As the global consensus on green and low-carbon development continues to strengthen, green competitiveness characterized by the level of green and low-carbon is reshaping the global industrial chain, supply chain, and international trade rules. 36Kr Guangdong has noticed that in this emerging market, a young entrepreneur, with a unique vision and bold actions, has led the enterprise to rise rapidly and grow into a leading enterprise in the industry.
He is Wang Junhao, the founder of Shenzhen Green Ark Sustainable Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Green Ark"). In him, one can see the unique vitality and enthusiasm of young entrepreneurs. At the same time, one will also be amazed at his keen and accurate ability to capture market trends.
Wang Junhao, the founder of "Green Ark"
"In my opinion, green and low-carbon has never been an option but a must-answer question." When talking about the opportunity to enter the dual-carbon track, Wang Junhao recalled this sentence said by the person in charge of Anker during their communication. Wang Junhao realized that green and low-carbon is not only an important measure to meet policy and market demands but also a necessary measure to help brands stand out in the short-term fierce competition, win the favor of consumers, and ensure the long-term sustainable development of brands in the global market.
Go global recklessly, and you'll be out! The global business has changed in 2025
"If you don't go global, you'll be out." This was a widely recognized saying in various industries during the global expansion trend in 2024. However, as more and more gold diggers joined the global expansion wave, the first three words gradually evolved into "go global recklessly".
In fact, going global is a market full of both opportunities and challenges. In terms of market scale, customs data shows that the total value of imports and exports in 2024 reached 43.85 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5%, and the scale reached a new historical high. At the same time, the global e-commerce market scale is also constantly expanding. In 2024, the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce reached 2.63 trillion yuan, a growth of 10.8%. However, the intensity of market competition is also increasing day by day. According to relevant data, as of the end of September 2024, there were 74,780 enterprises in China's industrial and commercial information that included "cross-border e-commerce". With the influx of a large number of new merchants, the problem of product homogenization has become more and more serious, and the price war has become more and more intense.
From past reports, we can see that in 2024, the stories of cross-border sellers varied widely. Some found the path to profitability after months of hard work, while others experienced the painful lessons of high debts and store closures. Behind these various stories lies the common anxiety in the industry: how to survive in the highly competitive environment. More and more sellers have begun to realize that low-price competition can no longer bring a stable development model, and they must re-evaluate their own business models.
While the cross-border business is facing intense competition at the micro level, at the macro level, the "carbon tariff", which promotes global emission reduction and the transformation of the green and low-carbon economy, is gradually becoming a policy considered or implemented by more countries and regions. In October 2023, the world's first green tariff, the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), also known as the EU "carbon tariff", was officially implemented. After that, the UK also put forward the requirement for "carbon tariff" collection and announced in December of the same year that it would implement the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism from 2027. The United States and Australia are also considering introducing similar mechanisms.
Undoubtedly, when green and low-carbon become one of the inevitable trends in the world economic development, it will surely bring about a major reshuffle of the global industrial layout and market share. The most direct impact is that carbon taxes will lead to an increase in production costs, logistics costs, certification, and compliance costs, which will ultimately be reflected in the price. This will bring new challenges to the export of domestic products.
In short, currently, going global not only requires facing the short-term survival challenge of low-price competition, which is a transformation from a "price war" to a "value war", but also needs to face the long-term rule reconstruction of "carbon tariffs", which is a future development path from a "cost burden" to a "reconstruction of competitiveness". How should enterprises going global dynamically transform market and policy pressures into brand potential?
Going global green is quietly booming among billion-dollar sellers
Facing the global background of profit compression caused by low-price competition and the increasing entry threshold due to international policies, what is the opportunity to break the deadlock? After in-depth communication with hundreds of billion-dollar sellers, Wang Junhao found that the green economy is reshaping the landscape of various industries at an unprecedented speed. Cross-border e-commerce is no exception. The ability of green and low-carbon will establish new competitive advantages for enterprises and become the decisive factor for future development.
In fact, according to the "Gen Z Consumption Report" jointly released by Nielsen IQ and the World Data Lab, it is estimated that by 2030, the purchasing power of the global "Gen Z" market will reach 12 trillion US dollars. Among this huge consumer group, "sustainability" has become an important consideration in their shopping decisions. 77% of the surveyed "Gen Z" said that they are more willing to pay for sustainable brands and are willing to pay an additional 10% for them.
The latest data released by Amazon also verifies this view. At the 2024 Amazon Global Selling Cross-Border Summit, Amazon said that after merchants joined the Climate Pledge Friendly (CPF) program for one year, the average sales of their products increased by more than 12%. At the same time, a total of 100 million customers switched from traditional products to climate-friendly products.
After graduating from overseas studies, Wang Junhao joined Amazon and deeply rooted himself in the cross-border e-commerce industry. He keenly perceived that this trend would have a profound impact on enterprises going global, so he decided to co-found "Green Ark" with a group of like-minded returnees.
