Recently, a financial media CHReview released an in-depth interview on ZEHO ECO. Against the backdrop of “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak”, as an eco-environmental technology operator, ZEHO ECO offers visionary ‘treatments’ to solve the problems facing the environment. The company mobilizes its four core business sectors – planning and design, ecological environment, smart technology and industrial operation. The goal is to solve environmental remediation problems from an all-round and comprehensive perspectives and eventually support our country to realize the targets of “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak”.
The original article written by CHReview
1) Facing drastic threat to human society caused by global warming, China releases action plan of “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak”
Ever since the industrial revolution, global surface temperatures have been on an upward trend, which exerts severe impacts on ecology, society and economy. Among all factors, the significant increase in GHG emissions, such as carbon dioxide generated from human activities, is the primary driving force behind global warming. In its report Human Cost of Disasters (2000-2019), the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) pointed out that the total occurrence of natural disasters worldwide has risen sharply in the first two decades of the 21st century, especially an astonishing increase in the number of climate-related disasters. According to the statistics, from 2000 to 2019 in total, 6,681 cases of climate disaster were recorded globally, with an 83% increase compared to the previous 20 years.
To mitigate or get rid of a wide range of climate-change-related impacts, major countries have reached a consensus towards the target of “carbon neutrality”. However, in 2020 alone, global energy-related CO2 emissions reached 31.5 billion tons and will continue to rise. Therefore, in September 2020, during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, China formally proposed the goal of Carbon Neutrality and Emission Peak, which refers to increasing our own independent national contributions and adopting more effective policies and measures to hit emission peaks by 2030 and attain carbon neutrality by 2060. The term “emission peak” refers to a specific point when carbon dioxide emissions peaks and stops to grow, and then falls back gradually. While “carbon neutrality” refers to the effort to offset the carbon dioxide emissions through afforestation, energy conservation and emission reduction, etc. to eventually achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions.
For major carbon emitters, such as the energy and transportation sector, reform should be prioritized. According to key statistics, in 2005, every ton of steel produced emitted over two kilos of pollutants, most of which were sulfur dioxide and particles. At present, the figure has been brought down to less than 0.6 kilo, with a decrease of over 70%. The current philosophy of emissions reduction in the transportation sector is new energy vehicles + intelligent transportation. The former refers to the new trend of auto manufacturing that represents the replacement of traditional fossil fuels with clean energies. Clean energies include but not are limited to electricity and hydrogen energy.
To realize “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak”, reduction is no doubt a solution with swift outcomes, but it cannot solve the problem. To achieve the sustainable development of human activities and nature and eventually meet the goal of “carbon neutrality”, it’s essential to keep “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak” in parallel. In this endeavor, the environmental protection industries serve as the major force.
2) For ecological and environmental protection industries, “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak” provide both challenges and opportunities.
First, to realize “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak”, concrete and clear data is necessary as a fundamental support. To monitor and track carbon emissions in cities, relevant government departments have conducted various of research and estimate on total carbon emissions and emission intensity. However, in the calculation and monitoring of carbon sequestration, there are still problems, such as inconsistent evaluation methods and insufficient monitoring accuracy. For instance, how do afforestation and the regeneration of forests, which can cultivate more green space and improve the quality of green spaces, increase the capability of carbon sink and ecological benefits? To figure out the answer, more calculation and monitoring based on scientific measures are needed. This asks for higher technical requirements for the environmental protection industries.
Second, as for carbon emission trading, 24 sectors have released calculation standards for carbon emissions currently and 2,225 enterprises have been assigned mandatory carbon emission quota. In the future, enterprises with over 10,000 tons of carbon emissions’ equivalents might be brought under government supervision. The inclusive market for carbon emission trading will soon be built. New topics such as how to build up an economy that places “carbon” at its core, integrates green, low carbon and circular development, and eventually helps realize the transformation of ecological, social and economic values have brought various market opportunities to the ecological and environmental protection industries.
Academician at Chinese Academy of Engineering, professor at Harbin Institute of Technology Mr. Nanqi Ren claimed, “The goals of emission peak and carbon neutrality require us to do more and better. To achieve these goals, we must stick to a high-quality path that prioritizes ecological and environmental protection, and green and low carbon development.
