The Volvo Ocean Race boat is powered by wind and more than ever this year, the epic event is committed to ocean environment protection, one of the main issues of sustainability. As the race stopped in Guangzhou, China, last February, sustainability was high on the agenda of the dozens of seminars offered to corporate guests, partners and the press.
The “Racing towards Sustainable Transformation” forum held by Volvo Group China drew nearly 100 key opinion leaders and experts from the government, academia, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and enterprises in Guangzhou.
Watch a summary of the heated discussions covering the different facets of sustainability ie technology, environmental care, business ethics and CSR.
He Jiankun, Vice Chairman of National Experts Panel on Climate Change, Former Vice President and Executive Vice President of Tsinghua University, gave the first keynote speech addressing climate change. He emphasized that, ”Climate change is one of the greatest challenges against global sustainable development. It is a must-choice for China and the planet to accelerate energy revolution and sustainable transformation of our economic development patterns to address this issue.”
Liu Yanhua, Counselor of the State Council and former Vice Minister of Science and Technology pointed out that China can no longer realize a sound economic growth by simply depending on resources, labors and production factors. China must turn to technological innovation, which under today’s circumstances, should always be sustainable.
“Volvo Group firmly believes that focus should be on both technology innovation and sustainable development. We prioritize automation, electro-mobility and connectivity as key enablers for future transport solutions in recent years, which is not only driven by our need to maintain global competitiveness, but also by our mission to drive prosperity.” said Niklas Gustafsson, Chief Sustainability Officer of Volvo Group, “Volvo Group hopes to keep joining hands with partners in China to promote China’s green transition and sustainable development.”
With its ambitious sustainability programme, the Volvo Ocean Race aims at using its global and powerful communication platform to raise awareness on the very serious threat of plastic pollution. Dee Caffari, Skipper of “Turn the Tide On Plastic” team was invited to the stage to introduce the issue and present the concrete changes achieved so far.
