by Xiaoqian Han

In JD.com’s 2022 ESG report released on May 24, JD.com continues to deepen its environmental protection strategy and promote green development through corporate operations, supply chain management, and driving consumers’ green life.

JD.com continues to accelerate the strategy of its low-carbon operation. In 2021, all office buildings built by JD.com acquired three-star design mark certification for green buildings, and the new green data center operated by JD Cloud achieved annual operation with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) lower than 1.1 (the closer the PUE ratio is to 1.0 the better energy effective it is).

JD.com continues to deploy new energy vehicles on the road, promote circular packaging, and build “zero-carbon” logistics parks to lead the entire supply chain to achieve low-carbon efficiency. In addition, JD.com announced the new five-year “Green Stream Initiative”, and promised to continue to invest RMB 1 billion yuan in constructing a low-carbon integrated supply chain.

JD.com promotes green consumption by expanding the categories of low-carbon commodities, and it drives more businesses and consumers to join the low-carbon consumption actions.

Green operation

JD.com has carried out a series of renovations to promote energy conservation and resource recycling through office practices and green data centers.

JD.com’s own office buildings are equipped with an intelligent operation and maintenance system, which can monitor the energy required for office work and propose energy-saving solutions for specific areas in real-time. In 2021, all the traditional lighting lamps in public areas of JD’s Building No.1 in Beijing have been transformed into LED lamps, with a total of more than 14,000 LED downlights replaced. After the replacement, the lighting power consumption in the office area of Building No.1 was reduced by 5000-9000kWh per day on average.

At the same time, JD.com has also created a wireless and paperless office environment. In JD.com’s office space, 5,520 wireless routers have been connected, and a total of 179 servers have been optimized, saving about 470,000 kWh of electricity per year and consequently reducing carbon emissions by about 286.7 tons. In 2021, JD.com has issued more than 2.8 billion electronic invoices, saving about 16,000 tons of paper, equivalent to saving more than 310,000 trees and reducing carbon emissions by 15,000 tons.

In addition to the green renovation of the office space, JD.com provides commuter shuttle services for employees. There are a total of 200 shuttle buses traveling to and from JD headquarters, including 80 new energy buses with an annual traveled mileage of 1.273 million kilometers, which reduces carbon emissions by about 742.2 tons.

Through green operations, JD has achieved green data center practices with a lower carbon footprint. Taking the East China Suqian data center in Jiangsu province as an example, its footprint has been reduced by 45%, while its power supply efficiency now reaches as high as 95.3%, and the direct-current (DC) efficiency is as high as 97%.

In addition, JD Cloud has established cooperation with Huawei co-launching innovative solutions for energy saving and emission reduction, including an intelligent indirect evaporative cooling system EHU (Environment Handling Unit), which can automatically switch the cooling mode according to the climate, and directly use the natural cold air of the data center to cool the computer room with AI comprehensive energy efficiency optimization technology, and medium voltage direct supply integrated power supply system SST, which strengthens the recycling of cooling energy resources.

Green supply chain

JD contributes to China’s carbon neutrality goal and global climate action by building a cleaner supply chain system with a lower carbon footprint. Last year, JD.com was officially selected as one of the “Best Practices for Enterprises to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2021 (carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals)” awarded by Global Compact China Network. Nowadays, JD’s green supply chain efforts span packaging, warehousing, and transportation.

In terms of packaging materials, JD.com advocates the use of green degradable materials to replace petroleum-based plastic bags. Meanwhile, JD Logistics uses reusable circular delivery boxes, foldable thermal insulation boxes, and circular packaging bags instead of disposable plastic packaging. By the end of 2021, circular packaging such as “Green Stream Boxes” have been used 200 million times. During the Singles Day Grand Promotion in 2021, each parcel delivered to consumers reduced paper packaging materials by 210 grams. Each parcel reduced disposable plastics by 11 grams and 25 centimeters of adhesive tape on average.