In the future, ecological and environmental protection enterprises are the key participants and proponents to realize the goals of carbon neutrality and facilitate green and sustainable development in China. On the one hand, these enterprises should work out the guideline to fit in the backdrop of “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak” to support low-carbon design, ecosystem maintenance, environmental remediation, resources and energy circulation, carbon neutrality monitoring and management, low carbon and circular economy, as so to achieve the goals of emission peak and carbon neutrality. Enterprises necessitate to explore sustained business models to reduce the continuous economic input in environmental remediation and operation, improve themselves in philosophy, technology, operation, management, services and evaluation, and create more social and economic benefits after achieving ecological benefits.
3) ZEHO ECO launches visionary arrangement to take precise command of industrial development
Speaking of the ecological and environmental protection industries, we’ve spotted a new enterprise – Beijing ZEHO Waterfront Ecological Environment Treatment Co., Ltd. (referred to as ZEHO ECO) who recently went public on the A-share main board. As an eco-environmental technology operator, ZEHO ECO possesses an acute sensitivity and vision towards the environmental protection industries. Years ago, ZEHO ECO had already noticed the significance of ecological and environmental remediation and the construction of ecosystem and implemented its philosophy of eco-environmental conservation.
In 2008, ZEHO ECO constructed Nanhu Lake in Tangshan, during which they found that solely garden engineering could neither complete solve the water quality problem nor achieve lush waters and green landscape in Nanhu Lake. Therefore, ZEHO ECO started the innovative “waterfront strategy” after thorough discussion and exploration. The strategy proposed the idea to restore and maintain the damaged natural environment with ecological construction methods, through which cultural landscape, environmental remediation and ecosystem construction were aligned.
Tangshan Nanhu Lake Central Park after restoration
As the exemplar project of “waterfront strategy”, Tangshan Nanhu Lake Central Park witnessed outstanding achievements of ecological restoration. 8,000,000 m3 dumped garbage, 8,000,000 m3 coal ash and 4,500,000 m3 coal gangue were processed and re- used. As a result, Fenghuangtai, Wolong Mountain, Shimin Square, Earthquake Memorial Park and other infrastructures were built, which furthermore promoted the ecological restoration and comprehensive management in Tangshan’s Nanhu Lake. Now, over 220 kinds of lush plants thrive in the area. The greening rate has reached 65%. The water area is 11.5 square kilometers. And over 100 species of wild birds back and forth for inhabitance, creating a safe, open and comfortable near-natural ecosystem with ecological and economic value. The project was selected into the list of Typical Cases of Ecological Product Value Realization (Second Batch) issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources in 2020, and became a model of theoretical and practical exploration in promoting the value realization mechanism of ecological products.
Tangshan Nanhu Lake Central Park after restoration
To further realize the goals of the “waterfront strategy”, ZEHO ECO seizes every moment to explore the industrial prospects. Since 2011, the company moved from Qinhuangdao to Beijing. ZEHO ECO has recruited outstanding talents from prestigious universities at home and abroad. These talents cover over 20 different disciplines, including ecology, environmental studies, GIS, urban planning, botany, oceanology, IT, etc. ZEHO ECO will continue to attract more talents to devote themselves to the cause of ecological environment protection. Meanwhile, ZEHO ECO introduced advanced concepts like Nature-based Solutions (NbS) as well as systematic measures like the “7+1” urban symbiosis with visionary insights. In addition, ZEHO ECO launched a series of projects in Erhai Lake in Dali and Baiyang Lake in Xiong’an New Area, all of which have seen tremendous outcomes in eco-environmental conservation.
NbS could not only help increase the capacity of carbon sink and control GHG emissions, but also strengthen our resilience to climate change and protect biodiversity. Lately, the State Council’s emission peak and carbon neutrality working group is now working on the “1+N” policy framework to achieve the goals of emission peak and carbon neutrality. The framework will speed up the transformation and innovation in ten major fields, while NbS is one of them.
4) ZEHO ECO sticks to systematic solutions and helps achieve of goals of “emission peak” and “carbon neutrality”
ZEHO ECO has reformed its business sectors to prioritize green and low-carbon development by integrating digital technologies and artificial intelligence. Based on the two major business sectors – planning and design and ecological environment, ZEHO ECO has focused on ecology-oriented smart technology and industrial operation and formed the matrix with four core business sectors to further extend the industrial chain, expand the market for environmental protection industries and improve the sustained competitiveness of the company through green low-carbon design, carbon neutrality management platform, intelligent park construction, interactive experience, “park+” city operation and other businesses.
