From June 28th to 30th, the 2nd Sina Finance ESG Global Leaders Summit was successfully held. The summit was guided by the Department of Climate Change of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and co-hosted by Sina Finance and CITIC Publishing Group. Global ESG Development, Building a Sustainable Future”.
The summit focused on important issues in the field of sustainable development, such as: risks and opportunities of global climate change, sustainable economic recovery after the epidemic, the development trend of ESG information disclosure, and the cultivation of sustainable compound talents. In the face of new historical opportunities, it is the right time for the world to join hands to discuss new models of sustainable development.
On the morning of June 29, Li Jianquan, Chairman of Steady Medical, founder of Cotton Times and Jinliang Life, delivered a speech at the conference, sharing the exploration and practice of Steady Medical in the field of ESG.
Li Jianquan mentioned: “On the road of starting a business for more than 30 years, we have experienced several storms, waded through several dangerous shoals, and there have also been several temptations to make quick money. Today, we are gratified that the company has never pursued a business for its own sake. Maximize profits and lose reason, and at the same time, the company has never given up reverence for nature and protection of the environment while developing rapidly. This may also be the ESG gene seed sown when Robust Medical was born.”
In 1991, when I founded “Zhuhai Steady Medical Textile Co., Ltd.”, I didn’t know the concept of ESG. In that era when I lost my food and clothing and lost my job, when I had the opportunity to set up my own company, I thought about it. The company must not collapse, and must lead a group of people to succeed together. Li Jianquan recalled this.
“In the 1990s, when others were doing export trade, they always hoped that every order and business would make more profit than expected, but I was dedicated to making the best products for every order and business. , so that customers can rest assured and win glory for China’s manufacturing.” After ten years, in 2001, Steady became the leading exporter of medical dressings in China.
Looking back, the ESG seeds sown at the beginning of the birth of Steady Medical have just blossomed. It is this kind of gene that made Steady Medical participate in the big health industry earlier, and based on the company’s own values and genes, it clearly defined the core of “quality prior to profit, brand prior to speed, and social value prior to corporate value”. Operating principles, advocating “altruism”, pursuing the compatibility and complementarity of the enterprise and the society, and actively fulfilling the social responsibility of the enterprise while creating economic value.
It is worth mentioning that, as an enterprise that continuously practices ESG, Steady Medical not only did not increase the price of raw materials due to the sharp increase in the price of raw materials in the early stage of the most severe epidemic, but also responded to the government’s call for the first time to ensure that the production line “24 hours a day”. Non-stop” production of anti-epidemic supplies at full capacity to support the global anti-epidemic work.
Li Jianquan mentioned in his speech that at the beginning of 2020, a sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic broke out. On January 21, Steady Medical established an emergency headquarters at its headquarters to mobilize three factories in Hubei to not have a holiday during the Spring Festival, especially Huanggang Steady, which produces masks. Maintain 24-hour non-stop, and publish a statement on “Stable mask terminal sales without price increase” on Weibo and WeChat public accounts as soon as that evening.
Public data shows that in the whole year of 2020, Steady Medical has delivered 4 billion masks of various types, 9.39 million sets of protective clothing, 56.9 million pieces of isolation gowns, and 20.19 million pieces of surgical gowns to domestic and overseas medical institutions and government prevention and control commands. The Ministry of Health donated more than 13 million yuan of medical supplies.
All of this is a reflection of the social responsibility of the stable medical care. In the end, none of the 384 people in the Huanggang workshop took a vacation, and all of them stayed at their posts. With such persistence, masks and protective clothing with the word “Winner” printed on them followed the medical staff, entered the cabin, went to the isolation point, and went to the forefront of the fight against the epidemic.
On the other hand, the establishment of the “all-cotton era”, which has become the second growth curve of stable medical care, also started from Li Jianquan’s simple desire to “protect the earth and care for health“. Li Jianquan shared that at present, the cotton era is the only company in the world that only produces cotton products, and my original intention to create this brand is to adhere to the renewable and recyclable cotton industry, and to adhere to the product concept of comfort, health and environmental protection. , adhere to the original intention of the brand of peace of mind, happiness and sustainability, and insist on creating value for consumers while making the earth sustainable. Fortunately, the thirteen-year development of the cotton era has led consumers to have a new understanding of cotton products, especially young mothers, who find that using these cotton products is not only comfortable and healthy, but also planting cotton can reduce Soil erosion, reducing desertification, and making the earth more sustainable, they pay more and more attention to the concept of healthy parenting, so more and more natural cotton products are chosen, and more and more brands are following the use of cotton products.
In addition, Steady Medical has always been at the forefront in corporate governance. Li Jianquan mentioned in his speech that the company was listed on OCTBB in the United States in 2005, transferred to the New York Stock Exchange in 2009, and successfully landed on Nasdaq in 2010, completing the process of transforming a private company into a public company, perfecting the corporate governance mechanism, accepting At that time, the strictest Sarbanes-Oxley Act supervision, learning the management experience of international enterprises.
In 2012, the company’s business developed rapidly. When American investors could not understand the cotton era, we chose to withdraw from the US and actively prepare for listing in China.
Now, in response to the governance requirements of listed companies, Steady Medical has also fully launched the group’s risk control system construction project, and hired a world-renowned consulting firm to carry out special governance for the group’s nine modules, further optimizing the company’s internal risk control system, from environmental, social and corporate governance. The system has been comprehensively improved in three aspects.
Looking forward to the future, Li Jianquan said that Steady Medical will continue to optimize energy conservation and emission reduction projects at the factory level, continue to expand the amount of reclaimed water reuse, continue to expand solar energy in the factory area, and expand the capacity for water storage and cooling in low valleys. The initial goal of Robust Healthcare is to achieve carbon peaking by 2027 and carbon neutrality by 2050. Let each of us take action to realize a green and low-carbon living environment while creating business value and social value, and realize the sustainable development of the enterprise.
(This article does not constitute any investment advice, and investors operate on this basis at their own risk.)