Trina Solar Limited, a global leader in photovoltaic (“PV”) modules, solutions, and services, recently announced it has released its 2015 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report (the “Report”). This marks the sixth consecutive year that Trina Solar has released the Report since 2010.
The Report is compiled according to the internationally-recognized Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (G4) issued by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). It elaborates on Trina Solar’s ideas, strategies and concrete practices in relation to corporate social responsibility in 2015 in terms of corporate governance, green sustainable development, environmental-friendly operations, supply chain management and social contributions, etc. The following are some highlights from the Report:
Green Sustainable Development: Trina Solar is not only a clean energy manufacturer, but also an advocate for providing sustainable solutions to address energy crises and global climate change. The Company strives to reduce energy and resource consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions in the process of product design, manufacturing and packaging. As a result, CO2 emissions and electricity usage per MW of module production in 2015 dropped significantly, decreasing by 24.6% and 21.6% respectively, since 2011.
Environmentally-Friendly Operations: Trina Solar has been a member of the PV CYCLE Association since 2010 and joined the Glass Recycling Committee of Japan (GRCJ) in 2015. The GRCJ was established to promote the recycling of PV modules, especially the recycling of waste glass. In addition, Trina Solar is also dedicated to the research and development of PV product waste recycling technology, as a result of which, the Company currently is able to effectively separate glass, EVA and cells, and even recycle silver of 99.9% purity from waste cells in the experimental stage.
Focus on Supply Chain: Extraction of certain metallic/mineral resources from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and surrounding nations may cause serious environmental and human rights problems, and such mineral resources are known as conflict minerals. In this regard, Trina Solar has created a formal conflict mineral management policy to ensure that its supply chain is conflict-free, in an effort to reduce international trade in conflict minerals.Trina Solar is committed to sourcing materials from environmentally and socially responsible suppliers.
Contribution to Society: As a responsible corporate citizen, Trina Solar always tries to give back to society and has dedicated to bringing positive changes to the local economy environment and community through investment in education, public charities, and employee volunteer services. In 2015, Trina Solar set up a Sunshine Fund for Entrepreneurship and donated RMB 10 million to China Siyuan Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, providing a wide range of programs and services including youth entrepreneurship training and support for the college students in need.
“As a global leading PV enterprise, we are committed to exercising our leadership both in reducing our own carbon footprint and in working with stakeholders to enhance capabilities to combat climate change. The modules that we had delivered worldwide from 2005 to 2015 was close to 17 GW, with all of which operational in various projects, Trina Solar’s fleet could offset approximately 20 million tons of carbon emissions per year. This is equivalent to planting about 3.7 million acres of trees,” said Mr. Jifan Gao, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar.
Trina Solar also publishes its 2020 Sustainable Development Goals within the Report, indicating that the Company aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 15%, carbon footprint by 18%, integrated energy and water consumption by 10%, and electricity consumption by 15% for per-MW of module production compared to that of 2015.
“Going forward, we will continue to leverage our resources as a leading clean energy provider and uphold the concept of ‘innovative, sustainable, and green’ development to participate in the global fight against climate change. We’ll work tirelessly to pool our strengths to usher in more innovative solutions to promote sustainable development globally and accomplish our corporate mission of Benefiting Mankind with Solar Energy,” concluded Mr. Gao.