ZEHO ECO has taken specific steps to meet the goals of “carbon neutrality” in carbon sink and emission reduction.
During the phase of planning and design, ZEHO ECO increases the vegetation cover nationwide and enlarges carbon sequestration through ecological space planning, urban reforestation and brownfield restoration. Carbon emissions have been cut down through the recycling of precipitation, garbage and waste.
In the construction of ecological projects, ZEHO ECO adopts virtual-nature ecological construction methods under the principle of not destroying the nature and environment. Measures are adopted to develop, manage, rehabilitate and improve the eco-environment by adaptation to and utilization of the local natural conditions, and adoption to low-carbon and environmentally friendly materials to restore the natural habitat, build a sound ecosystem and protect biodiversity to the greatest extent. The optimal goal is to enable plant and animal habitation to coexist in harmony with human activities. We sincerely hope the goals of carbon neutrality could be realized as soon as possible through enhancing the carbon sink of forests, waters and soil.
During the development of smart cities, ZEHO ECO, as a pioneer in digital technology to connect eco-environmental conservation with smart ecological technologies, has realized carbon sink and carbon footprint monitoring and carbon sink capacity forecast and analysis for ecological space by adopting advanced technological means such as laser radar, remote sensing and image interpretation, AI, big data and cloud computing. Through the analysis of digital botanic samples in the ecosystem, forest carbon sink has been calculated and monitored. The modeling has then been analyzed to build the carbon sink forecast and evaluation platform for forest carbon footprint. The purpose is to solve industrial difficulties such as monitoring carbon sink against the backdrop of “emission peak” and “carbon neutrality”.
The interface of ZEHO ECO Carbon Neutrality Monitoring and Management System
As the ecological space enriched, people’s demand for ecological space continues to grow. ZEHO ECO seizes this very market opportunity and has in advance installed operation-oriented and function-based projects such as culture and leisure, education of nature and micro vacation into the ecological environment construction. Another measure adopted is to get prepared for construction and operation in advance to effectively enhance the actual efficiency of investment in ecological construction and avoid redundant investment in construction and difficulties in additional projects, which will provide broader prospects for future growth.
Nowadays, with more and more large-scale eco-environmental comprehensive management projects, integrated solutions will become the mainstream to guide the development of environmental protection industries. ZEHO ECO has always attached significance to its top-down design and adhered to systematic thinking. It has formed the DBIFO (Design, Build, Intelligence, Finance and Operations) business model to cover the whole industrial chain. This model can further match the market demand to drive the realization of urban ecosystems and economic systems. It will help lift the limits placed on the industrial development space while getting aligned with the development trend.
As an eco-environmental technology operator, ZEHO ECO has always regarded itself as a “doctor” who looks after the environment. With integrating four core business sectors, ZEHO ECO offers a whole-life-cycle treatment and management from “physical examination”, “consultation” to “treatment” and “care” to address and symptoms and what’s more completely solve the environmental problems. As far as ZEHO ECO is concerned, the smart technology team serves as practitioners of physical examination that will promptly study the environmental problems through sensors, AIoT and other technologies. Later, the planning and design team will join hands with the industrial operation team to conduct “expert consultation” based on the spotted problems and provide integrated solutions. With the proposed solutions, the ecological and environmental team will act as a surgeon to treat the environmental focuses and conduct postoperative care to restore the ecosystem. Meanwhile, the industrial operation team will assist the ecological environment to “rehabilitate” through the operation of low-carbon and eco-friendly industrial modes to produce stable and consistent operating income for the project. The income will then be invested in eco-environmental conservation and form a beneficial cycle. Therefore, the ecological environment can finally be restored to a “healthy organism” with environmental problems truly solved and green assets sustainably developed.
5) Conclusion
During the era of the 14th Five-Year Plan, environmental protection in China faces unprecedented situations and challenges. ZEHO ECO always upholds the philosophy of sustainable development and strives to achieve the sustainable development between man and nature with the help of smart ecology. This is highly aligned with “carbon neutrality” and “emission peak” proposed by the Chinese government. We firmly believe that ZEHO ECO, with decades of experience in eco-environmental remediation, can empower China’s environmental remediation through science, technology and industrial operation, and will become a leading eco-environmental technology operator and pioneer in eco-environmental conservation.