What does a sustainable society or sustainable living actually look like? In recent years, the term "sustainability" has become a topic of intense focus for companies and society at large. Companies release ESG report after ESG report, green summits are held one after another, and terms like "dual carbon," "low carbon," and "circular economy" are on everyone's lips. But when it comes down to everyday life, what it actually looks like seems hard for anyone to clearly explain.
On October 20, at the Shanghai Huangpu Expo Park, the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference officially opened under the theme "Building a Resilient Future Together: Global Governance, Innovation-Driven Development, and Industrial Upgrading." In addition, the Second Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo was held concurrently in the same park. With the above questions in mind, I attended this conference, and several moments left a lasting impression: some people were riding shared bikes to generate electricity through pedaling, others were stitching together card holders from fabric scraps and old leather piece by piece, and still others were feeding empty water bottles into machines and pulling out a four-leaf clover-shaped keychain a few minutes later. These moments not only happened at the main venue but also at the Green Taste Lifestyle Festival in the exhibition hall. I think this might help answer the above questions. At the same time, these actual environmental practices can explain certain things better than written reports.
Moment One: After Listening to Li Shufu Talk About Methanol Vehicles, Wang Jian Was Very Excited
At the main forum on the first day of the conference, Wang Jian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and vice chairman of the World Green Design Organization, stood on stage. He did not vaguely explain how important green design is but first drew a curve of technological development: since large-scale electrification began in 1950, global carbon emissions have climbed along with "technological innovation." "Technology has actually reached a watershed," he said. "From now on, all technology should aim to reduce the consumption of natural resources." Wang Jian raised a question on site: Can a city operate on just 10% of today's water, 10% of its electricity, and 10% of its land? He gave an example: Ireland conducted a pipeline network survey and found that 46% of water was leaking in invisible places. "When problems arise, people look for additional resources instead of making good use of existing ones," he said. "This is the logic that urban development most needs to change." However, the earlier speech by Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, made Wang Jian very excited. Li Shufu used Geely's investment in sustainable development to explain methanol, a new type of clean and renewable fuel. In his description, green methanol can convert unstable wind and solar power into liquid energy that is easy to store and transport, and each ton of green methanol can absorb 1.375 tons of carbon dioxide. To date, Geely has put more than 60,000 methanol electric vehicles into operation, with cumulative driving exceeding 25 billion kilometers. Meanwhile, a Farizon methanol electric tractor traveled 1,522.9 kilometers on a single tank of methanol, setting a Guinness record. "Green methanol is not a theoretical concept in the laboratory," Li Shufu said. "It is already a real productive force that can be scaled up and implemented." "When I heard Li Shufu talk about methanol vehicles, I was quite excited," Wang Jian said.
Moment Two: One Booth, One Answer
Beyond the main forum, the Second Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo was also held in the same park. In the expo area, more than 30 companies each answered the opening question by showcasing cutting-edge green technologies, innovative products, and solutions. In the hall outside the main forum, Yili's answer was a chair, pressed from about 6,300 recycled milk cartons into a "chair," whose three facades correspond to the letters E, S, and G, symbolizing that on the path of sustainable development, everyone has their own place. It is understood that Yili's 2026 environmental season cumulatively recycled 3,845.1 kg of milk cartons, about 192,000 cartons. Many attending guests gathered in front of this chair to discuss their latest feelings about the word "sustainability." One guest said bluntly, "With the advancement of technology, current sustainable development is becoming more and more tangible." In the exhibition area, I saw that each company's booth was writing a different answer: Meituan (HK: 03690)'s answer was a shared bike—sit on it and experience pedal-powered electricity generation, and you can receive a shared bike weekly pass. On site, some visitors actively participated, pedaling while watching their phone battery level jump up bar by bar. Xianyu set up carbon emission questions in the exhibition area; answer three questions correctly and you can draw a blind box. Several young people crouched in front of the display board, quietly discussing the questions and analyzing the carbon emissions of different items. Sony displayed its self-developed Triporous material and original mixed materials in the exhibition area, visually showing the audience the company's efforts in practicing the concept of "sustainability." Farther in, the booths of China Eastern Airlines, Ping An of China, Anta, Bloomage Biotech, and Lao Feng Xiang were lined up one after another, from green energy and low-carbon travel to skincare and precious metals. The tracks were spread wide, allowing people to directly feel the latest achievements of "sustainability" across various industries.
Moment Three: The Rebirth of Some Discarded Materials
If the first two moments were still on the corporate side, the third moment truly landed in concrete daily life. Inside the exhibition area of the Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo, there was a green market, which was also the most "unserious" place in the entire conference, where everyone could freely experience a sustainable lifestyle. Entering Area A, what came into view was the central workshop in collaboration with SHEIN. Here, visitors could use zero-formaldehyde wheat straw boards combined with traditional Chinese mortise-and-tenon structures to personally build a cute ornament. In the neighboring mindfulness time class, some visitors were using fabric scraps and old leather to stitch together new card holders or a new decorative painting piece by piece, while others were re-crocheting discarded fabrics into dishcloths. "Turning waste into treasure is also a better way of life," one participant said. Not far away in Area C, the weaving craft of broken porcelain art was being reproduced: shattered porcelain pieces were strung together with rope and wound into a small hanging ornament, and staff on site also explained the intangible cultural heritage craft of ancient porcelain regeneration art restoration to visitors. The busiest Area D was demonstrating the "turning waste into treasure" of waste plastic sheets on site: discarded plastic bottle caps and bodies were first crushed into fragments, then fed into molds and pressed into thin sheets, and finally ground into the shapes of keychains and beads, with no new materials added throughout the process. I saw on site that an empty water bottle, after heating and production, could become a brand-new four-leaf clover keychain. In this Green Taste Lifestyle Festival, "sustainable living" became brand-new keychains, decorative paintings, and card holders, which also seems to answer the question at the beginning, namely "what sustainable living actually looks like." As this conference reached its fifth year, I could clearly feel that "sustainability" is no longer a number in a report but has quietly become the entire process of turning old things into new items in daily life.
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