When you are sitting on the Metro Line 3 and approaching Baoyang Road Station, Baoshan’s “new height” comes into view. There are three neat scientific research office buildings and a Class A office building that is 183 meters high with 36 floors above ground. Some industrial heritages that have witnessed the vicissitudes of time are still retained around the high-rise building, contrasting with the outer glass curtain wall of the high-rise building. This is the core functional area of green and low-carbon supply chain in Baoshan District and also the location of the first characteristic industrial park themed greenness and low carbon in Shanghai.

The special steel pilot region of Wusong Innovation City starts from history. We should remember yesterday, cherish today and look forward to tomorrow, because the original industrial heritages are symbolizing the principles that scientific and technological innovation development must objectively follow. Nowadays, Baodi Qiyuan is a project for Initial Public Offering, and its first two developed buildings, which are the steel rolling mills built in 1961, are already being or will soon be put into use. Since these two L-shaped industrial heritages are multi-spanned, extra-long and superhigh, architectural designers can display innovative techniques here with great facility. When people walk between the light wells and the transparent corridors, it seems that they can also experience the light and heat emitted during steel rolling half a century ago. The combination of coldness and enthusiasm is charming.

The remaining industrial heritages are revealing the great significance carried by Baowu (Shanghai) Carbon Neutrality Industrial Park at present from another aspect. To a large extent, green transition is centered around carbon emissions. Nowadays, many industrial parks collect waste gas for recycling to form an ecological cycle of industries. This is the only way to respond to the challenges of climate change and move towards sustainable development.

For export enterprises themselves, they should actively use innovative technologies to reduce carbon emissions and calculate the corresponding product carbon footprints, which is recognized by the upstream and downstream of the global industry and is the core of the green and low-carbon transition of the industry and the improvement of competitiveness. To promote this goal, especially through the chain leader enterprises, we should drive the construction of the green and low-carbon supply chain system, and then use means such as green finance to promote carbon emission reduction in various key links of the industrial chain.

At present, the circular economy and the green transition in the industrial field are being advanced through a series of works such as the database creation, standard formulation, and accounting rule of carbon emissions. As the chain leader enterprise in the industrial chain, Baowu is also the developer and operator of this space. Content and form determine each other. The construction of a space comes from the actual demands of the industry. For example, the Green and Low-carbon Supply Chain Public Service Platform (hereinafter referred to as the “Green Chain Platform”) is under construction. At present, the South Building has gathered and entered functional platforms such as Baowu Central Research Institute, Low-Carbon Metallurgy Innovation Center, Global Low-Carbon Metallurgy Innovation Alliance, and Baoshan Science and Technology Innovation Talent Port, and many fundamental works have been consolidated here.

That is to say, in the future green transition, this place will still show its leading role. Among them, Baowu takes the lead in opening up the path of low-carbon development of the steel industry through scientific and technological innovation. The Global Low-Carbon Metallurgy Innovation Alliance is established to create a global low-carbon metallurgy innovation technology exchange platform. Meanwhile, a global innovation test base is set up for new energy, energy conservation and environmental protection in order to provide a “pilot” application scenario, promote innovation collaboration and technical cooperation in the upstream and downstream industrial chains, and boost the sustainable development of industry innovation. A vertical service sharing platform for carbon neutrality technology trading market and carbon trading industry is explored for the establishment in a form of cooperation in order to promote a new investment and financing model for the green finance to support low-carbon transition and development.

Relying on resources of research and development, technology, talent, and application scenarios of Baowu, which serves as the chain leader of the green and low-carbon supply chain, the special steel pilot region of Wusong Innovation City has introduced and cultivated a number of green and low-carbon enterprises, gathered a number of service institutions such as carbon accounting, carbon certification, carbon consulting and carbon finance, established and improved the green and low-carbon public service system in the park, and helped enterprises enhance their international influence and discourse power in the “dual carbon” field. Thus, with the industrial agglomeration effect, this region should focus on key and core links, promote more innovation collaboration and technical cooperation in the upstream and downstream supply chains, have a greater driving effect, and enable the industry to smoothly meet the challenges of green transition.

At present, the Green Chain Platform that will settle in the tallest building of Baowu (Shanghai) Carbon Neutrality Industrial Park is building a product carbon footprint management system that includes unified product carbon footprint accounting rule standards, carbon footprint background databases and product carbon labeling and certification systems, and has released 17 standards and specifications such as ISO 14067-2018 Greenhouse Gases - Carbon Footprint of Products - Requirements and Guidelines for Quantification and Evaluation Standard of Zero - Carbon Factory. Relying on the CN100 Green and Low-carbon Supply Chain Alliance of Chain Leader Enterprises, product carbon footprint experts and process technology experts from all walks of life at home and abroad are also gathering here. Through co-construction and sharing, a safe and circulating Chinese carbon database has been created, covering industries such as coal, iron ore, fluxing ore, non-ferrous metals, rare earths, chemicals, industrial gases and transportation services.