Industrial automation is the core engine for the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry. As the industrial heart of the national economy, the industrial control equipment industry’s sustainable development capabilities are directly related to the green, intelligent and high-end process of the manufacturing industry.
Recently, relevant agencies released the results of active ESG ratings for A-share listed companies, showing that leading companies have taken the lead in integrating ESG concepts into technology research and development and industrial empowerment, becoming a benchmark for intelligent manufacturing and green transformation.
From the perspective of industry rating performance, the ESG development of the industrial control equipment industry shows a pattern of concentrated head, less middle, and higher tail.
Three companies, Inovance Technology, Jiechang Drive, and SUPCON Technology, have obtained AA+pi ratings, leading the industry, and their performance is particularly outstanding in the social and governance dimensions.
Tianma Intelligent Control received the AApi rating, following closely behind.
In the middle echelon, Kerui Technology and Dahao Technology received A+pi ratings, Buco Technology received Api ratings, and Bojie Technology received A-pi ratings.
It is worth noting that there are 22 low-rated companies with BB+pi and below, accounting for more than 70%.
Most of these companies are still in the initial stage of ESG, and there is significant room for improvement in ESG disclosure. They need to accelerate the construction of ESG systems to cope with increasingly stringent environmental compliance and sustainable procurement requirements.
The key industry issues focus on the three core areas of green, innovation and responsibility.
In the environmental dimension, the industry’s production links involve electronic manufacturing and precision processing. It is necessary to promote green transformation of the production end, optimize the energy structure, and strengthen the standardized management of hazardous waste and electronic waste. At the same time, relying on technological advantages to provide industrial customers with energy-saving control and energy efficiency management solutions, empower the low-carbon transformation of traditional industries, and become a technical supporter of the “dual carbon” goal.
From a social perspective, industrial control equipment is the “brain” of industrial production. It is necessary to ensure product reliability and supply chain security, and prevent the risk of “stuck” in key technologies; at the same time, it fulfills the responsibility of technology inclusiveness, promotes the sinking of automation technology, assists the digital upgrade of small and medium-sized enterprises, and ensures the occupational health and production safety of workers.
In terms of governance dimension, in the face of global technological competition and trade barriers, companies need to establish a complete intellectual property protection and compliance governance system, increase investment in core technology research and development; at the same time, improve information transparency, proactively disclose technological innovation, environmental performance and responsible practices, and win market trust and international recognition with transparent governance.
Among the industry’s best practices, leading companies set benchmarks with technological empowerment.
Inovance Technologies actively responds to the national “3060” strategy and has set carbon reduction goals to peak operational carbon emissions by 2028 and achieve operational carbon neutrality by 2050.
In terms of energy management, it has formulated a number of management systems, set specific energy-saving goals from the perspective of energy saving and consumption reduction in the production process, and actively invested in distributed photovoltaic power generation devices. Its subsidiaries won the title of “Jiangsu Province Green Factory in 2024”.
In addition, we carry out a number of technical energy-saving projects and management optimization projects to innovate green products, improve product energy-saving benefits and reduce the consumption of natural resources.
In terms of circular economy, solutions with the best economic and environmental benefits are explored and promoted through material replacement, reduction, recycling and reuse, and management efficiency improvement.
Jichang Drive hires external professional organizations to conduct life cycle impact and carbon footprint assessments on products, and organizes carbon emission and carbon neutrality training internally to improve employees’ carbon emission reduction capabilities in product life cycle management.
In terms of product quality, the management is responsible for formulating annual product quality goals and decomposing them into various departments and quality control links, regularly reviewing and tracking the implementation, and linking goal completion with team rewards through supporting assessment and incentive measures.
Relevant systems have also been formulated to distinguish products of different categories, specifications, filling batches and inspection times by implementing label management in product production and inspection links.
In terms of supply chain management, we have established a supplier evaluation system, signed safety production agreements, anti-commercial bribery agreements, etc. with suppliers, clearly prohibited any form of commercial bribery, and established a reporting mechanism.
Supcon Technology has built 15 career development paths around employee development, established a digital system for employee development, realized a three-dimensional visual presentation of promotion standards, built an “online review center”, and achieved full-cycle data integration and closed-loop management of career development.
In terms of digital transformation, a “Change and Digital Transformation Committee” was established to make management decisions within the scope of authorization and provide management decision-making support in the field of change and digital transformation.
An Integrity Committee has been established, with the president serving as the director, and the principals of core departments as committee members. Anti-commercial bribery and anti-corruption have been incorporated into the performance appraisal system for all employees, and annual goals for business ethics and compliance management have been formulated and linked to the organizational performance of each business department.
Looking to the future, driven by the dual carbon goals and industrial digital transformation, the ESG development of the industrial control equipment industry will deeply evolve in the direction of green, intelligent, responsible and localized, with the core upgrades centered on three major directions.
The first is green technology empowerment. The company will increase investment in the research and development of low-power, high-energy-efficiency industrial control products, promote low-carbon transformation of production processes, and provide full-scenario energy-saving solutions to industrial customers.
The second is to improve the efficiency of digital risk control, using the Internet of Things, big data and other technologies to build a production safety and supply chain risk monitoring platform to achieve real-time monitoring and early warning of equipment operations and environmental hazards.
The third is responsible collaborative innovation. Leading enterprises play a role as a benchmark, driving the industry to improve technological innovation and responsibility empowerment systems, forming a development pattern of “leading by the top, following up by the echelon, and collaborating across the entire chain”, and jointly building a solid core foundation for industrial digitalization and green transformation.
For industrial control equipment companies, ESG is the core path to be based on the origin of industry, practice technology for good, and realize long-term value.
Only by deeply embedding the concept of green manufacturing, the core of innovation drive, and the principle of responsibility in the entire process of R&D, production, and service can we not only serve as an “enabler” of industrial digitalization and a “practitioner” of green transformation in the wave of industrial upgrading, but also use the power of intelligent control to light up the new future of high-quality development of China’s manufacturing industry.
