China's First Zero-Carbon Food Factory: Yili Group's Yunnan Facility Certified as Achieving Carbon Neutrality

• Bureau Veritas recognized Yili Yunnan Dairy for having achieved carbon neutrality, representing the first "zero-carbon factory" among Chinese food manufacturers.
• As China's first dairy producer that is publicly committed to becoming carbon neutral, Yili is accelerating the pace of its green development, energy saving and carbon reduction efforts.

KUNMING, China, March 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On February 28, 2022, Yili Group received the PAS 2060 certification on carbon neutrality from Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification. This also recognizes the dairy producer's Yunnan facility for having become the first "zero-carbon factory" in China's food industry.

Bureau Veritas believes that Yili will take carbon neutrality as an opportunity and leverage technological innovations to promote green development. It said Yili will play a pioneering and leading role in China's dairy industry in exploring unique pathways to achieve carbon neutrality.

Yili Yunnan Dairy was first established in 2012 and then entered into production in 2015. Last year, Yili Yunnan Dairy received the first "green electricity certificate" in China's food industry. Through continuous efforts focused on energy management, the factory's total energy consumption has steadily declined, falling 15.7% year-on-year to 28.77 kilograms per ton in 2021. On February 22, 2022, Yili Yunnan Dairy successfully completed a carbon inventory assessment and passed the China Certified Emission Reductions (CCER).

In 2020, Yili became the first Chinese dairy producer to be publicly committed to becoming carbon neutral after China announced its 2030/2060 climate goals (achieving peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060) at the United Nations General Assembly. Last year, Pan Gang, Chairman of Yili Group, then put forward the New Vision for creating social value, outlining how Yili will take the lead in realizing peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality and achieve lead ratings on sustainability.

Guided by the 2030/2060 climate targets and its own development goals, Yili continues to accelerate the pace of its green development, energy saving and carbon reduction efforts. Yili has carried out corporate carbon inventory assessments for 12 consecutive years and established a comprehensive data accounting system for energy and environmental protection.

The company is also recognized for establishing the Yili Future Intelligence and Health Valley in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, which will become China's first five-star project for carbon neutrality. By the end of 2021, a total of 23 Yili factories had been rated as "green factories" by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Yili was also recently selected as the world's only corporate representative from the agriculture and food sector to be featured in the Corporate Net Zero Pathway report. This is the world's first report issued by UN agencies to guide and celebrate corporate efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.