Yili Chairman Pan Gang attended the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference and shared the path of ESG value creation in the dairy industry

On October 20, the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference opened in Shanghai. Pan Gang, Chairman and President of Yili Group, attended the opening ceremony and spoke as the only invited representative of the industry. He shared Yili's ESG value creation practices around responding to social needs, promoting industrial symbiosis, and adhering to green development.

This conference is jointly hosted by the World Green Design Organization and Sina Group, with the theme of "Building a Resilient Future Together: Global Governance, Innovation Driven and Industrial Upgrading". Nobel Prize winner in physics Andre Geim, Turing Award winner Joseph Sifakis, Wang Jian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Vice Chairman of the World Green Design Organization, and other guests attended the event to discuss new paths for global sustainable development.

Pan Gang said: "ESG is not a cost outside of business, but a development method integrated into industrial genes and an endogenous driving force that drives the sustainable development of enterprises." In his view, the ESG value creation path of the dairy industry is to "adhere to responding to social needs based on health, empowering industrial symbiosis based on responsibility, and forging long-term resilience based on greenness." During the conference, Yili released the "Yili 2025 Sustainable Social Value Accounting Report", disclosing that it will create sustainable social value of 10.378 billion yuan in 2025, presenting the company's social and environmental impact in a quantitative manner in addition to shareholder returns.

"Enterprise development must be rooted in the national health needs. This is the starting point of all our actions and the starting point of ESG value creation." Pan Gang said in his speech.

Letting more people drink milk is the starting point of Yili's health career. In the 1990s, dairy processing and preservation technology limited the popularity of milk. Yili promotes liquid milk to a broader market by breaking through technical barriers and introducing advanced equipment. As consumers' demands shift from "drinking good milk" to "drinking good milk", corporate innovations are also constantly deepening the nutritional needs of different groups of people and at different life stages.

Today, Yili has deployed 15 innovation centers around the world, and has taken the lead in building the National Dairy Technology Innovation Center, bringing together more than 10 academicians from the two academies to transform global scientific research resources into product innovation. Focusing on infant and young child nutrition, Yili has long carried out breast milk research, built a breast milk research database, and promoted the application of scientific research results in infant formula milk powder. For people with lactose intolerance, Yili has launched Shuhua milk to provide milk drinking options that are more suitable for their needs.

From liquid milk and yogurt to infant milk powder, cheese, and adult nutritional products, Yili continues to expand its product layout covering the entire life cycle. It is understood that Yili provides consumers with more than 100 million products every day, relying on a channel network of more than 5 million terminal outlets and covering more than 90% of county-level markets to bring nutritional products into more families. Continuous investment in R&D, products and channels jointly supports the company's response to public health needs.

"The sustainable development of an industry is inseparable from the common prosperity of all links in the entire chain." Pan Gang pointed out that as the chain owner, Yili must take the initiative to shoulder its responsibilities and drive the common development of its partners.

The dairy industry spans primary, secondary and tertiary industries, from forage cultivation and dairy farming to dairy processing, equipment and material supply, to logistics and warehousing, and consumer services. The chain is long and interlocking. The stable supply of a cup of milk depends on the stable operation of the entire industry chain.

In the upstream pasture, Yili uses the "seven interest linkage" mechanism to share funds, technical support and risk into the pasture management. Yili has provided a total of more than 37 billion yuan in financing support to cooperative ranches, dispatched a technical team of more than a thousand people, provided more than 100,000 free assistance every year, signed long-term contracts with the ranches, and purchased qualified raw milk in full. The independently developed "Yiqi Niu" smart animal husbandry system is also open to cooperative ranches free of charge to help farmers improve their refined management levels. Since 2014, Yili has distributed a total of more than 300 billion yuan in milk payments, helped cooperative ranches increase their income by 20.3 billion yuan, and through technical services has helped cooperative ranches’ daily yields increase by more than 16 kilograms. In 2025, Yili will increase the yield of dairy cows to 37.20 kilograms, a year-on-year increase of 2.05 kilograms, and the cost of milk breeding per kilogram will decrease by 0.31 yuan year-on-year. Over the years, Yili has helped 5.6 million farmers and herdsmen increase their income and become rich.

On this basis, Yili has launched the "Zero Carbon Alliance" and "Global Low Water Footprint Initiative Alliance" to bring the technology, experience and management methods required for green transformation into the industry chain. For chain owners, supporting partners to improve operations is also a process of enhancing the overall resilience of the industry.

“Only by deeply integrating green development into corporate operations, can we achieve ‘green hills are always there, industries are always prosperous, and golden mountains are always there.’” In Pan Gang’s view, green development stems from the industrial characteristics of “a grass, a cow, a cup of milk” and also opens up a broader space for ESG value creation.

At the source of the industry, Yili combines ecological improvement with production and operations. In Aruhorqin Banner, Inner Mongolia, we promoted the improvement of 55,000 acres of degraded grassland through "integrated planting and breeding" and other methods; in Bayannaoer, through the integrated program of sweet sorghum planting and breeding in saline-alkali land, we effectively improved 5,170 acres of saline-alkali land, producing more than 22,000 tons of high-quality silage. The restored land provides fodder for breeding, and industrial demand brings continuous impetus to ecological restoration.

In production and operations, green requirements are implemented as continuous technological improvements. In 2025, Yili will carry out 3,248 energy-saving and emission-reduction projects; by the end of 2025, 45 branches and subsidiaries have been awarded national-level "green factories" and 5 factories have obtained "carbon neutral" certification. The China Dairy Carbon Management Operation Platform, led by Yili, was upgraded this year to the "Dairy Carbon Management Operation Platform" and has covered 77 production bases around the world to provide support for collaborative carbon and water management.

On the consumer side, Yili integrates green innovation into products and packaging. As the designated low-carbon dairy product for the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference, Jindian brought fresh organic milk to the booth to demonstrate the connection between nutritional consumption and green actions. Some of Jindian's products use plant-based bottle caps made from sugar cane, and Changqing aviation cup straws use degradable PLA materials; Jindian also continues to carry out the "empty bottle return operation", inviting consumers to participate in milk carton recycling, extending green practices after consumption.

From launching a comprehensive carbon inventory in 2010, to peaking its operational carbon emissions in 2012, and then proposing the goal of achieving carbon neutrality across the entire industry chain by 2050, Yili has continued to incorporate green development into its corporate strategy and daily operations. The "Yili 2025 Sustainable Social Value Accounting Report" released this time covers 10 indicators from the two major dimensions of environment and society. It not only takes into account environmental impacts such as resource consumption and emissions, but also presents the value of consumer rights protection, technological innovation and other aspects, providing a basis for evaluating practical results and identifying the direction of business improvement.

The interactive activities at the conference brought these long-term practices to the public. The art installation "Please Take Your Place" made of about 6,300 recycled milk boxes expresses the concept that everyone can participate in sustainable development with the symbiotic shape of the three facades E, S and G. The "Presence is Beautiful" booth presents public welfare practices such as child nutrition, elderly care and nature protection, and has a smiley face wall, "Find the Difference" and other interactions. Yili also launched the "Beautiful Morning Run", inviting Chinese and foreign guests to participate and integrating health concepts into the sports scene.

In his speech, Pan Gang invited all parties to "pursue development based on social needs, join hands with industry partners to share responsibilities, and practice green development to build resilience." From responding to health needs to supporting partner development to promoting green operations, the practices Yili shared this time connect ESG value creation with specific aspects of dairy production and operations, providing a reference for the industry to explore paths that take into account commercial development and social value.