In addition to packaging, JD.com is also actively promoting green warehousing. At present, JD.com is promoting more intelligent industrial parks to achieve zero carbon emissions. Take JD.com’s Xi’an Asia No. 1 Logistics Industrial Park as an example, which has become the first “zero-carbon” logistics park in China. In addition, JD’s Logistics Industrial Parks were equipped with a rainwater collection system and photovoltaic power generation systems. The rainwater collection system can use all the collected rainwater for irrigation and road cleaning in the park. The photovoltaic power generation system can help parks reduce carbon dioxide emissions which have been installed in 12 smart industrial parks. Through low-carbon design, JD.com has helped partners achieve greener and pioneering brands. JD.com provided BMW Hefei with customized services for constructing the regional aftermarket parts center, which has obtained LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. BMW Hefei Aftermarket Parts Distribution Center has become BMW’s first “green warehouse” of aftermarket parts in China that meets LEED certification standards, providing an excellent model for green warehousing development.

Green transportation is also an important part of JD’s supply chain management. JD Logistics has deployed new energy vehicles in more than 50 cities across the country to replace traditional fuel cargo vans. By the end of 2021, the number of new energy logistics vehicles has reached 20,000 distributed in over 25 cities across the country, which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 400,000 tons per year, equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide absorption by 20 million trees.

Green consumption

JD.com advocates sustainable consumption concepts and green lifestyles through JD’s Singles Day Grand Promotion. In 2021, JD.com offered more than 150 million types of products that meet the “green consumption” standards during the Singles Day Grand Promotion. As of November 7, 2021, consumers had purchased more than 3.5 million energy-saving products and more than 400,000 water-saving products from JD.com. On the aspect of logistics services, recycled packages were used 11.35 million times accumulatively during the festival, which is equivalent to reducing the disposable garbage by 3,400 tons. At the same time, JD Logistics’ all-chain carbon reduction measures throughout the logistics processes reduced carbon emissions by 26,000 tons during the event.

 

(hanxiaoqian3@jd.com)

by Mengyang He

JD.com released its ESG report 2021 on May 24, highlighting its commitment to providing equal employment opportunities and cultivating more young and professional talents through various means.

“By the end of 2021, the number of employees in JD.com’s listed and non-listed companies has exceeded 420,000, with over 300,000 front-line employees included, and 80% of whom are from rural areas,” the report shows.

By providing front-line employees with a solid living guarantee and stable income, JD.com drives forward the employment of China’s rural population and promotes the rapid development of the livelihood and economy in rural areas.

JD Explore Academy

As JD.com also puts an emphasis on research and development, the company continues to provide a broader and more inclusive scientific research platform for professionals. According to the report, JD.com has built up a well-established professional team composed of over 500 experts with doctor’s degrees and 18,000 R&D professionals, with nearly half of the staff of JD Explore Academy holding doctorate degrees.

Regarding the recruitment of young professionals, JD.com has always placed a high value on talent acquisition and development, creating 358 jobs for fresh graduates in the past three years, and providing nearly 40,000 job opportunities.

With tailor-made training programs in place, JD is committed to empowering talents to achieve a more fulfilled career. For example, the report reveals that “on average each of JD’s full-time employee received 54.44 hours of training in 2021, and the listed and non-listed companies under JD.com organized more than 20,809 training sessions, and added another 10,262 training courses, with total course sign-ins of 160 million internal person-times and 16,000 daily active users.”

Employees from JD’s customers service centers

Inclusive opportunities are also at the heart of JD’s employment principles. JD Retail’s customer service center set up a designated department to recruit people with disabilities. “In 2021, 186 employees with disabilities hired by JD served in the customers service centers in China’s southern cities of Suqian, Yangzhou, and Chengdu,” the report states.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

On May 24, JD.com released its second annual ESG report , making it become the first Chinese e-commerce company to disclose climate-related financial information based on the framework by Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

As a leading technology and service company, JD.com started by selling authentic-only products more than twenty years ago. The company attaches great importance to intellectual property protection and is committed to preventing any kind of infringements.

