Start your low-carbon journey in your kitchen.
The kitchen, seemingly a small space filled with the warmth of cooking, is actually a "hidden corner" that cannot be ignored.
On the one hand, cooking produces harmful substances such as CO and PM2.5, which are one of the key factors affecting people's health.
On the other hand, more public data shows that in the process of cooking in households or catering stores, the kitchen causes a certain amount of air pollution. Common pollutants in the kitchen include benzopyrene, carbon monoxide, inhalable particulate matter, and nitrogen oxides.
These factors have also led more kitchen appliance companies to focus on ESG or sustainable development, aiming to provide families with a green and healthy lifestyle. The significance of technological progress becomes particularly tangible at this moment. When technology effectively improves kitchen appliances, people's experience of a happy life becomes more intuitive.
Hidden Dangers from the Kitchen
Actually, the impact of kitchen fumes on human health is not a new topic.
On an earlier International Pneumonia Day, Academician Zhong Nanshan publicly stated that apart from smoking, kitchen fumes have become a key factor causing damage to the lungs.
Academician Zhong Nanshan mentioned that both cooking and smoking are the main indoor sources of particulate matter in the living environment. Among them, cooking accounts for even more than 70%. This is because oil vaporizes at high temperatures and produces a lot of inhalable particulate matter when mixed with food. When cooking, the average concentration of PM2.5 in the kitchen can increase dozens or even hundreds of times.
Research from Tsinghua University also shows that cooking is the main source of particulate matter pollution in the living environment. The "Healthy China Initiative (2019 - 2030)" formulated by the State Council also advocates preventing and controlling indoor air pollution, ensuring proper ventilation of kitchen fumes, and improving the home environment.
However, at present, some Chinese families have not fully realized the harm of kitchen fumes. Although range hoods have reached a certain penetration rate among urban residents in China, people have not developed good usage habits.
For example, people often forget to turn on the range hood in time when they start cooking. According to a report in Southern Weekend, most consumers also do not pay attention to the performance, service life, and maintenance of range hoods. These factors can significantly affect the effectiveness of removing kitchen fumes and their impact on health.
In addition, it is worth noting that many people think that the pollution of catering fumes to the atmospheric environment is negligible, but in fact, it is known as one of the "urban pollution killers" along with industrial waste gas and vehicle exhaust.
How much impact do residents' catering fumes have on the atmospheric environment? From 2021 to 2023, the Chongqing Academy of Environmental Sciences conducted a PM2.5 source - tracing analysis of the air quality in Dadukou District. The data shows that the domestic sources of PM2.5 in Dadukou District account for 29%, second only to the 46% from traffic sources, making it one of the main pollution sources.
In recent years, the state and various cities have been continuously improving the institutional construction in the field of air pollution prevention and control. The "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution" revised in 2018 also puts forward new requirements for the prevention and control of air pollution in the catering industry. The "Regulations of Shanghai Municipality on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution" have also improved the relevant institutional norms accordingly.
Therefore, considering both human health and the atmospheric environment, the vast majority of kitchen and bathroom appliance companies hope to protect the kitchen environment and more effectively solve the problem of fume emissions by improving technological R & D and enhancing product performance.
In recent years, the ESG strategies of leading home appliance and kitchen appliance companies have gradually become clear.
In 2022, Haier Smart Home established six core ESG themes: "Sustainable governance ecosystem, Green and low - carbon, Diverse and inclusive development, Responsible procurement, Smart innovation, Social fair development". Almost at the same time, Hisense also improved its ESG issue matrix from five aspects: "Honesty, Intelligence, Purity, Resilience, Beauty".
Subsequently, home appliance brands such as Joyoung, Robam, and Vatti also improved their ESG strategies in the past two years and released independent ESG reports. An obvious trend is that formulating and implementing ESG indicators has become a necessity for Chinese home appliance companies, especially listed companies.
Reduce Carbon Emissions by 1 Million Tons Annually
On the recent World Earth Day, Fotile Group released its "2024 Sustainable Development Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report").
This is Fotile's first sustainable development report, which demonstrates its specific implementation strategies for sustainability in four aspects: "Serving customers' better lives", "Supporting employees' happy growth", "Empowering social inclusive development", and "Protecting the earth's green and low - carbon environment".
Although it is not a listed company, Fotile Group has taken the first step in information disclosure.
Compared with ESG reports, sustainable development reports emphasize responding to the United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in a more precise way from the perspective of sustainable development. ESG reports are more used in the investment field, encouraging investment institutions to incorporate ESG factors into their analysis and decision - making processes. Therefore, sustainable development reports and ESG reports only differ in their starting points, but both cover three aspects: environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance. In terms of report style, sustainable development reports are more flexible, while ESG reports are more standardized.
Fotile's sustainable development report released this time also serves as a model for the entire kitchen appliance industry.
Compared with the ESG reports of the same industry, Fotile's sustainable development report provides more detailed information on carbon emissions and discloses as much as possible the achievements of Fotile in the aspects of environment, society, and governance. Especially in the research and development of low - carbon products, taking the household kitchen as a unit, Fotile more specifically shows the overall sustainable benefits that using its products can bring to society.
