Alibaba Group just released the latest Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report that lays out its progress on the ESG front in the 12 months ending March 31, 2023. 

In this report, Alibaba revealed its efforts in reducing its own carbon footprint and slashing carbon intensity along its value chain leveraging technology and through increased use of clean energy. Alibaba also disclosed its Scope 3+ decarbonization progress since it pioneered the concept for a wider pledge of carbon emission reduction from its digital ecosystem and implemented it for the first year.

Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang shared in the report, “Over the past year, we have worked to deliver high-quality achievement of our established carbon neutrality goals.” 

“By transitioning to renewable energy, encouraging technological innovation and building a participant ecosystem, we achieved our goal of ‘double reduction’, where we reduced carbon emissions from our own operations and carbon intensity across our value chain,” he added.  

Below are the highlights for your reference. 

On sustainability: 

• In FY2023 (April 2022 to March 2023), the net emissions from Alibaba’s own operations (Scope 1 & 2) were 4.681 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e), with a decrease of 12.9% year over year(YoY). 
• Alibaba’s own operations reduced emissions by 1.419 million MtCO2e in FY2023, with an increase of 128.9% YoY; Meanwhile, Alibaba’s value chain carbon intensity was 8.7 MtCO2e/million RMB revenue, a YoY decrease of 5.7%.
• In FY2023, Alibaba reduced 22.907 million MtCO2e of emissions in total throughout its ecosystem (Scope 3+).
• The proportion of clean energy used in the total energy consumption in the self-built data centers of Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba’s digital technology and intelligence backbone, rose from 21.6% in FY2022 to 53.9% in FY2023. 
• Alibaba Cloud’s data centers achieved a decrease of power usage effectiveness (PUE) from 1.247 in FY2022 to 1.215 in FY2023.
• Alibaba Cloud helped clients reduce 6.863 million MtCO2e of emissions in FY2023 by switching from the traditional mode of locally deployed data centers and servers to cloud solutions. 
• As of March, 2023, Energy Expert, an AI-driven sustainability platform launched by Alibaba Cloud, has helped 2,580 enterprises worldwide to monitor, analyze and optimize their carbon footprint, facilitating businesses to take informed actions towards their sustainability goals.
• In FY2023, Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao cut down packaging materials by 184,000 tons by promoting shipments with used packages and original boxes.
• Alibaba’s carbon ledger platform has seen a total number of 187 million users participating in carbon emission reduction activities in FY2023. 

Other highlights in the report: 

• As of March, 2023, Alibaba’s self-developed AI-enabled screening tool for Alzheimer’s disease has served 118,746 seniors. 
• As of March, 2023, Alibaba launched “Cloud for Youth” program in 102 schools serving over 60,000 teachers and students.
• As of March, 2023, Amap’s wheelchair accessible navigation feature has been used over 900,000 times.
• In FY2023, Taobao and Tmall APPs served over 320,000 visually impaired users.
• As of March, 2023, Cainiao has enhanced rural logistics efficiency and built over 1,460 county-level smart logistics centers, along with nearly 50,000 posts in villages and towns in China.  
• As of March, 2023, 14,002 local doctors received trainings from learning platform co-created by Alibaba Philanthropy and Alibaba Health. 

For more information about the 2023 ESG Report, please check out the story from Alizila.