At JD, a policy of “zero-tolerance” towards counterfeits has been reiterated again and again. Any merchant selling counterfeits on JD will be punished severely and removed forever. In 2021, more than 460 internal training sessions on intellectual property were offered by the company, covering nearly 10,000 employees accumulatively.

As said in the ESG report, JD.com has built an internal algorithm model and connected it with an external patent database to use systematic interception to prevent infringing behaviors. The model was designed to reduce the misleading and potential damage to consumers caused by fake patent numbers, expired patents and improper labeling, with a recognition accuracy as high as 94%.

The company’s anti-counterfeiting traceability platform based on blockchain technology has registered over 400,000 kinds of products and has received 10 million “quality traceability” inquiries from consumers.

During the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, JD.com worked closely with the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee and established a green channel for complaints handling Olympics-related goods.

At the same time, JD.com actively encourages employees to apply for patents and protect R&D innovation by offering incentives, talent evaluation and actively promoting R&D innovations.

Thanks to its commitment in providing trustworthy products and services, JD’s business has been developed across retail, logistics, health and more industries, serving hundreds of millions of users globally.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Yiming Yan

JD.com’s recently issued ESG 2021 report reflects the company’s ambition to be technology-based for a more efficient and sustainable world.

JD has been employing digital capabilities to increase supply chain efficiency and achieve sustainable development via technological innovation on the value of “boosting the real economy with JD’s identity as a real economy enterprise.”

As an example of the green data industry’s long-term growth, JD Cloud and Huawei have teamed up to release a new intelligent environment handling unit (EHU) that can achieve a power use effectiveness (PHU) of less than 1.25 in common application scenarios.

JD.com is actively exporting this expertise to boost the digital development of other industries while driving upstream and downstream firms in the supply chain to realize digital transformation.

JD Cloud is JD Group’s main technology and service brand. It makes use of cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as JD.com’s digital intelligence supply chain, and is a digital intelligence solution provider with a superior understanding of the industry. JD Cloud has supplied digital solutions to over 1,500 large businesses and 1.5 million SMEs as of today.

By 2021, JD.com will have completed more than 300 industrial projects in collaboration with the government, benefiting more than 70 cities. While assisting cities in establishing an integrated development platform and delivering integrated services for the entire industrial chain, JD.com creates an entry point for businesses to receive services related to their products and operations, and eventually connects the digital and real economy to stimulate industrial upgrading.

JD has currently used cloud technology to serve over 70 industrial parks, covering over 4,000 businesses and connecting over 200,000 upstream and downstream businesses in the industrial chain.

For example, JD Cloud has established a patented hybrid cloud platform basis for BAIC Group, merging 15 data centers and 19 clouds into one to suit the needs of a steady-state enterprise like manufacturing, using the hybrid multi-cloud operating system Cloud Ship. It enables BAIC Group to save 50 percent on system duplication construction expenses while also providing a 50 percent increase in overall production line productivity.

While helping to digitalize the industry chain, JD.com is also working to promote social governance and regional economic development through digital technology. JD.com has a strong digital intelligence social supply chain, cutting-edge technical service capabilities, and extensive expertise in assisting regional economic development.

Using the smart city cooperation between JD Cloud and city of Datong in Shanxi province as an example, a number of projects promoting industrial upgrading have been launched since 2018, including cloud computing database, e-commerce ecological industrial park, modern agriculture center, industrial innovation demonstration center, and new economic talent training institute. By deploying a number of innovative technologies, the construction of Datong’s digital transformation and high-quality development has been greatly promoted.

“In the past few years, we have firmly invested in supply chain infrastructure construction and digital intelligent technology research and development, a path that has at times been bitter and challenging but will also deliver the highest value,” said Richard Liu, Chairman and founder of JD.com, in the ESG report. “We are glad to see that our persistence has enabled partners to achieve high-quality development.”

 

(yanyiming1@jd.com)

by Doris Liu

As highlighted in its latest Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report, JD.com is always devoted to boosting inclusive development, embracing more people to participate fully in and benefit from development efforts.

