During the 2021 China International Import Expo, the Honeywell pavilion, with the theme of "Cooperative Innovation - For Our Common Green Future", for the first time showed its scientific and technological innovation and application achievements in the fields of aviation, intelligent manufacturing, smart buildings, warehousing and logistics for the main line of "carbon neutrality". At the same time, Honeywell released the "White Paper on Low-Carbon Development in the Refining and Chemical Industry", which provides strategic guidance and technical suggestions for the transformation challenges and innovation needs faced by the refining and chemical industry and enterprises under the background of the "double carbon" goal.
As a leading global high-tech company, Honeywell has more than 100 years of history in the field of "green" and "sustainable development". In April 2021, Honeywell announced its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality targets for all business operations and facilities by 2035.
In fact, sustainability as an important part of the top-level design of the strategy has proven to be a practical and effective approach at Honeywell. About 50 percent of Honeywell's new product development is based on improving our customers' environmental performance and social benefits. Since 2004, the greenhouse gas emissions intensity of the company's business operations and facilities has been reduced by more than 90 percent. Since 2010, more than 5,700 low-carbon, sustainable projects have been implemented, resulting in an average annual cost saving of US$100 million. Today, combining its rich and diverse product portfolio with user needs to bring new value to sustainability with innovative technologies and models is Honeywell's long-term goal in China, and the Chinese market is a significant source of these innovations.
During the Expo, Liu Maoshu, Vice President of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technology Group and General Manager of Asia Pacific, was interviewed by the Economic Observer. He said he was pleased to see Chinese companies implement their sustainable development strategies into management and technological change. "Chinese customers are becoming more mature, and many companies are turning external pressures into endogenous growth drivers to meet new challenges – no longer looking for a cheap solution, but striving to find the best solution. We are pleased to see these shifts. "Only by turning sustainable development into an endogenous growth driver recognized within the company and coming up with a practical roadmap and strategy can we achieve our long-term goals." ”
In China, Honeywell adheres to the strategy of "The East Serves the East", serving the long-term goal of high-quality development in China by continuously developing products and technologies that meet the energy and environmental needs of customers, and jointly shaping a sustainable future with Chinese partners. Internally, the name of honeywell's Performance Materials and Technologies sales team has been changed to "Customer Success Manager." Their responsibility is to strive to be a long-term partner to Chinese customers and help them succeed. "Honeywell's success is built on customer success, and the success of each of our team is built on the success of the customers we serve, which is a key mindset shift." Liu Maoshu concluded, "The long-term development of customers is our real focus. ”
Nowadays, there are more and more stories about Honeywell using its own technology and products to help Chinese companies upgrade their industries. Perhaps, the development of enterprises should be like this to a certain extent: there is a history, there is a future, there is a respected brand, and there is a responsibility to give back to the society.
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Maoshu Liu, Vice President and General Manager of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies Group in Asia Pacific
Shen Jianyuan: How do you view the integration of "double carbon" goals and enterprise development?
Liu Maoshu: In recent years, the government has vigorously promoted supply-side reform, and the "double carbon" plan has given a new mechanism on the basis of policies to promote the domestic use of market methods and market mechanisms to further accelerate the transformation and upgrading. In April, Honeywell committed to achieving a "carbon neutrality" goal for all business operations and facilities by 2035. We will take a package of initiatives, including increasing investment in energy-saving projects, adopting renewable energy, completing asset improvement projects for business facilities and corporate vehicles, and utilizing reliable carbon credits, to further continue the company's ongoing efforts on sustainable development. This is not only a proactive response to global carbon reduction targets, but also Honeywell's active commitment to its social responsibility as a company.
Shen Jianyuan: What are the suggestions for enterprises in the process of achieving the "double carbon" goal?
Liu Maoshu: Honeywell's personal experience is to elevate it to the level of corporate strategy from a management perspective. Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) has become one of Honeywell's most important strategies, and when we consider the company's decisions, from day-to-day management to decisions, we strive to balance short-term interests with long-term development goals – and we need to firmly position it on a long-term strategy to position its value and importance.
In addition, from the perspective of technological change, "carbon neutrality" or "carbon peaking" requires technological breakthroughs. Because carbon emission reduction systems are complex, this process is not achievable by a single technology, but requires a combination of technologies to form a complete solution. How to organically combine new technologies and current industrial technologies to promote structural technological change is what we need to vigorously promote in the future.
