Recently, Hurun Research Institute released the "2022 Hurun Top 100 Chinese Private Enterprises for Sustainable Development" for the second time, listing 100 Chinese private enterprises that best meet the United Nations 17 sustainable development goals. Huayou Cobalt has been selected as one of the Hurun Top 100 Chinese Private Enterprises for Sustainable Development for two consecutive years.

The sustainable development goals set by the United Nations include 17 goals and 169 specific targets, which aim to thoroughly address development issues from three dimensions of society, economy, and environment in a comprehensive manner before 2030, and turn to the sustainable development path.

High-quality development is the primary task to build a modern socialist country in all aspects. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly points out that to advance the construction of a beautiful China, we should be committed to the integrated protection and systematic governance of mountains, forests, farmland, lakes, grass, and sand, coordinate industrial restructuring, pollution control, ecological protection, and climate change response, coordinately promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, and propel ecological priority, intensive utilization, green and low-carbon development.

It is generally recognized in the international community that Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is an advanced management system at present, covering all fields of the company and reflecting the company's responsibility and sustainable development ability. Since its establishment, Huayou has consistently measured and promoted sustainable development guided by the five development concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing; adhered to the investment philosophy of "wherever we invest, we must contribute to the local economy and society", attached great importance to the construction of environmental, social and corporate governance systems, and actively responded to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations; adhered to the principle of "putting people first", attached importance to employee health and safety, maintained regional leadership and industry leadership in employee compensation and benefits, and promoted the realization of the goal of common prosperity.

▲On April 24, 2022, Chengdu B&M, a subsidiary of Huayou Cobalt, became the world's first zero-carbon factory for cathode materials.

In the context of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, Huayou has actively implemented carbon reduction measures, promoted green and low-carbon transformation of the industrial chain, and taken the lead in building a "zero carbon" factory in the industry. Chengdu B&M, Quzhou Huayou Resource Recycling, Jiangsu Huayou Energy and other subsidiaries of Huayou have successively passed the carbon neutral and low carbon certification by the internationally recognized inspection, accreditation, testing and certification organization SGS, and have respectively become the world's first zero-carbon factory for cathode materials, zero-carbon factory for resource regeneration, and zero-carbon factory for power battery cascade utilization. At the "Second Carbon Neutrality Industry Conference in Boao", Huayou launched the "Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Action Report of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd.", and signed the Boao Declaration on Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Action Plan with 35 enterprises. Huayou New Energy Technology (Quzhou) Co., Ltd. was listed on the list of "Green Design Enterprises of Industrial Products" released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC, Tianjin B&M was awarded the title of "Green Design Demonstration Enterprise for Industrial Products", and Huayou Energy was successfully selected into the fourth batch of the "List of Enterprises Meeting the Industry Specification Conditions for the Comprehensive Utilization of Waste Power Batteries" released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC.

In the past five years, Huayou has invested more than 1.5 billion yuan in environmental protection. All bases of the Group have made every effort to promote integrated development of "short-range process, large-scale equipment, production line automation, intelligent manufacturing, digital operation, and green industry", comprehensively reducing emission of various pollutants, and increasing production without increasing pollution. Meanwhile, adhering to the principle of product leadership and cost leadership, Huayou has also made continuous efforts in the field of technology research and development, rolled out the "330 Scientific Research" Plan, accelerated the integration of the "six aspects", and achieved a number of scientific and technological achievements. In 2021, Huayou invested 816 million yuan in scientific research. At the end of 2022, with 235 valid patents, Huayou was included in the list of "2022 National Intellectual Property Advantage Enterprises" and "2022 Zhejiang Intellectual Property Demonstration Enterprises", significantly enhancing its innovation ability.

As a global leader in the green manufacturing integration of new energy Li-ion battery materials and the action model of ESG listed companies, with the mission of "creating customer value and leading industry development", in response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Huayou Cobalt will continue to implement the Group's sustainable development strategy from the three dimensions of environment, society and governance, help to achieve the blueprint of sustainable high-quality development, promote green development and create a better future for mankind.