The company helps people in financial hardship, with medical issues or in need of other help, not only via public welfare programs but also by revitalizing rural areas with its digital and technological capabilities.

With its supply chain advantages and solid capabilities in infrastructure construction, JD.com launched the “Benfu Plan” for rural revitalization in October 2020. The plan has been working with more than 1,000 agricultural specialties production zones and agricultural industry belts in China by setting up an all-chain path, realizing an output value of RMB 320 billion yuan as of the end of 2021.

Meanwhile, the company connected to over 500 large-scale vegetable cultivation bases and jointly built more than 70 modernized, standardized, and smart farms with some 700 online pavilions (online stores) for local specialties.

“We continue to increase investment in rural supply chain infrastructure and technology services, opening the whole industrial chain in rural areas, and comprehensively promoting rural revitalization through comprehensive solutions,” stated Richard Liu, chairman of the board of JD.com in his letter accompanying the ESG report.

For instance, Jingxi Farm, a rural revitalization solution launched by JD’s online consumption mall Jingxi, initiated the “Village Empowerment Action”, aimed to reduce the costs of agricultural supplies and improve the efficiency of agricultural services. So far over ten thousand farmers in eight provinces have benefited from the program with an uplift of average yield by 10-20 percent per mu, saving RMB 50-100 yuan per mu every year (a mu=0.0667 hectares).

By increasing millions of farmers’ income substantially through the rural revitalization plan, JD.com also created equal employment opportunities. Among the 300,000 front-line employees, 80 percent are from rural areas who enjoy a stable income , social security insurance and other favorable benefit policies to guarantee their livelihood and career path.

Children in under-developed areas were also helped by JD’s charity affiliate JD Foundation in the forms of donating books, improving their living conditions, and providing various supplies and services worth RMB 967,000 yuan to the SOS Children’s Villages.

More than 67,000 books were donated in a campaign to schools in rural areas in 2021. The donated books, picked up and delivered by JD’s couriers for free, not only cultivate younger generations’ reading habits with access to quality reading material, but also promote recycling for the environment.

In terms of charity support to patients, more than 24,000 patients with rare diseases were able to purchase medicines and obtain medication services from JD Health, and 69 patients with rare diseases were aided under the Rare Disease Care Project.

Created on September 24, 2014, JD Foundation donated over RMB 120 million yuan in 2021. The foundation always adheres to its mission of advocating corporate responsibility for a higher quality of life, and supporting public welfare.

Ranked by FORTUNE as both one of the world’s Most Admired Companies and the Chinese company with the highest “social responsibility” score, JD.com will continue to make contributions to society with business value and social responsibility.

 

(liujun215@jd.com)

– JD.com releases its second ESG report, with a chapter aligning with TCFD framework for the first time.
– The company pledges RMB 1 billion yuan in its green supply chain upgrading, known as the “Green Stream Initiative”.
– Positioned as “a new type of real economy enterprise”, JD.com is committed to serving tangible businesses of all industries.
– JD.com continues to monitor its organizational health status and recognize employees with competitive benefits.

Beijing, China, May 24, 2022 – JD.com Inc. (Nasdaq: JD; HKEX: 9618), a leading supply chain-based technology and service provider, issued its second annual ESG Report, outlining the company’s 2021 progress in the areas of developing green supply chains, boosting the real economy, promoting high-quality consumption and social efficiency, and more.

Read JD’s ESG Report 2021 in English

First report aligning with TCFD

JD’s proactive reporting and dedicating a chapter on climate change-related opportunities and risks that aligns with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a standard set by the Financial Stability Board of G20, for the first time in this year’s report is evidence of the company’s deep commitment to environmental and social responsibilities and its business philosophy of long-termism.

“We incorporated the TCFD framework in this year’s ESG report to develop a risk governance strategy for 2030, and through carrying out systematic transformations, we hope to build the company’s climate competitiveness while gaining new growth opportunities in the next decade,’ wrote Richard Liu, chairman of the Board of JD.com, in his letter accompanying the report.

