Driven by the dual-carbon goals and the strategy of strengthening the country in agriculture, the agricultural machinery industry is undergoing a profound transformation from scale expansion to value cultivation.
ESG has gradually penetrated into energy consumption management in production workshops, green access to supply chains, agricultural services in rural fields, and the strategic agenda of the board of directors.
Recently, relevant rating results show that the ESG performance of companies in the industry is significantly differentiated.
Enterprises represented by YTO Group have formed a systematic framework in terms of environmental governance, industrial chain responsibility and governance mechanisms, and have taken the lead in establishing a systematic ESG management system, providing a model for the industry to learn from in exploring sustainable development paths.
From the perspective of industry rating performance, the ESG performance of the agricultural machinery industry presents an obvious “pyramid” structure.
YTO Co., Ltd. ranks first in the industry with an AAApi rating. Its social and governance dimensions are both rated AAApi, and its environmental dimension is rated AA+pi.
Grebo ranks second with an A-pi rating.
More than half of the companies in the industry are rated at BB-pi and below, leaving a wide gap with leading companies.
This layered pattern of ESG competitiveness reflects the differences within the agricultural machinery industry in terms of sustainable development concepts, management system construction and information transparency.
Agricultural machinery manufacturing faces some environmental constraints common to the industry, such as the rapid iteration of emission standards and the high energy consumption density of the production process.
The response strategies of leading companies show the distinctive characteristics of technology-driven, energy reconstruction, and system protection.
In terms of energy structure optimization, as of the end of 2025, YTO has built a rooftop photovoltaic power generation system with a total installed capacity of 10.443MW through the contract energy management model, converting the pressure of purchased power into its own clean energy supply.
In terms of process energy conservation and carbon reduction, YTO Co., Ltd. used electric dynamometers to replace the original hydraulic and eddy current dynamometers, and added a power recovery system to convert the diesel consumed in the test into electrical energy for recycling, and the electrical energy recovery efficiency reached more than 60%.
In terms of environmental compliance management, YTO and its three subsidiaries have all passed environmental management system certification. Its subsidiaries diesel engine company and casting and forging company have been rated as national green factories, and the diesel engine 5G smart factory has been selected into the national 2025 5G factory directory.
In response to climate change, YTO has established a complete management closed loop of “identification-assessment-response-monitoring-review”, breaking down climate risks into four major categories: acute physical risks, chronic physical risks, policy and legal risks, and technology and market risks, and marked the time span and responsible department for each type of risk.
The social responsibility of the agricultural machinery industry has distinct industrial attributes.
Agricultural machinery products directly serve agricultural production, and their quality and safety are related to the stable and increased grain production; large-scale machinery companies, as the “chain masters” of the industrial chain, bear extensive social responsibilities for upstream suppliers, downstream dealers, and end farmers.
In terms of employee responsibilities, YTO has built a professional skill level recognition system from junior workers to chief technicians, providing a clear path for front-line skilled talents to rise.
In terms of occupational health, YTO has obtained ISO45001 certification and launched the “Dongfanghong EAP Employee Assistance Program” to provide psychological counseling to employees.
In terms of supply chain responsibility, YTO has deeply integrated ESG requirements into the full life cycle management of suppliers, and mandated suppliers in key categories such as casting, forging, welding, and painting to obtain environmental system certification.
In terms of product quality and safety, YTO has built a full-chain quality control system covering R&D, procurement, production, marketing and export. The product passing rate reaches 100%, and there are zero major quality accidents.
In the practice of rural revitalization, YTO adopts the operation model of “village collective + service center + professional managers + mobile phones + socialized services”. In 2025, it will complete 18,600 acres of agricultural production trusteeship operations, serving more than 1,600 farmers, including more than 410 poverty-stricken households and monitoring households, reducing agricultural production costs by 20%, and increasing village collective economic income by 195,000 yuan.
YTO’s core competitiveness in the governance dimension lies in the fact that ESG has been embedded in the functional scope of the highest decision-making body.
It revised and implemented the “Working Rules of the Strategic Investment and Sustainable Development Committee of the Board of Directors”, clarifying that this committee is responsible for studying and making recommendations on major decisions such as medium- and long-term development strategies and sustainable development.
In terms of business ethics management, YTO has established a closed-loop mechanism of “commitment-training-supervision-investigation”, organized management personnel and key personnel to sign integrity commitment letters, and organized warning education conferences.
Currently, driven by the continuous advancement of the “double carbon” goal, the accelerated implementation of agricultural modernization, and the deepening of international market development, ESG has become a core pillar supporting the high-quality development of the agricultural machinery industry.
However, there is still much room for improvement in the overall ESG level of the industry.
Most companies are still in the initial stage of ESG information disclosure, and there are still obvious shortcomings in carbon data statistics, supply chain green management, and employee rights protection system construction.
This is not only a gap, but also a potential space for quality improvement and upgrading.
In the future, as the agricultural machinery purchase subsidy policy continues to develop, the growth of new agricultural business entities and the release of demand for smart agricultural machinery, the competition in ESG in the industry will continue to heat up.
Leading companies need to further exert their benchmarking effect and drive upstream and downstream industry chain improvements through technological innovation and green product output; small and medium-sized enterprises should actively improve the ESG management framework, focus on environmental compliance, product safety and information transparency, and accelerate the construction of a sustainable development system.
With the widespread popularity of ESG concepts in the agricultural machinery industry, this traditional manufacturing sector will usher in a comprehensive upgrade of green, intelligent manufacturing and responsibility, contributing more powerful sustainable momentum to ensuring national food security and promoting the construction of an agricultural power.
