Ant Group’s ESG strategy aims to support 100 million SMEs by 2030
1.6.2022 06:07:00 EEST | Business Wire | Press release
Ant Group, a global technology provider, today announced its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy as part of its latest sustainability report. The ESG strategy, which lays out Ant Group’s sustainable development objectives by 2030, will be implemented across all aspects of the Company’s operations.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220531006112/en/
Four pillars of Ant Group’s ESG strategy and objectives by 2030 (Graphic: Business Wire)
Ant Group’s ESG strategy is focused around four pillars: Digital Inclusion, Green and Low-carbon Development, Open Ecosystem, and Technological Innovation. Each of the pillars has a corresponding sustainable development objective by 2030:
- Digital Inclusion: support 100 million small and micro-sized enterprises (SMEs) and serve communities globally
- Green and Low-carbon Development: achieve corporate carbon neutrality and support business partners and the general public to significantly reduce their carbon footprint
- Open Ecosystem: continue to provide a safe, trusted, diversified and open ecosystem to drive common development with partners
- Technological Innovation: continue to invest in core technology research and development to provide world-leading technological products and services
"We believe these are the most important pillars for Ant Group to achieve sustainable growth in a future-facing, responsible, and responsive manner,” wrote Eric Jing, Ant Group’s Chairman and CEO, in the sustainability report. ”This framework will guide Ant Group’s value creation and sustainable development in the future.”
Ant Group formulated its ESG strategy based on a comprehensive assessment of changing macro environment and policy trends, its own development strengths, and inputs from the Company’s stakeholders, including customers, users, employees, partners and governments. The ESG strategy was finalized after extensive management discussions and a detailed Board review.
After solicitating feedback from stakeholders, Ant Group defined 19 material issues for its ESG strategy, ranging from “responsible products and services,” “facilitating industry-wide carbon neutrality,” “cutting-edge technology discovery and R&D” and “transparency & risk management.”
To provide organizational support to effectively implement the ESG strategy, the Company’s Board of Directors has approved the establishment of an ESG sustainable development committee, comprised of a subset of the Board, responsible for decision-making supervision, risk management and policy making. The Company is setting up an advisory committee consisting of internal and external ESG experts to provide input and support. Ant Group has also set up an ESG sustainable development leadership team, led by the CEO and the Chief Sustainability Officer, as well as working groups for each of the 19 ESG material issues.
“Our ESG strategy originated from our own long-term needs and was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. The pursuit of sustainable development has been inherent in every step of our journey and is not designed to cater to short-term trends, but rather a necessary driver to realize our vision to be a good company that will last for at least 102 years,” added Mr. Jing. “A good company is never independently defined. We will listen to the opinions and suggestions from all parties with an open mind and welcome supervision and guidance from all of our stakeholders.”
As part of its “Technological Innovation” pillar, Ant Group has been increasing its R&D investments, which grew at an annual rate of more than 39% for three consecutive years (2018-2021), with total R&D spending in 2021 exceeding RMB 18.8 billion (approx. USD 2.77 billion). These investments enabled the Company to continuously turn technological breakthroughs into innovative, inclusive and reliable products and services to support the digital transformation of industries and better anticipate the evolving needs of an increasingly digital global economy. In 2021, MYbank, an Ant Group associate and an online SME bank, leveraged digital technology to deliver convenient, accessible and responsible collateral-free financing services to 45 million SMEs.
In February 2022, Ant Group was recognized as a Top 100 Global Innovator™ 2022 by Clarivate™. This prestigious annual list identifies global companies and institutions that contribute new ideas, solve problems and create new economic value.
Since 2017, three years after Ant Group’s establishment, the Company has steadily introduced and advanced its ESG assessment framework and published an annual sustainability report, compiled according to the Global Reporting Initiative standards. These reports, including the latest 2021 edition with the Company’s ESG strategy, can be found on Ant Group’s website (Chinese only for now, English edition will be online in the coming weeks).
About Ant Group
Ant Group aims to build the infrastructure and platforms to support the digital transformation of the service industry. Through continuous innovation, we strive to provide all consumers and small and micro businesses equal access to digital financial and other daily life services that are convenient, sustainable and inclusive.