The “Green Stream Initiative”

The ESG report revealed that JD.com has set a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent by the year 2030, based on the levels of 2019. To do so, JD Logistics pledged to invest RMB 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in the next five-year plan of its multi-pronged sustainability efforts, known as the “Green Stream Initiative”, to build a greener and more integrated supply chain that can offer a greater amount of low-carbon products and engage a wider range of merchants and customers together to practice responsible production and consumption.

As of the end of 2021, the Green Stream Initiative has driven China’s e-commerce logistics sector to reduce the use of nearly 10 billion disposable packages, replaced with reusable delivery boxes made of 100 percent recyclable materials that have so far been used 200 million times, involving participation of more than 200,000 merchants and hundreds of millions of consumers.

Meanwhile, JD’s Xi’an Asia No.1 Logistics Industrial Park is certified as China’s first carbon-neutral logistics park. JD Logistics has put 20,000 new energy vehicles into use in over 50 cities across the country, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 400,000 tons per year. JD Cloud’s green data centers reached a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of below 1.1, lowering 30 percent energy use of its infrastructure and 10 percent of carbon emissions year on year. The company’s newly-finished eco-friendly headquarters building received the highest rate of 3-star grade by the Green Building Label, the sustainable architecture evaluation system in China. These are only a few of JD’s various carbon-reduction achievements over the past year.

Serving the real economy

Stemming from its mission of “powered by technology for a more productive and sustainable world”, JD.com further elaborated on its identity in the report as “a new type of real economy enterprise” that possesses both the attributes of the real economy in its DNA, and the technologies and know-hows to serve the digital transformation of tangible businesses.

With the inventory turnover days in 2021 further decreasing to a world-leading level of 30.3 days, an advanced R&D platform for C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) products, extensive cloud computing infrastructure spreading across 70 cities and more, JD.com is providing digitally intelligent solutions to support the quality growth of enterprises across industries. As many small and medium-sized enterprises bore the brunt of COVID-19’s impact in the past year, JD introduced an array of fee-waiving policies and fully leveraged its smart supply chain competences to keep up their business operations, going above and beyond to ensure stable and timely goods supply to society at fair prices.

Meanwhile, supporting farmers and agricultural development is a high priority on JD’s agenda. The report shows that to date, JD.com has provided secured job opportunities to more than 300,000 frontline workers with over 80 percent coming from rural areas. Far beyond sending parcels to villages, by the end of 2021, the company has collaborated with over 1,000 agricultural production zones, co-created over 70 modernized farms, and established over 700 online pavilions to support the marketing and circulation of premium agricultural products, which have generated RMB 32 million yuan ($4.8 million) production value and increased income for millions of farmers.

Organizational health and employee benefits

In order to maintain a sound and stable development, JD.com conducts a survey annually to monitor its organizational health status, as well as offering trainings of business ethics and information security to all employees, including part- and full-time, and outsourced employees.

JD.com has established a comprehensive privacy protection mechanism covering management, technology, organizational mechanisms and more, and has obtained ISO27701 certification for the majority of JD.com’s core businesses including JD Retail, JD Logistics, JD Health and JD Technology. All business scenarios and system development processes that involve user privacy need to go through a Privacy Impact Assessment in accordance with required procedures, and will be tested and verified by security tools. At the same time, JD.com hires a third-party organization, BSI, every year to conduct supervision and examination of its privacy and security work.

In terms of employee management, the company has appointed Pang Zhang, who is Chief Human Resources Officer at JD.com, as its Chief Diversity Officer, responsible for JD’s diversity, equality and inclusion affairs. In addition, JD.com is devoted to a concept of comprehensive motivation and strategy implementation for employees by providing a competitive system of benefits and salary. It offers performance-linked incentives to all full-time employees, recognizes employees’ contributions to the company, promotes business development, and continues to share the company’s achievements with employees. With continuous investment in employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), JD.com has developed a complete personnel incentive and coverage system for management, technicians, professionals, and frontline employees with excellent performance.

 

Read the full text of JD’s ESG Report 2021 here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(press@jd.com )