Finally, the success of "change" is closely related to "people". Any strategy needs to be led by a good leader—he needs the determination, strategic vision, and execution to turn the strategy into a step-by-step program and convince the team to push it forward.
Shen Jianyuan: How can Honeywell itself benefit from making "sustainability" an important part of the company's overall strategy?
Liu Maoshu: First, honeywell highly recognizes the value and significance of the sustainability strategy, and everyone can feel that the company has less carbon emissions and lower wastewater production every day – which allows everyone on the team to know that what they are doing has a positive impact on the planet, on people, and on the environment around them. At the same time, our determined approach has made our employees more trusting of the company, and we can continue to attract better talent to join us.
Second, the technologies and products we develop do not simply serve Honeywell itself, but we also share innovative practices with our customers and partners. Digital convergence, for example, is currently being used not only within Honeywell, but also by many of our partners and customers – and we've expanded it into industry and society and had a very positive impact. At the same time, because the client has more usage scenarios, it also gives us more feedback on the technical side, which promotes us to launch a newer generation of solutions, and then continue to apply internally and externally, such a positive cycle, so that we can find more solutions.
The more important impact is brand reputation and social recognition. In the process of actively promoting the sustainable development strategy, the government, investors and partners are more convinced that working with Honeywell is very promising. In recent years, we have more obviously felt that our circle of friends has expanded, and partners are more willing to do open innovation cooperation with us. "Low-carbon" and "green development" are still in their early stages, and it is more necessary for companies with the same concept and similar development direction to influence and promote each other, so as to accelerate the pace and find better solutions. Taking the Low Carbon Center of the Sustainable Development Research Institute of Honeywell (China) Co., Ltd., which we recently established in China, as an example, its goal is to build a window for honeywell to cooperate with the Chinese government, enterprises, research institutions, industry organizations, universities and other parties in the field of low carbon, jointly promote the low-carbon transformation of the industrial chain, and provide new solutions for the achievement of China's "double carbon" goal, so as to achieve a more low-carbon, intelligent, safe, healthy and sustainable future development.
Shen Jianyuan: How do you view China's opportunities as one of Honeywell's global growth markets in terms of technological innovation, sustainable development and innovative cooperation models?
Liu Maoshu: Honeywell's development strategy coincides with China's "double cycle" strategy, and our "Oriental Service to the East" and "East to serve the world" strategy are essentially to do a good job of "internal circulation" and "external circulation". We see ourselves both as a pure Chinese company and as a foreign-owned company – and under the guidance of this strategy, we firmly believe that we must serve the Chinese market well. The current Chinese economy is not a simple single market. Unlike the past, which focused on technology applications, China is now on the cusp of innovation and is a source of innovation.
China's ecological chain has created many opportunities for us. We have found many sources of innovation in-house and developed new solutions in the process of working with our customers. We have a lot of original inventions that are not only used by Chinese customers, but also by customers around the world, including the United States. China has become one of Honeywell's most important innovation bases in the world.
Shen Jianyuan: From the assessment of your own business team, what capabilities do you want your employees to have to match Honeywell's positioning as the "most important source of global innovation"?
Liu Maoshu: I think multinational companies have reached a new stage of development in China. China is no longer simply a production base, but also an important innovation base, and the demand for talents has been keeping pace with the times. Different from the past stage as a production base, now we need to tell the Chinese story and Chinese innovation clearly and push it out, so that others can understand why this is an important development direction. This requires two important abilities – the first is to make it clear, and the second is to make others believe.
Secondly, our talents need to have a global vision, and we must insist that we are not simply innovating for China, but also innovating for the world. The team's target scenario should be global, not limited to a factory or region.
Finally, under this development trend, the expectations of the outside world for us will also increase. In the past, the Chinese market accounted for a relatively small proportion of global business, and whether or not to complete kpi had little impact on global business. However, with the continuous increase in the scale of business in the Chinese market, once China's business chain is affected, it will affect the overall development of the world and affect all aspects of the group company, which puts forward higher requirements for professional managers in China.
I believe that as long as China's innovation is truly achieved, not only affects China, but also affects the world, the company's performance will increase accordingly, and we can proudly say that we are a successful enterprise in China.
Shen Jianyuan/Wen