integrated carbon reduction goal into the strategic planning of enterprise development and transformation, followed it up as a key topic of the board of directors, and combined annual target review with management performance to effectively promote the achievement of carbon reduction goal in 2030.

According to the white paper, SF Express intends to achieve its carbon reduction target of 68% through the adjustment of energy consumption structure. In the future, SF Express will adopt renewable energy solutions, invest in the construction of photovoltaic in appropriate industrial parks, gradually increase the application of new energy logistics vehicles, change the type of energy use, and reduce the carbon emissions of business operations. SF Express will build a carbon emission management platform, use leading technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and the Internet of Things to achieve low-carbon and intelligent operation, and reduce carbon emissions by 12% through the application of carbon reduction technology.

At the same time, the company improves operational efficiency and reduces carbon emissions by promoting multimodal transport, improving air routes by using cargo aviation hubs, green and low-carbon packaging, intelligent enterprise management, and All Green supply chain solutions, to achieves the target of reducing carbon emissions by 11% by upgrading transportation and business models. For other unavoidable amortized emissions, SF Express plans to offset them by planting "SF carbon neutral forest" and purchasing carbon offset credits.

Sf Express is the first and currently the only one in China to release a "white paper on carbon targets" by a courier company, which also shows that SF Holding is ahead of its sustainable development goals.

From goal to reality, SF Express has achieved landing results. In 2020, SF Express made technical changes to packaging, saving 26,000 tons of base paper and 8,000 tons of plastic, and reducing carbon emissions by about 70,000 tons in total. SF Express puts 17,053 new energy vehicles in 2020, up 50 percent from 2019, covering 185 cities.

A Warm Enterprise Will Grow Together with its Employees

After setting clear goals, SF Holding continues to improve its corporate governance and control model, improve employee welfare and achieve sustainable development of both the company and employees.

According to the ESG report, SF Express's "corporate behavior" score has reached an excellent level in the industry, and its protection of employee health and safety has been ranked among the best among its peers around the world.

In 2020, when the novel coronavirus outbreak suddenly broke out, SF Express bucked the trend. At the height of the epidemic, SF Express provided the first "reverse flight" to Wuhan, demonstrating its sense of corporate responsibility.

This year, SF Express launched its first "Sustainable Development Guarantee for Employees" program, which focuses on the rights and interests of courier boys and helps them diversify their careers. The plan will continue to invest more than 500 million yuan in the next period of time, taking into account the current welfare and long-term career security, focusing on the delivery boy's sustainable career development and family life quality improvement.

This is also the first time for a domestic courier company to release a sustainable development guarantee plan for couriers. The plan is expected to cover more than 200,000 first - and second-tier courier boys and their families, providing them with support and assistance to improve their skills and education, transfer and transformation training, and family welfare.

From a Unique Enterprise to an Ecological Transformation of the Industrial Chain, SF Express will Do More

At present, ESG has been attached importance by more and more enterprises. An Guangyong, an expert from the credit Management Committee of the China Association for Mergers and Acquisitions, believes that ESG is not a single individual, but run through the entire industry chain. Just because a company does well doesn't mean it can get a higher ESG rating. Take Coca-Cola for example, in addition to the production in its own factory meeting the ESG standards, its related supply system and sales system (namely, partners) meet the corresponding ESG standards. It should be said that ESG is not an enterprise standard, but an industrial chain or even a national dimension standard.

SF Holding also said that in the future, it will continue to improve the performance of ESG by further improving policies, systems and corporate behavior, strengthening its ESG information disclosure and other measures. SF Holding will always adhere to the sustainable development strategy and fulfill the valuable commitment of the company to customers, investors, employees and the society.

SF Express's continuous deep cultivation and empowerment in agricultural products market is also a beneficial practice of ESG leading industrial ecological optimization. In 2020, SF Express will expand its transportation market for agricultural special products, and its service network for agricultural products will cover 2,834 counties and district-level cities in China, serving more than 4,000 fresh varieties in total. In order to better help farmers to resume work and production and recover from the impact of COVID-19 as soon as possible, SF Express actively responded to the local government's policy of supporting agriculture and supporting agriculture, and timely formulated a special fund subsidy mechanism for supporting agriculture and supporting agriculture, investing 30 million yuan to help 584 national-level poverty-stricken counties and more than 240 provincial-level poverty-stricken counties to promote agricultural products and subsidizing 1,157 merchants. A total of 36.44 million votes were sent, generating an income of about 1.156 billion yuan for local farmers.

The bigger the business, the greater the responsibility. In the foreseeable future, SF Express will play the role of industry leader in the direction of ESG.

ESG,无疑是2021企业界的年度热词。环境，社会责任，企业治理，正成为企业的普识和共识。

时至年末，各大媒体和机构纷纷推出ESG榜单，评级。其中,全球最大指数公司之一MSCI公布，顺丰控股MSCI ESG评级连升2级，上调至“BB”级，拿到了MSCI中国快递行业目前的最高ESG评级。

尽管各家机构ESG评判标准各有不同，但在“双碳经济”（碳达峰、碳中和）这一新约束下的宏观和行业趋势中，中国领先的物流企业在履行社会责任，践行可持续发展价值的努力正在被国内外更多的投资人看到，并得到肯定。

严苛考评下顺丰罕见上调2级

MSCI作为国际权威的投资者指数编制公司，其ESG评级备受国际资本市场认可，被认定为传统金融分析所遗漏的机会或风险。该机构每年会对全球纳入其指数的上市公司ESG表现进行评估，衡量企业应对行业特定ESG风险的应变能力以及风险管理能力，其评级结果已成为国际资本市场的主流投资参考依据。

由于国内企业的ESG概念认知的时间较短，现阶段国内企业整体的ESG评级水平都不高。在2021年第三季度，MSCI共调整和公布了238家A股公司的最新ESG评级， A股市场获得行业领先评级的企业(AA级或AAA级)仅有两家，更多的公司ESG评级为代表行业落后地位的CCC级或B级。

对此，MSCI ESG研究部门亚太团队主管王晓书表示，中国仍属于新兴市场，2018年MSCI首度将A股纳入ESG评级覆盖时，评级较低的公司居多，这是正常现象，但过去三年里中国公司展示出很强劲的上升动能，甚至出现了一些ESG领导者。

值得关注的是，目前A股的上市公司也仅有一部分进入到MSCI的考察范围内，在考评严格的体系下，顺丰控股这次评级连续上调2级，展示了顺丰2021年在可持续发展工作上取得的成绩，显示出了评级机构对公司ESG表现的认可。

双碳目标下顺丰的路径选择

近年来，为应对气候变化，解决碳排放问题，政府提出“碳达峰”和“碳中和”目标，2021年，“碳达峰”“碳中和”首次被写入政府工作报告。

快递行业，随着快递业务量猛增，连续多年业务规模稳居世界第一，到2021年已经突破1000亿件。但在行业一片欣欣向荣的进程中，所带来的资源消耗、环境污染等一系列问题日益受到重视。

物流快递行业究竟以什么样的路径实现未来的可持续发展，顺丰给出了他们的解决方案。

2019年，顺丰率先推出了可持续发展报告，按国际标准开始披露碳排放目标，领先行业。

同时，顺丰前瞻布局，在绿色保证、新能源运力解决方案的基础上搭建碳排放管理体系，并推进了碳中和目标的制定和落实方案。

值得注意的是，6月5日，顺丰控股发布了业内首份“碳目标白皮书”，明确提出拟在2021年基础上，在2030年实现自身碳效率提升55%，实现每个快件包裹的碳足迹降低70%，打造气候友好型快递。顺丰控股将减碳目标融入企业发展与转型的战略规划，作为董事会重点关注议题持续跟进，并将年度目标回顾与管理层绩效结合，有力推进2030年减碳目标的达成。

白皮书显示，顺丰拟通过用能结构调整实现68%的减碳目标，未来顺丰将采取可再生能源解决方案，在合适的产业园投建光伏，并逐步加大新能源物流车应用，转变能源使用类型，降低业务运营碳排放。顺丰将构建碳排放管理平台，运用人工智能、大数据、物联网等领先科技实现低碳智慧化运营，通过减碳科技的应用降低12%的碳排放。

同时，公司通过推进多式联运、利用货运航空枢纽改善航线、绿色低碳包装、智慧化企业管理、All Green绿色供应链解决方案等提升运营效率和减少碳排，通过运输及业务模式升级实现降低11%的碳排放目标。针对其他无法避免的摊排放，顺丰拟采用种植“顺丰碳中和林”、购买碳补偿额度等方式实现抵消。

由快递公司发布“碳目标白皮书”，顺丰是第一家，目前还是国内唯一的一家，也显示了顺丰控股超前的可持续发展目标。

从目标到现实，顺丰取得了落地的成效。2020年，顺丰对包装进行技术改造，实现了节省原纸约26,000吨，节省塑料约8,000吨，合计减少碳排放约7万吨的成果。顺丰在2020年投放了17,053辆新能源汽车，相比2019年增加50%的投放量，覆盖了185个城市。

有温度的企业会与员工共同成长 

在制定了明确的目标后，顺丰控股还在不断完善公司治理管控模式、提升员工福利和实现企业与员工的共同可持续发展。

ESG报告显示，顺丰的“公司行为”得分达到了行业优秀水平，同时，对员工的健康和安全的保护已经排名在全球同行公司中的优秀水平。

2020年，新冠疫情突然爆发，顺丰逆行而上，在疫情最严重时，顺丰提供了首个“逆飞“武汉的援驰航班，彰显出了企业责任担当。

今年，顺丰首推“员工可持续发展保障”计划，关注快递小哥权益，助其职业生涯多元发展。计划将在今后一段时间持续投入5亿元以上，兼顾当下福利和长远职业生涯保障，聚焦快递小哥职业可持续发展和家庭生活质量提升。

这也是国内快递企业首次发布快递员群体可持续发展保障计划，该计划预计覆盖超过20万名一二线快递小哥及其家人，为他们技能学历提升、转岗转型培训和家属福利等提供支持帮助。

从企业独秀到产业链生态转型 顺丰还会做更多

当下，ESG已经被越来越多的企业重视。全联并购公会信用管理委员会专家安光勇认为，ESG并不是单个独立的个体，而是贯穿了整个产业链。并不是一家公司做好，就可以把其ESG评级调高。以可口可乐举例，除了自身工厂内的生产满足ESG的标准，其相关的供应体系和销售体系(即合作伙伴)都满足相应的ESG标准。应该说，ESG并不是个企业级的标准，而是一个产业链甚至是国家维度的标准。

顺丰控股也表示，未来将通过进一步完善政策制度和公司行为、加强ESG信息披露等举措，继续提升ESG绩效表现，顺丰控股将始终坚持可持续发展战略，践行公司对客户、投资者、员工和社会的宝贵承诺。

顺丰在农产品市场的持续深耕与赋能，也是ESG引领产业生态优化的有益实践。2020年，顺丰深耕农特产品运输市场，针对农产品上下行的服务网络覆盖全国2,834个县区级城市，共计服务4,000余个生鲜品种。为了更好地帮助农户复工复产，尽快从新冠疫情的影响中恢复，顺丰积极响应地方政府助农扶农政策，适时制定了助农扶农专项资金补贴机制，投入3,000万专项资金，助力全国584个国家级贫困县及240多个省级贫困县农产品上行，补贴1,157家商户，累计发件3,644万票，为当地农户创收约11.56亿元。