Vienna Tech for Green - An Alliance in Step with the Times
by Nikolaus Pelinka, Darwin Circle
(Shenzhen, 31 Oct. 2023) Climate change threatens us all: Global warming and natural disasters are on the rise, while biodiversity is dwindling. Recognizing this, Huawei joined forces with Darwin's Circle and UNIDO to launch the Vienna Tech for Green alliance as early as 2022. The "United Nations Industrial Development Organization" (abbr.: UNIDO) strives to enable sustainable industrial development and growth for the member states of the United Nations and to support them in their transformation towards a green future. Darwin's Circle is one of the networking platforms for business and entrepreneurs in Austria and thus the ideal partner for the global corporation Huawei and its projects around climate change.
The Yancheng Low-carbon and Smart-energy Innovation Park — a special industrial park project initiated by the State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company in Jiangsu Province
The aim of the alliance is to incentivize projects in the areas of sustainability and emissions reduction and to promote their contents by means of panels, workshops and conferences every year. In this context, the achievement of CO2 neutrality, which is considered a key factor in the fight against climate change, is particularly significant.
Huawei has been involved in this area for over ten years and is setting new standards with its "Vienna Tech for Green" program. Emissions in the information and mobile technology industry are to be reduced by up to 80 percent compared with 2015, according to the Huawei Global Industry Vision. However, not only will emissions be reduced, but innovation will also continue to be promoted. Another of Huawei's goals is to increase the energy efficiency of the tech giant's key products.
But what are the concrete ways in which Huawei is reducing its emissions? Direct emissions are reduced through energy conservation as well as the installation of PV systems directly at the sites. However, Huawei's ambition is to make this climate-friendly technology broadly available. The company has now taken a step in this direction together with State Grid Yancheng Power Supply Company, an energy company in Jiangsu Province. Together, they built a climate-neutral industrial park. It combines renewable energy generation, digital tools and industry 4.0 into an innovative overall concept. In this way, almost 3 million kWh can be saved each year and around 2,500 tons of CO2 emissions can be cut.
The project was recently awarded the Energy Globe Award, which is sponsored by UNIDO, among others. That is one of many national and internal awards the project has received.
Technology's ability to save our world was also a topic at the last Darwin's Circle. Rene Arnold, VP of Public Affairs Strategy at Huawei, shared his expertise and insights on the panel: New technological approaches must themselves be sustainable in order to help reduce emissions. Topics in which digitization can be helpful in the future include mobility, the circular economy, and food. As a specific example, Arnold mentions agriculture, which can already save up to 50 percent of water and fertilizer through the use of data technologies.
The fruitful cooperation between Huawei, Darwin's Circle and UNIDO will soon go into the next round and will continue to be a platform for the networking of sustainability, innovation technologies and Austria's best minds for years to come. The path to meeting the ambitious climate goals, be they self-imposed sustainability targets or the major goal of climate neutrality, will still require a great deal of courage and pioneering spirit, something that is undoubtedly present at Huawei.
Initially published in Roadmap 2050, a Darwin Circle publication, in Oct. 2023