Wang Junhao's keen insight into industry dynamics did not come overnight, which is closely related to his resume. His family is mainly engaged in traditional supply chain business and has a natural sensitivity to market changes. When he started working in 2020, he chose to join Amazon and started his two-year cross-border e-commerce work here. He has in-depth knowledge of the operation details of domestic products sold overseas in various aspects such as operation and localization and has rich practical experience.
This accumulation enabled Wang Junhao to see many problems faced by cross-border e-commerce enterprises in the green transformation, such as high compliance costs, complex international standards, and vague market information. At the same time, Wang Junhao shows enthusiasm and care for everyone. When communicating with cross-border e-commerce enterprises, he can truly think from the other side's perspective, which enables him to quickly and accurately grasp the pain points of the industry.
So, in 2022, "Green Ark" was officially established. It is reported that "Green Ark" focuses on corporate climate action and carbon compliance services, with the mission of "Go Green, Grow Green". Its business covers global carbon compliance modules such as CBAM, Amazon Climate Pledge Friendly certification, and carbon footprint. Currently, it has the official qualification of Climate Partner and can provide certification services according to international standards such as the Gold Standard, VCS, and VCS CCBS. In addition, it also provides carbon compliance services in many aspects, including carbon emission data reports, professional evaluation reports, and certificate traceability.
Moreover, "Green Ark" also launched the first one-stop carbon compliance SaaS platform in the country, relying on digital tools to empower cross-border enterprises. It provides a coherent, clear, and easy-to-understand SaaS platform for cross-border enterprises to record and track emission data, helps customers investigate, calculate, and reduce their carbon footprint, and assists them in exploring more extensive sustainability measures in practice.
It is worth noting that Wang Junhao always remains vigilant against "staying the same" and is passionate about the unknown and challenges. Therefore, in the not-so-new green compliance track, "Green Ark" is constantly exploring new business models and cooperation opportunities. It is precisely this innovative spirit that has injected new vitality into the field of cross-border e-commerce green compliance services and enabled Green Ark to stand out in the industry.
Although "Green Ark" has been established for only a little over two years, with the above-mentioned meticulous cultivation and innovative development in the field of cross-border carbon compliance, currently, more than 60% of the top 100 cross-border enterprises going global are cooperating with it, including big sellers such as Anker Innovations, Ecoflow, Jackery, Dreame, BESTEK, and Ugreen. Its business scope covers multiple sub-sectors such as electronics, toys, beauty, home furnishings, textiles, office supplies, and daily necessities.
Surfing the carbon compliance track, receiving tens of millions of financing from Eutax
In fact, similar to tax compliance, brand compliance, and product compliance in the destination markets for going global, the introduction of the "carbon tariff" means that going global must meet the various green and environmental protection policy requirements of different regions. For domestic cross-border enterprises, the urgent problems they need to face are the complex rules, cumbersome data requirements, and long time-consuming related to green and low-carbon.
Driven by the refined division of labor, third-party professional compliance operators for green and low-carbon services have emerged. They help cross-border enterprises sort out and analyze policy requirements, prepare and review submitted materials, etc., relieve the pressure of cross-border enterprises' compliance operations, and lower the entry threshold for environmental protection.
However, Wang Junhao noticed that the carbon compliance market was still in its early stage of development at that time, with chaos everywhere. Some service providers even exaggerated the effects for profit, and the actual effects were questionable. He pointed out that there were opaque situations in terms of standards, models, and effects. Due to the serious asymmetry of information, it was very difficult for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to obtain real, effective, and valuable services.
"The demand of cross-border e-commerce enterprises for carbon compliance services can be simply summarized into two aspects. One is to reduce carbon compliance costs, and the other is to increase product benefits." This means that opaque services are naturally in opposition to the needs of cross-border enterprises. When Wang Junhao founded "Green Ark", the first step was to adopt objective information, clear rules, and a transparent charging model. He positioned "Green Ark" as a partner in the field of cross-border enterprises' carbon compliance, rather than a reseller of overseas policy information. He provides real and objective information that matches the actual needs of customers, offers reasonable value consultation suggestions, and helps customers achieve long-term sustainable development overseas.
This business philosophy coincides with that of its investor, Eutax. In August 2024, "Green Ark" received tens of millions of yuan in investment from Eutax, which has successful experience in standardizing VAT compliance business. When carrying out compliance business in the market or distributing benefits to channels or service providers, Eutax broke this model. By innovatively connecting with the tax bureau through API, it reduced the cost to an extremely low level and provided customers with low-cost and high-quality services.
It is reported that with absolute competitive advantages in terms of professionalism, differentiation, and cost-effectiveness, in 2023, Eutax accounted for about 28.2% of the market share in China's cross-border e-commerce compliance platform market and ranked first in the market share of China's cross-border e-commerce compliance industry (data source: iResearch's "2024 China Cross-Border E-commerce Software Service Industry Report").
