Special Report: 2025 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference & First Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo The 2025 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference took place from October 16 to 18 in the Shanghai Expo Park, Huangpu District.
The conference was jointly organized by the World Green Design Organization (WGDO) and Sina Group, with support from the Beijing office of the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS Foundation). It was hosted by Sina Finance and the Beijing representative office of the WGDO, with backing from the People's Government of Huangpu District, Shanghai.
Sheneng Group served as the global partner for the conference, leading discussions in the “Sheneng Group Special Forum” on the core topic of "Shanghai Actions and Multidimensional Collaboration in Global Transformation." Key discussions included "Creating a Sustainable Eastern Model," "Decoding the Sustainable Drivers of Shanghai's Industrial Upgrade," and "Exploring New Growth Paradigms for Shanghai’s Five Centers."
Lyu Jianzhong, former director of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), attended the meeting and participated in thematic dialogues.
Drawing from his practical experience in developing Shanghai's ESG standards, Lyu shared profound insights on promoting the integration of standardized approaches with local practices. He emphasized that the key to establishing a dynamic ESG standard system lies in effectively aligning international standards with local implementations, while managing “three critical balances” in the process.
Lyu articulated that in the standard-setting process, it is essential to balance three major relationships: the balance between generality and locality, the balance between advancement and practicality, and the balance between foresight and reality. "Standards cannot be achieved all at once," he stated. "We must not restrict ourselves, nor can we lack visionary perspectives, ensuring that the standard system meets the needs of phased development."
He illustrated his point with examples from Shanghai, such as the international supply material classification standard for ships and the subsequent development of the international supply chain management system for maritime medical apparatus and instruments. Due to its applicability and practicality, this standard successfully reduced procurement cycles by 40%, representing the direct value created from balancing “advancement” and “practicality.”
His discourse provides a clear framework for how Shanghai and even China can establish an independent, compatible, and efficient sustainable development standard system within the context of the development of the "five centers." In the current landscape of deep evolution in global sustainable development agendas and the accelerated reshaping of international standards, Lyu’s “balance” concept pertains not only to the effectiveness of the standards themselves but also to enhancing China’s discourse power in global green governance, offering significant real-world guidance for promoting high-quality development.
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