For more information, please visit our website at www.antgroup.com or follow us on Twitter @AntGroup.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220531006112/en/
Contact information
Media Inquiries
Le SHEN
Shenle.sl@antgroup.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Exein and Deutsche Telekom IoT Partner to Secure the Next Generation of Connected Devices7.10.2026 09:00:00 EEST | Press release
Exein, a global leader in physical AI and runtime security, today announced a strategic partnership with Deutsche Telekom IoT to bring integrated security to connected devices across Deutsche Telekom IoT’s ecosystem. With its own transatlantic network and around 600 roaming and satellite partners, Deutsche Telekom IoT provides worldwide connectivity for customers across industries and markets. The partnership pairs Exein's device-level security with Deutsche Telekom IoT’s global connectivity capabilities, addressing a gap that is becoming more urgent as intelligent, business-critical applications move directly onto devices operating in the field — robots, drones and industrial machines acting autonomously and making decisions in the physical world. Exein's security technology already protects more than two billion devices globally, across sectors including automotive, robotics, energy and industrial manufacturing. Its latest runtime architecture, Photon, operates at kernel level to blo
Stop Hoping for Secure AI and Start Building It: RSA Agent ID Closes the Agentic Identity Gap for Highly Regulated Industries7.10.2026 07:00:00 EEST | Press release
At World Summit AI in the Netherlands, RSA, the identity standard for government agencies, finance, and high-assurance organizations, today announced RSA Agent ID, the agentic identity security platform for highly-regulated industries. RSA Agent ID discovers, secures, and governs AI agents across their lifecycle, letting regulated organizations find and register agents, prove the authority behind every consequential action, and run it where they choose. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261006426797/en/ Three forces are reshaping how organizations operate, and they are arriving at once. AI is transforming work and pushing agents into production faster than security teams can track them, while making attacks cheaper, faster, and harder to detect. Companies and countries are reclaiming control over their data and the decisions made on their behalf. And security has moved from an IT responsibility to a board-level
The Empire State Building Observation Deck Hosts Annual Run-Up, Presented by NYU Langone Health and Powered by Merrell7.10.2026 05:25:00 EEST | Press release
The Empire State Building (ESB) hosted the 48th Annual Empire State Building Observation Deck Run-Up, presented by NYU Langone Health and powered by Merrell. In several designated heats, more than 200 runners from across the world raced up the building’s 1,576 stairs to reach the finish line on the iconic 86th Floor Observation Deck. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261006766024/en/ The Empire State Building Observation Deck Hosts Annual Run-Up, Presented by NYU Langone Health and Powered by Merrell “Athletes gather from around the globe to participate in the Empire State Building Observation Deck Run-Up, the world’s preeminent tower race,” said Tony Malkin, chairman and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust. “We congratulate all who participated in this ultimate feat of endurance at Tripadvisor’s number one top attraction in the U.S.” Ryoji Watanabe of Japan took first place in the Men’s Elite heat with a time of 1
Phenom Adds Major Headline Speakers as IAMPHENOM Europe Approaches Sold-Out Status6.10.2026 16:30:00 EEST | Press release
Phenom, the leader in applied AI built to redesign work operations for hiring faster, developing better and retaining longer, today announced the newest wave of speakers for IAMPHENOM Europe 2026, the only applied AI event dedicated to human resources taking place on 4-5 November in Paris, France. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261006714151/en/ Phenom announced the newest wave of speakers for IAMPHENOM Europe 2026, the only applied AI event dedicated to human resources taking place on 4-5 November in Paris, France. The two-day conference gives attendees what other HR events can’t: an inside look at AI agents already in production, automated workflows tailored to specific business contexts and the dramatic results they are already delivering. Across keynotes, customer sessions, hands-on experiences and peer networking with the continent’s top CHROs and HRIT decision-makers, guests can participate in discussion
European Firms Struggle to Keep Pace with Growing DSAR Demands, New Reveal Study Finds6.10.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
New research published today byReveal, the provider of integrated AI-native platforms spanning the dispute resolution lifecycle, found that large European organisations complete fewer than half of data subject access requests (DSARs) within the one-month deadline required under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a shortfall the study ties directly to a near-universal absence of purpose-built technology. Nearly nine in 10 organisations still run DSARs on manual or general-purpose workflows, with no dedicated tooling in place. The report, based on a survey of 213 legal and privacy professionals at large European enterprises, is the first of its kind to benchmark how organisations across the region are managing DSAR compliance at scale. The findings expose structural inconsistencies between how organisations perceive their DSAR processes and how those processes perform. Ninety percent of respondents said they are confident their process would withstand scrutiny from an Informa
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom