How to turn a wasteland into an energetic science city? Committed to its unique philosophy of "ecology, humanity and technology", Zizhu High-tech Park explores new horizons of technological innovation and builds a pilot ground for sustainability concept. This international high-tech park is characterized by humanism, diversity, inclusion, happiness and harmony, in which enterprises, residents, and talents can find their ideal space. From lucid water in Lanxiang Lake to breakthroughs made by tech enterprises, what efforts has Zizhu High-tech Park made?

When Huangpu River flows through Wujing Town, which is located in the southeast of Minhang District, the central area of Shanghai, it turns, making a 90-degree bend. It is the deepest section of Huangpu River in Shanghai, so it鈥檚 called 鈥渢he first bay of Huangpu River鈥? A 鈥渟mall town鈥?adorned with high buildings, green plants, and sparkling waters, is located in this bay, that is Zizhu National High-tech Industrial Development Park (鈥淶izhu High-tech Park鈥?or 鈥渢he Park鈥?for short).

Shanghai Zizhu Science and Technology Industrial Park saw its construction officially start in 2002, which later became Zizhu National High-tech Industrial Development Park. Builders had an ambitious idea, that is building a science town within twenty years. They have acted on the development concept of 鈥渆cology, humanity and technology鈥? since the beginning of the Park鈥檚 planning. Now, their promise becomes a reality. More than two decades of toil and moil turns the wasteland into a prosperous science city. At the same time, the sustainability concept of 鈥渆cology, humanity and technology鈥?has been implemented throughout the process of construction and operation. The Park has devoted active efforts to influencing stakeholders, aiming to promote them to practice the principles of sustainable development, thus building a sustainability-oriented ecosystem in the Park and a future city full of vitality and shared values.

Building a Solid Foundation for Sustainable Development

At the beginning of its establishment, Zizhu High-tech Park has made ecology and humanism a defining feature and embedded high-tech gene in its development. The Park pays attention to common development of ecological conservation, cultural environment and featured industry, with a commitment to building an international high-tech park desirable to live and work in.

Entering the Park, the charming Lanxiang Lake comes into view. This large man-made lake, completed in 2020, is responsible for water regulation and storage in this region, and is the core area of biodiversity protection in the Park. Zizhu High-tech Park strictly enforces ecological conservation red lines and is designed in strict accordance with requirements of environment functional zones. A clever combination of roads, rivers, and water features constructs a complete ecological network system. 鈥淲e hope to build the Park into a beautiful little park, full of birds and flowers. After years of ecological construction, dozens of species of birds come back, such as egrets and the like, which photographers have captured many times,鈥?said Luo Shanying, Party secretary and vice general manager of Zizhu High-Tech Park.

It is the ultimate goal of Zizhu High-tech Park to build a diversified, inclusive, happy and harmonious industrial park with humanistic flavor. With a focus on development needs of enterprises in the Park, residents in the community, and talents in the city, the Park extends its 鈥減latinum services鈥?and builds a bridge for social welfare to provide more innovative talents with space desirable to live and work in. 鈥淚n the early days of PNC Process Systems, we moved out of residential houses to the Park, becoming the second enterprise settled in the Park. Nowadays, the team of PNC Process Systems has more than 2,000 employees, and annual orders reach nearly RMB 4 billion. Our company are among the top 15 taxpaying enterprises in Zizhu High-tech Park. The Park injects power into the development of enterprises. With the Park鈥檚 鈥減latinum industrial services鈥? enterprises can be free of concerns in household registration, children鈥檚 education, and all kinds of supporting facilities. With these efforts, enterprises can concentrate on developing and exploring their main business without worries,鈥?said Ms. Jiang Yuan, Chairman of PNC Process Systems Co., Ltd., at the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Zizhu High-tech Park.

Keeping Abreast of the Trend of the Times to Build a Model of Sustainable Parks

The trend of sustainable development sweeps the world, during which Zizhu High-tech Park strives to be a pioneer. After the United Nations proposed the Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs), Zizhu High-tech Park has made active efforts to explore the approach to sustainable development and social responsibility management within the SDG framework, so as to improve the sustainability performance of the Park and enterprises in the Park. In 2016, Zizhu High-tech Park established the Social Responsibility Alliance and built a platform to jointly promote sustainable development and put in place strategic plans with the Alliance at its core. Under the principle of openness and sharing, the Park invites stakeholders including regional managers(government), platform participants(communities and schools), platform users(enterprises), and platform builders(Zizhu High-tech Park) to promote the Park development and corporate social responsibility fulfillment. Stakeholders have built a sound interaction with each other through services, participation, cooperation, supervision and guidance, and realized sustainable governance in Zizhu Park to promote regional sustainable development. By the end of 2023, Zizhu Social Responsibility Alliance had 37 members, including well-known international and domestic enterprises such as Intel, Microsoft, Coca Cola, and Neusoft.