As mentioned above, "Green Ark" in the carbon tariff track is also breaking through the traditional model. Through innovative development, it is giving benefits to customers and providing better services at a very cost-effective price. "What 'Green Ark' needs to do is to continuously optimize the unnecessary links in the carbon compliance service industry, provide customers with effective, objective, and valuable information, and let customers make a dialectical judgment." Wang Junhao said.
The cooperation with Eutax also enables "Green Ark" to be empowered in global layout and technological innovation. "In the foreseeable future,
"Green Ark" will connect with overseas institutions' APIs through the SaaS system and build the ability of AI recognition to replace the original manual operation mode and form a set of efficient tools."
Low-carbon is the long-termism of the future. "Green Ark" leads the way in going global green
Looking back on the past development process, the rapid growth of "Green Ark" is inseparable from the adherence to long-termism centered on customers.
At the beginning of the business, when it had no reputation yet, the first business of "Green Ark" was also based on the trust of an industry friend in Wang Junhao personally. Wang Junhao recalled, "At the beginning, a first-level seller friend with an annual sales volume of over 100 million yuan, who started doing overseas business in 2014, entrusted me to find suitable relevant carbon compliance policies and channels for his products. With my previous years of work experience at Amazon, I combined the actual information and effects of relevant carbon compliance strategies to create a set of strategies for him, and the feedback was quite good."
Wang Junhao pointed out that from the first order, "Green Ark" has adhered to the business philosophy of being customer-centered and providing transparent, cost-effective, and pain-point-solving solutions. It is precisely because of this business strategy that "Green Ark" has won a good reputation, and through continuous accumulation, its scale has achieved rapid growth.
The domestic brand Anker Innovations, a customer of "Green Ark", is also a typical service case under its business philosophy.
Specifically, to implement the concept of sustainable development, Anker Innovations established the most concerned ESG issues in 2022, including green industry, green products, technology and product innovation, intellectual property protection, product quality and safety, and employee rights protection. It strongly advocates the green transformation and change of the industry to improve the industry standardization level and reduce waste.
For example, it proposed to reduce the use of about 240 tons of paper materials throughout 2024, use 100% recyclable packaging materials in packaging design, launch the "paperless instruction manual" campaign, achieve "zero" plastic packaging in 2027, use FSC-certified paper for 100% of new products, and use environmentally friendly soybean ink.
Since 2023, "Green Ark" has jointly carried out carbon footprint certification for the products under the well-known consumer electronics enterprise Anker Innovations with ClimatePartner. The products for which "Green Ark" applied for carbon labels for Anker include those of multiple brands such as Anker, Eufy, Soundcore, and Nebula.
In the process, "Green Ark" carried out a full-life cycle calculation of the carbon footprint of the products and helped Anker formulate a future emission reduction plan for the products. "Green Ark" also applied for the qualification of Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly program for all the products participating in the certification to obtain the prominent "green label".
Wang Junhao revealed that Anker Innovations has always firmly embraced green and low-carbon. When he was at Amazon and in contact with the person in charge of Anker Innovations, he learned about this idea. "When Amazon launched the Climate Pledge Friendly certification, Anker Innovations embraced the change immediately."
However, it is worth noting that if following some traditional factory inspection schemes to trace the carbon emission data of multi-level suppliers, Anker Innovations would have to pay a high price in terms of time and cost. "The traditional scheme not only has high approval costs and a long time-consuming process but also has other hidden costs. For example, product performance and procurement costs will be affected by material changes." Wang Junhao said that at that time, Anker Innovations was worried about how to quickly obtain the Amazon green label (Climate Pledge Friendly certification) through a good carbon certification scheme.
According to the needs of Anker Innovations, "Green Ark" matched all the certification types of the Amazon Climate Pledge Friendly certification to find the most suitable scheme. Finally, through comparison, it was found that the ClimatePartner Certified certification was the most suitable. "In terms of cost, benefit, and transparency, it is the optimal solution."
It is worth mentioning that when "Green Ark" provided the carbon label disclosure method for Anker Innovations, it did not adopt the traditional model of declaring by SKU. Instead, it innovatively considered SPU, which significantly reduced the compliance certification cost and shortened the certification time for Anker Innovations. Moreover, "Green Ark" also provided an innovative solution for the long-term development of Anker Innovations' products. On the basis of the original services, it provided relevant certificate traceability and services highlighting green environmental protection, which also helped Anker Innovations tell a better brand story overseas.
"Green and low-carbon is long-termism. If you want to achieve sustainable development globally, you must integrate into the wave of green development." Wang Junhao pointed out that as a partner of enterprises in green and low-carbon, the goal that "Green Ark" hopes to achieve in the first stage is that enterprises going global will no longer have anxiety.