Improving equipment to reduce carbon emissions is difficult to obtain loans, and submitting ESG data has no standards. Recently, many small and medium-sized enterprises at the end of the industry chain have reported that their ESG transformation is s

As ESG shifts from individual corporate behavior to whole-chain collaboration, how to enable the "junior" players in the supply chain to keep up with the transformation has become the focus of industry attention. From the standard output of leading c

ESG Transformation Challenges for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Nowadays, supply chain ESG is not only a passport for enterprises to step into high-end markets, but also the only way to respond to the dual carbon strategy. However, in the process of green transformation, a large number of small and medium-sized a

The lag in cognition and ability makes it difficult for small, medium and micro enterprises to start with ESG transformation. At the recently held 3rd ESG China Innovation Annual Conference (2025) and the first ESG International Expo, Zhou Guoping, m

Besides cognitive lag, the lack of standards has also become an obstacle on the road to transformation. Zhang Zhengwei, Special Advisor to the Chairman of the International Sustainable Standards Board (ISSB) and Director of its Beijing Office, said t

Guo Zhaohao said that there are some difficulties in establishing a supply chain ESG ecosystem, such as data islands and information asymmetry, which will increase communication costs for companies on the chain and make supply chain risk management a

Due to the dual constraints of capital and technology, small, medium and micro enterprises have more than enough energy to transform ESG. Some small, medium and micro suppliers are facing the dilemma of high survival pressure and limited resources. T

In addition, the problem of "internal and external mismatch" has led to the situation where corporate and supply chain ESG become "two separate things". Industry observations have found that the crux of the problem lies in some companies only viewing

Chain-leading enterprises drive upstream and downstream to break through bottlenecks

Faced with the transformation difficulties of small, medium and micro-enterprises, more and more leading companies in the supply chain are starting to play a navigator role. Through standard co-construction, technology sharing, and ecosystem collabor

A unified standard is the foundation for the implementation of ESG in the supply chain. Liu Mingzhong, the first vice president of the China Enterprise Reform and Development Research Association, believes that we should build an innovative path for

Wu Xiao, the vice president and head of risk control and ESG at Tianhe Solar Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that the company has established an ESG management system for suppliers, covering management objectives, implementation plans, evaluation an

At the same time, the leading enterprises in the industry chain should also actively participate in setting industry standards to fill the gaps in their field. Chen Dexin, Chairman of China Minmetals Group, said that the company will actively build a

Standards cannot be achieved without technological support. Chain-leading enterprises should open their green technologies and management expertise to suppliers. As a national-level green factory, Pinggao Electric has established a green technology s

State Grid International has a broader international perspective in its practices. The company's Beilishan 800 KV UHV DC transmission project in Brazil has transmitted over 200 billion kWh of clean energy from 2017 to 2024 (equivalent to over 180 mil

Chain-leading enterprises can also build a transformation circle for small and medium-sized enterprises by integrating resources. Liu Yanhong, a board director of Dongfeng Automobile Group, said that the company has led the establishment of the Hubei

Du Le, the deputy general manager of China Energy-Saving and Environmental Protection Group Co., Ltd., stated that China Energy-Saving has established an air pollution prevention fund in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. By using the sovereign loans of i

Turn ESG Excellence into Real Value

The cooperation among enterprises is not enough. We also need financial tools and policy guidance to work together to make the ESG transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises profitable and accessible to financing, so as to truly realize val

Peng Huagang, president of the China Enterprise Reform and Development Research Association, suggested that we should give full play to the advantages of green and low-carbon fields, build cross-department and cross-agency collaboration mechanisms, a

An increasing number of financial institutions are incorporating ESG factors into credit decisions to provide green premiums for companies with excellent ESG performance. Liu Wei, deputy director of the Shanghai Stock Exchange Research Institute, sai

It is worth mentioning that capital markets provide a value export for supply chain ESG. The Shanghai Stock Exchange has launched a Special Action Plan to Promote the Improvement of ESG Ratings of Companies Listed in Shanghai, which focuses on key an

Chairman Shen Xiaoping of Tongding Group expressed that the company will incorporate ESG indicators into executive evaluations and cultivate six national-level specialized and innovative small-and-medium enterprises with supply chain access standards

From the standard output of the main chain enterprises to the precise dripping of financial resources, supply chain ESG is effectively solving the practical bottlenecks of small, medium and micro-enterprises and promoting the practice from single-poi