Internet companies give a leg up to China’s green, low-carbon development

By providing bike-sharing services, promoting paperless operations and telecommuting, and putting an “Internet Plus” recycling model into practice, Chinese Internet companies have embraced the concept of green and low-carbon development, contributing to China’s goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030.

Young volunteers ride shared bikes in an activity held to promote low-carbon lifestyle in Zaozhuang city, east China’s Shandong province, August 25, 2021. (People’s Daily Online/Sun Zhongzhe)

Thanks to Internet-based bike-sharing companies, shared bikes have become part of China’s green urban transport system.

“I have been commuting with shared bikes since the bike-sharing industry took off. Bike-sharing is much cheaper than driving, a green way of transportation, and a good way to exercise,” said a man surnamed Liu in Beijing.

“I am an unswerving champion of green travel,” Liu said, explaining that he has bought monthly membership cards for several bike-sharing service providers.

More and more Chinese people like Liu are now using shared bikes. About 287 million people used shared bikes in 2020, up 10.8 percent from a year earlier, according to data from China’s Ministry of Transport. As of October 2020, a total of 19.45 million shared bikes were put into service across the country.

Recently, Chinese online delivery giant Meituan, also a major bike-sharing service provider, started distributing digital RMB, or e-CNY, to its app users, who have been provided with a chance to try out using the digital currency to pay for the platform’s bike-sharing services, with an aim to further promoting low-carbon travel.

The trial was launched for residents living in nine cities and regions, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other cities across the country. The campaign has attracted more than 1 million users to open e-CNY wallets, with shared bike riders riding a total combined distance of 8.9 million kilometers, which is meanwhile expected to have helped reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 2,400 tonnes.

Chinese Internet giant Baidu has adopted a paperless work environment through its launching of a telecommuting platform. Files such as reimbursement vouchers and contracts are all now signed, sent and stored online.

“For example, thanks to the adoption of electronic reimbursement vouchers, we can save more than 510,000 pieces of paper each year and prevent the cutting down of about 172 trees,” said an executive working for the platform. Meanwhile, online conferences carried out via the online platform can also help to reduce the use of physical meeting spaces and save on water and electricity, thus contributing to reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.

Furthermore, second-hand e-commerce platforms have enabled a rising number of Chinese people to buy and sell used items online, which conforms well with the concepts of low-carbon environmental protection and recycling. Data indicates that the number of second-hand e-commerce users in China increased to as much as 185 million last year.

Xianyu, a second-hand mobile marketplace under Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, recycled about 50,000 tonnes of clothing, 23.7 million books, 3.66 million phones and 1.45 million big home appliances between 2017 and 2020.