The report shows that Fotile's range hoods equipped with the Cloud - driven Intelligent Engine and stoves equipped with Turbo - charged Direct - injection Technology can achieve an average annual reduction of about 50,000 tons of cooking fumes and about 1 million tons of carbon emissions. Fotile's dishwashers have also saved about 26.7 billion liters of water in total, which can basically meet the drinking water needs of the residents of a city with a population of over 20 million for about two years.
On many occasions, the senior management of Fotile Group has stated that they regard customers as family members and are willing to take the "slow R & D path" to deeply explore the three major technologies of "air, water, and cooking". This concept is mentioned again in this report. Looking at Fotile's development history, it is not difficult to see its consistent actions of promoting product innovation through technology and effectively protecting people's family health.
In 2010, after seeing a report about housewives getting lung cancer due to long - term exposure to cooking fumes, Fotile Group adjusted the R & D goals of range hoods from quantitative indicators such as air volume and air pressure to qualitative indicators of "for health and no fume leakage".
In 2017, catering fumes were included as one of the three main causes of air pollution along with vehicle exhaust and industrial waste gas. Fotile took the lead in the "Oil - fume Separation and Flue - gas Purification" project under the 13th Five - Year National Key R & D Program. In May 2023, the project successfully passed the mid - term acceptance. Fotile also extended its research from the kitchen to the governance of air pollution, paying attention to comprehensive environmental protection from "small families" to the "big family" and taking on its due social responsibility.
Behind all these stories is Fotile's constant concern for users' lives and family happiness.
In addition, the report also shows that Fotile invests 5% of its annual sales revenue in R & D. This proportion is significantly higher than the industry average. As a result, Fotile's long - term commitment to technology and R & D has paid off.
As of the end of 2024, Fotile Group has accumulated more than 14,000 authorized patents, including 3,700 invention patents. The three - year average growth rate of its invention patent authorizations ranks first among private enterprises.
Effectively Protect the Happiness of "Hundreds of Millions of Families"
In terms of technological R & D, Fotile has always been a pioneer rather than a follower. In the field of kitchen appliances, every high - quality product of Fotile Group is a concrete manifestation of its more than 20 - year commitment to technological innovation investment.
Fotile's commitment to sustainability and carbon emission reduction is not limited to the product and technological R & D end. In the report, Fotile also specifically elaborates on its sustainable achievements in the construction of green factories and supply chain management.
To protect the earth's green and low - carbon environment and promote the supply of clean energy, Fotile Group has two national - level green factories, achieving an annual reduction of 1,280 tons of carbon emissions. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, an average tree can absorb 22 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year. Fotile's annual carbon emission reduction is equivalent to the green benefits of nearly 60,000 trees.
At the same time, Fotile actively promotes the use of solar photovoltaic energy in the company. As of the end of 2024, Fotile Group has accumulated a total photovoltaic power generation of 18.1142 million kWh, a waste recycling volume of 11,189 tons, and a general waste recycling rate of 95%.
In the past nearly 30 years, Fotile's corporate mission and sustainable development concept have been continuously optimized. In the introduction of the report, Mao Zhongqun, the president and chairman of Fotile, wrote a "Letter to Readers", in which he clearly stated that Fotile Group's corporate mission is "for the happiness of hundreds of millions of families".
"On the one hand, the number of our customers has already exceeded tens of millions, so 'hundreds of millions' is more appropriate from the perspective of mission - driven. On the other hand, 'hundreds of millions' is not a specific number but represents a more ambitious goal. 'Family' has six meanings: first, customers' families; second, employees' families; third, partners' families; fourth, the Fotile family; fifth, the motherland family; sixth, the human family."
In other words, Fotile Group not only hopes to serve customers but also hopes to enable its upstream and downstream enterprises and internal employees to achieve happiness.
Fotile's sustainable development report also shows that Fotile has deeply helped 16 suppliers, actively promoted suppliers to improve their green production capabilities, and promoted the green upgrade of the industry ecosystem.
In terms of corporate governance, Fotile always supports the happy growth of employees and adheres to the management concept of "putting employees first and respecting the value of every labor", stimulating the innovation potential of all employees and promoting diversity, equality, and inclusion.
Fotile implements the "All - employee Personal Share System". Specifically, all full - time employees who have worked at Fotile for more than two years can own a certain number of personal shares according to the company's regulations.
According to the report, among the current full - time employees of Fotile Group, those with more than 5 years of service account for more than 55.7%, and the employee stability rate ranks among the top in the industry. More remarkably, women account for 32.3% of Fotile Group's management.
In addition, in terms of social responsibility, Fotile also continuously gives back to the community and shows kindness to residents.
In 2020, Fotile, together with the China Community Development Association and the China Community Poverty Alleviation Alliance, launched the "Happy Community Co - construction Public Welfare Program" and clearly proposed the goal of building 10,000 happy communities in the next 10 years. As of the end of 2024, Fotile has co - constructed more than 4,100 communities with its partners, covering 16 provinces and municipalities and more than 20 million community residents.
Undoubtedly, Fotile Group leads the industry comprehensively in the three dimensions of environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance. As ESG becomes an inevitable trend in the entire industry, Fotile is also gradually laying a foundation for the long - term development of the enterprise through social responsibility and sustainable development.
It is believed that in the future, Fotile Group will always pay attention to consumers' needs for health and family environment and effectively reduce carbon emissions with its excellent technological R & D capabilities. In the green wave, Fotile will be driven by innovation and take responsibility as its mission to effectively protect the happiness and well - being of "hundreds of millions of Chinese families".