At the end of 2021, against the backdrop of China announcing its goals and roadmaps for achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, the idea of creating a collaborative space for Swedish business to contribute to China’s green transition started to form at Business Sweden. At the time, challenges regarding the green transition were often highlighted in our client dialogues with Swedish companies, and we decided we wanted to address this in a clear, more holistic way. With valuable inputs from Swedish companies in China we soon took action and formed the platform Pioneer the possible in the beginning of 2022: a platform supporting Swedish companies to reach their carbon neutrality goals and promoting Swedish sustainable solutions to the Chinese market.

Almost one year of great collaboration has now passed, and together with 12 eminent Swedish companies and Team Sweden, we have carried out a number of activities, events and workshops. Just to name a few, we have:

• Held stakeholder meetings with state grid and local energy companies together with the Swedish consulate general to raise Swedish companies’ demand for increased access to green electricity
• Arranged roadshows to conduct matchmakings and discuss how to achieve fossil-free transport through cooperation between different players in China and Sweden
• Organized conferences together with local as well as national think tanks and associations to get a deeper understanding of current policy developments, as well as highlighting both the needs and the solutions of Swedish’ companies
• Participated in third party events together with the Embassy of Sweden to showcase Pioneer the possible and Swedish sustainable, innovative solutions,
• Shared both challenges and success stories about our sustainability efforts in workshops, to support and inspire each other to aim even higher.

The brand-new report “Building China’s green future” aims to summarize five challenges identified in the Pioneer the possible platform, and how we can work together to solve them. By summarizing some of the key take aways from our work this year, we hope to not only bring value to participating companies, but also contribute to Chinese, Swedish, and global sustainability goals. To access the report, please follow the link below.

As the first year of Pioneer the possible in China is coming to an end, we are of course in full preparation for 2023. We are doing the planning and preparation in close collaboration with the member companies, just like we have been doing all the continuous work throughout this first year. We are also in dialogue with potential new members, to gather their inputs and widen our scope: to be able to further expand our sphere of influence, further emphasize our role in driving the green transition and further promote Swedish sustainable solutions to the Chinese market.

Our warmest thank you to all members for this first year – let’s continue pioneering the possible in 2023.

Amanda Alkemark, Program manager Pioneer the possible platform China

https://www.business-sweden.com/insights/reports/building-chinas-green-future/

Shared challenges call for shared solutions, so please do not hesitate to reach out to us if you want to hear more about the platform and join us in pioneering the possible.