On August 2017, the “GoldenBee CSR 2030 Tour”—— Serving the Belt and Road Initiative and Practising United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda was held in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. This event is closely linked to the main issue of sustainable development and becomes an indicator for corporate social responsibility (CSR).
The event was hosted by China WTO Tribune, co-hosted by IBM China and Ningxia Entrepreneurs Association. The representatives of scholars, CSR experts and media, like Qian Xiaojun, Assistant Dean of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) of Tsinghua University, Liang Xiaohui, Pioneers in Sustainability Development Goals, Xiong Huajun, Deputy Secretary-General of Chinese Electronics Standardization Association, Tian Maoli, researcher of Zhejiang Province CSR Promotion Association attended the event. Some representatives of “GoldenBee Enterprise” also attended the event, such as China Mobile Limited Ningxia Branch. They visited enterprises and associations, exchanged ideas and attended seminars to discuss how to give full play to enterprises’ advantages and employees’ expertise to serve the Belt and Road Initiative and contribute to achieving SDGs.
The group photo of “GoldenBee CSR 2030 Tour” team and Fu Zhao’e, intangible cultural heritage successor of papercut (the third from left in the first row)
The first station of “GoldenBee CSR 2030 Tour” in 2017 is Yinchuan, an important city of commerce and trade on the Belt and Road. The team hopes to learn about how the IBM’s global volunteer team help five agencies recipients in Yinchuan to overcome difficulties and challenges. The participants held in-depth exchanges and heated discussions on how enterprises can play their expertise to serve society, support the development of Ningxia and share great results of sustainable development. The discussion realized the goal of communication, establishment of platform and value sharing.
The exchanges and discussion among participants
The CSR team first came to Ningxia Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Association in Yinchuan. During the visit, Guo Hai, Secretary-General of Ningxia Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Association, introduced the Association’s production of papercut works, making the guests have a deeper understanding of papercut and intangible culture. Mr. Guo expressed gratitude to IBM’s volunteer team for their help in the past one month, especially the suggestions on data platforms and sales channels, and the thinking workshop adopted by IBM has also inspired him a lot.
Guo Hai, Secretary-General of Ningxia Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Association introduces the suggestions that CSC provided for them.
The teacher of Ningxia Intangible Cultural Heritage Development Association is providing training to the local women.
On August 4, the team came to the Ningxia Clean Development Mechanism Environmental Service Center (CDM center). Jasmine Liang, Manager of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs of IBM, firstly introduced the practices and experience of IBM in serving society by expertise. Dr Zhang Libo of IBM Research-China, introduced how IBM’s Green Horizon to support China to transform energy system, and contribute to the huge promotion in three fields, including air quality management, renewable energy forecasting and industrial energy optimization.
Wechita Souza, a volunteer from India, introduced how to serve CDM center. The team has given detailed evaluation and suggestions to CDM center from process optimization, data insight, and cloud computing.
Jasmine Liang, Manager of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs of IBM, introduces CSC project.
Wechita Souza, a volunteer of IBM CSC team, introduces project results.
Zhang Jisheng, founder and Chairman of the Board of CDM center, said that there is a long way to go for the environmental protection and low-carbon emission reduction in Ningxia. We will fully adopt the plan of the IBM CSC team and implement in the follow-up work to make Ningxia more sustainable.
In the tour, many IBM employees introduced IBM with a picture. This picture is composed of an “eye”, a “bee” and a letter “M”. “Eye” (I) represents IBM’s forward-looking insight into the needs of stakeholders, and IBM is good at seeing and finding responsibility; “Bee” (B) represents IBM’s employees, like diligent bees, put their responsibilities into practices. “M” stands for “Machine”, which means that IBM starts with machines, and also shows that IBM is actively playing corporate advantages and continues to serve the society through corporate transformation and innovation.
Qian Xiaojun, Assistant Dean of SEM of Tsinghua University, makes a summary.
Qian Xiaojun, Assistant Dean of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, gave a high appraisal of this event. She said that the GoldenBee Global CSR 2030 Initiative aims to build a corporate responsible competitiveness through a coherent concept of responsibility and innovative action to promote a good relationship between business and society and to achieve sustainable business and social development. As the member company of GoldenBee Global CSR 2030 Initiative, IBM has upheld the public welfare concept of “expertise to serve the community”, and has made remarkable contribution to Ningxia targeted poverty alleviation, female empowerment, innovation and sustainable development.