(Hong Kong, 10 May 2023) –China Risun Group Limited (“China Risun”, or the “Group”, stock code: 1907), a leading global integrated coke, coking chemicals and refined chemicals producer and supplier and relevant operation management services provider in China, has published its 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report. During the reporting period, China Risun actively implemented measures echoing China’s ”double carbon” strategy. It gave strong attention to greenhouse gas emissions in the process of production and operation, focus on the physical risks and transformation risks brought by climate change, promotes the integration of climate risk management into corporate governance, risk management system and daily operations, continues to optimize the Group’s energy structure and boosts the share of clean energy and renewable energy, making Risun an example for the country’s coking industry in the pursuit of green transformation.
Incorporated green concepts into development
Coking industry is a typical energy processing and conversion industry. It is a key carbon emission source in China, hence has to deal with more serious transformation issues. To resolve those issues while exploring green transformation, the Group sees the need of incorporating an ESG management system into its daily development.
Specifically, the Group emphasized on the construction of energy-saving devices and equipment and have invested in construction of large-scale energy-saving projects such as the smart energy control center, flue gas residual heat recycling, heating by industrial residual heat, dry coke power generation, effectively realizing overall improvement of energy efficiency. The Group also emphasized on the lean control of actual operation, such as reducing energy input, focusing on recycling and utilization of residual heat and energy resources, which may effectively improve energy utilization efficiency, reduce energy consumption per unit product, and realize the green, low-carbon and energy-saving operation of the whole industrial chain.
At the same time, in recent years, China Risun has actively developed hydrogen energy business, vigorously deployed for building a complete hydrogen energy industrial chain. It set up Dingzhou Risun Hydrogen Energy, which is the parent of subsidiaries in Xingtai, Baoding, and Huhhot, and established a hydrogen energy research institute and officially release the Risun Group’s Hydrogen Energy Development Plan, claiming for itself the position of the largest high-purity hydrogen supplier in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region with clear advantages.
In 2022, Risun Hydrogen became strategic cooperation partners with more high-quality downstream companies, working together in the production, storage, transportation, re-fueling and use, on putting out key materials of fuel cells, manufacturing fuel cell systems, promoting hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and hydrogen energy and distributed energy storage. Moreover, Hebei Risun and the Baoding Municipal People’s Government had signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement regarding development of the hydrogen energy industry. The two parties agreed to become long-term, stable and good strategic partners in hydrogen production and storage, build and operate hydrogen refueling stations and application scenarios, nurturing jointly new drivers of high-quality green and low-carbon development.
Fruitful results from energy saving and emission reduction efforts
As it advances towards the “double carbon” goals, China Risun has kept ingraining ESG concepts into the organization, as such, it made new achievements in carbon reduction and emission reduction in 2022.
2022, enabled by technological transformation and optimization, China Risun embarked on a series of in-depth environmental protection improvement projects, putting in place such as a safety instrument control system, sewage treatment system, boiler wet electrostatic precipitator, andwaste alkali incinerator flue gas standard, and achieved ultra-low emissions of sewage, dust, flue gas SO2 and NOx and on the basis of reaching ultra-low emissions, innovated and broke through environmental treatment technologies, increased the areas its ultra-low emission targets cover, so as to build higher standard and higher level ecological bases, green factories and clean production lines. The Group’s main pollutant emission levels are shown in the table below:
Emissions Level of China Risun
Unit: mg/m3
According to its 2022 ESG Report, Risun Group reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 169,664 tons through technological transformation and optimization. the water recycling rate of fresh water was 98.5%, the process energy consumption of coke sector has been reduced to less than 110 kg standard coal/ton, well below the access value of energy consumption of the industry (which is 140 kg standard coal/ton), indicating a remarkable progress in energy consumption reduction. Comparison of the energy consumption level of Risun Group's main plants and the industry is shown in the table below:
Energy consumption level of Risun Group's plants and the industry
Unit: Standard coal/ton
Thanks to its improving hydrogen energy business layout, the Group was able to optimize its overall energy structure in 2022, reducing consumption of coking coal in the high-energy production process of coke and increasing the proportion of clean energy and renewable energy. In 2022, the energy consumption of clean coal production accounted for 91.62%, 6.45% down from 98.07% in 2016.
Dingzhou Risun Hydrogen Limited’s 6,000 Nm3/h hydrogen production project was put into operation.
This high-purity hydrogen production project is an integral part of Risun’s hydrogen energy industry
project, as well as a key demonstration project of hydrogen energy application in Hebei Province.
With a total investment of about RMB50 million, and a production capacity of 12 tons/day, the project
can produce hydrogen with a purity of 99.999% and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50,000 tons per year.
ESG practices gained recognition
The excellent carbon reduction results stated in the ESG Report are owed directly to the continuous ESG investment made by Risun Group. For it to achieve better yet green transformation on a more solid foundation for sustainable development, the Group has continued to step up related capital and human resources investments. As of December 31, 2022, the Group’s total investment in environmental protection has reached RMB6.483 billion. During the reporting period, the Group also cooperated with a number of commercial banks at home and abroad to make arrangement for the sustainability-linked loans (SLL) for use on green and low-carbon upgrades of its production processes. As of March 1, 2023, The total amount of the Group’s SLLs reached RMB2.402 billion.
Apart from investing in green transformation, upholding the philosophy of “taking from society and giving back to society” and the corporate ideal of “making the greatest contribution to social progress”, the Group has been actively fulfilling its corporate social responsibility. During the reporting period, it donated a total of RMB11.441 million and HK$1 million for prevention and control of the pandemic, rural revitalization, disaster relief and other purposes. At the same time, the Group has also engaged in university-enterprise cooperation, facilitated industry-academia-research collaboration, and committed to building better communities and creating a sustainable win-win ecosystem.
The Group’s active ESG efforts and outstanding green transformation achievements have earned for it wide market recognition. In 2022, the Group and its subsidiaries won 33 environmental protection awards and honors from local government departments or associations, and all of its production companies in Hebei Province received the “Grade-A Environmental Performance Certificate”. Also, in December 2022, at the "Hong Kong Green and Sustainable Finance Awards" organized by Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency, the Group won the "Pioneering Organization in ESG Disclosure Enhancement" award and "Outstanding Award for Green and Sustainable Loan Issuer".
Staying in pace with the country’s strategy to realize her “double carbon” goals while also facing increasingly urgent business transformation challenges, Risun Group will strive to attain its “The World’s Leading Energy Chemical Company – Innovation Leads to the Future” corporate vision, keep improving green management capabilities, speed up achieving carbon emission reduction goals and integrate sustainable development and ESG concepts into its industrial chain. It aspires to open a new chapter in green development for the coking industry.
– End –