Enterprises are the most dynamic organism in social economy. They are the practitioners to integrate social responsibility and commercial values. In recent years, ESG concept has been thriving in China and has been widely applied in practice, bringing new challenges and opportunities to enterprises. Zizhu High-tech Park, as the 鈥渉ousekeeper鈥?for operators and enterprises in the Park, is acutely aware of this trend and takes the lead in finding better ways to serve enterprises and guide ESG development in the Park. Though in-depth research and communication, Zizhu High-tech Park identifies needs of enterprises in the Park, and carefully prepares a well-targeted and practical manual. The Park carries out diversified training courses and exchange activities, aiming to provide specific guide to enterprises. As early as 2019, Zizhu High-tech Park developed the Essentials of Social Responsibility Workbook and Social Responsibility Strategic Planning(2019-2021) , which is the first attempt of China鈥檚 national high-tech park in promoting corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, providing systematic guidance for enterprises in the Park to promote social responsibility fulfillment. In 2023, the Park participated in formulating the Understanding ESG in One Hour, which describes the whole picture of ESG to readers in plain language, and provides practical tools and strategies to help enterprises build and optimize their ESG management framework. As the ESG concept is racing ahead, Zizhu High-tech Park launched the 鈥淶izhu ESG Lecture鈥?in 2024. The Lecture deeply analyzes core ESG issues in an enterprise鈥檚 daily operation from five topics, that is, ESG fundamentals and disclosure, a guide to carbon neutrality for enterprises, practice and innovation of green finance, global ESG system and certification, and building a diversified, fair, and inclusive business ethnics culture, in order to help enterprises improve ESG management.

Through sharing the value of sustainable development, more stakeholders can witness the strength and potential of sustainable development, thus facilitating public understanding and gaining their support. Zizhu High-tech Park leverages its advantages in industrial services to help stakeholders including enterprises and communities to feel the value and influence of ESG. For example, the Park has established the industrial community, 鈥淕reen Energy,鈥?with a focus on new energy to build a green industrial ecology and accelerate the energy transition. It has planned and organized a forum on sustainable development, inviting enterprises, professional organizations, and university scholars to share up-to-date views and actions in sustainable development. As of 2023, the forum has held four sessions, attracting the attention of hundreds of thousands of people, which gradually becomes the hallmark of the Park in sustainable development. The forum strikes a chord with stakeholders and helps set enterprises on the road towards both brand value and social benefits. Through diversified reciprocal practices, Zizhu High-tech Park not only promotes prosperity in the Park, but also expands the influence of ESG concept to a broader field, bringing win-win outcomes to all sectors of society.

Expanding Influence to Jointly Improve Regional Sustainability

Involving more individuals and organizations in actions towards the future is an effective means to turn the vision of sustainable development into reality. Zizhu High-tech Park keeps good relations with institutions, including the United Nations, the World Bank, foreign consulates, well-known foundations, and universities and colleges. The Park works together them to put in place a series of industry-first and socially influential projects on sustainable innovations targeted at enterprises, communities, and teenagers in the Park.

Cao is a student of the Zizhu Bilingual School Attached to No.2 High School of East China Normal University. She launched the project called 鈥淓mile books exchange - low-carbon reading styles鈥?through Action4Good campaign hosted by the Zizhu Sustainable Laboratory. In this project, she made cards to call for water conservation, and distributed these cards to friends. She held a secondhand book fair in which people can give away or exchange books, so as to save papers, thus reducing deforestation. More than 100 participants paid more attention to issues such as resource conservation and carbon emission reduction through this project and planted the seeds of sustainable development in their hearts. In order to guide community participants better practice sustainable lifestyle and eco-friendly concept, Zizhu Sustainable Laboratory has formulated the Handbook on Sustainable Actions to encourage participants to think about the impacts of climate and environment from more perspectives in real environment. More than 80 proposals sketch out a vision for an ideal city through the Sustainable Laboratory from multiple aspects, such as inclusive city, low-carbon consumption and transportation, and coexistence between cities and the nature. 11 projects have been put in place in Shanghai and other cities. Interconnected development of schools, the Park, and communities influences more than 40,000 participants, and brings a better life to a broader group.

In the era of new media, the influence of KOL provides new impetus to spread actions towards sustainable development. In 2018, Zizhu High-tech Park worked together with the non-profit organization, TED, to launch the TEDxZizhuPark. Centered on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Park invited speakers in different fields to share their stories and practices, with an aim to build a local community who attaches importance to technology, innovation and sustainable development. In this community, post-90s explorers devote to humanism, public welfare and society, launch the Youth-empowered Village Program to bring sustainable lifestyle to villages; founders of enterprises share their responsible practices in building a beautiful factory, garden factory and community factory; young scientists show the great potential of technology in improving social inclusion and call on the academia to remove barriers in interdisciplinary research, so as to build an AI system sharing same values with human and promote harmonious development between human and AI.

In addition, Zizhu High-tech Park cooperates with Coca Cola China, and Zizhu International Education Park to develop the Course on Sustainable Development and Youth Responsibility Leadership , which is targeted at young students, aiming to encourage them to spread China鈥檚 social responsibility. The three build the Zizhu Young Volunteers Alliance(also called Zimi Alliance), in order to help enterprises to build professional, branding, sustainable, and reproducible public welfare programs in terms of environmental protection and education. For more than a decade, over 1,000 volunteers from 11 enterprises have participated in social welfare activities.

Sustainable development is a long-term commitment. Adhering to the concept of 鈥渆cology, humanity and technology鈥? Zizhu High-tech Park will take continuous actions in the fields of scientific and technological innovation, platinum services, Party building, green ecology and community development, so as to explore a new sustainable development path that coordinates scientific and technological innovation, economic prosperity and ecological conservation, build a model park for global sustainable development, and contribute to the realization of the global sustainable development goals.