From "recycling" to "regeneration", the goal is to achieve "zero carbon"

"You only need to visit once to complete all the services of exchanging old appliances for new ones." Gree users in many cities have found that the new round of exchanging old appliances for new ones is so convenient.

This is Gree's first reverse logistics recycling platform for used appliances, "Pearl Green Ring Recycling", which can realize the "delivery, disassembly and assembly in one" service for exchanging old appliances for new ones. In Gree's green appliance recycling system, through the close integration of online and offline self-owned sales systems and after-sales systems, Gree has opened up the key link technology of reverse branch logistics and created a new model of integrating recycling resources in the industrial chain and batch cooperative recycling.

As Song Jingxue, director of the research department of the China Household Appliances Industry Information Center, said, the most important part of the old-for-new system is the recycling link. It is necessary to ensure the formality of recycling channels, the unification of recycling standards, and the transparency of prices; it is necessary to improve the disassembly process, avoid the problem of illegal disassembly of old appliances, and ensure efficient recycling and resource reuse in standardization and standardization.

In order to provide consumers with professional and convenient trade-in and old home appliance recycling services and integrate social recycling resources for reuse, Gree will also improve the construction and operation of the online environmental protection recycling platform, complete more than 10,000 C-end agile one-click recycling tasks through reasonable price evaluation, perfect recycling process and high service quality; vigorously promote the home appliance reverse logistics recycling platform, combine the "Internet + recycling" approach, improve the green home appliance recycling system, and promote coverage to major cities in China.

The industry has reached a consensus that completing the closed loop of trade-in and improving the level of resource utilization of waste home appliances are important components. In recent years, leading manufacturing companies have explored new models for the development of circular economy. Since 2010, Gree has established six major renewable resource bases in Changsha, Zhengzhou, Shijiazhuang, Wuhu, Tianjin and Zhuhai, and carried out recycling and treatment of waste electrical and electronic products, scrapped cars, etc., as well as deep processing and resource utilization of waste circuit boards and waste plastics. Its green and harmless treatment of waste household appliances has been at the forefront of the industry for many years. By the end of 2023, Gree Renewable Resources has recycled, dismantled and processed 56 million sets of waste electronic and electrical products. Through Gree's resource recycling, a total of 2.8 million tons of carbon emissions have been reduced.

In addition to achieving emission reduction, Gree's green goal is "zero carbon". Gree has creatively designed the "zero carbon source" air-conditioning technology, which integrates advanced vapor compression refrigeration, photovoltaic direct drive, evaporative cooling and mechanical ventilation technologies. It can efficiently utilize renewable energy (solar energy) and natural cold sources (air, water), and can intelligently select one or more of the three modes of vapor compression refrigeration, evaporative cooling and ventilation according to outdoor meteorological conditions. It provides a more energy-saving and comfortable air conditioning solution for the room. This technology won the highest award of the Global Refrigeration Technology Innovation Grand Prix. At present, the "zero carbon source" air-conditioning technology has served more than 6,000 projects around the world, such as the DC Smart House in Xiongan Citizen Square and the Yadong Photovoltaic Future House in Tibet. In addition, photovoltaic air conditioners can also be seen in the Middle East, North America, Southeast Asia, South America, Europe and other regions, involving data centers, large DC public buildings, green campuses, zero-carbon parks and other scenarios.

From "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing" to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productivity

In the Gree Technology and Culture Exhibition Hall, the beautiful melody of "My Motherland and I" is played from time to time, and the performer is actually a robot band.

This is just a side profile of Gree's transformation from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing". It is reported that Gree's independently developed AI dynamic energy-saving technology is installed on Gree air conditioners such as Shiguangjin and Xingyu. Through artificial intelligence algorithms and AI energy-saving chips, it can perceive real-time changes in internal and external temperature, changes in user needs, air conditioner operating status and other multi-dimensional needs, automatically match cooling demand and actual output, and achieve the best dynamic operation of air conditioners. Compared with traditional air conditioners, the annual power consumption can be reduced by more than 13.6%; Gree Electric's "Key Technologies and Applications of High-efficiency Intelligent Environmental Control Systems for All Working Conditions in Metro Stations" project, which has been rated as reaching the international leading level, is applied to Shenzhen Metro Line 12. After testing by a third-party authoritative organization, the system room efficiency of the demonstration station Xin'an Park Station reached 7.17 throughout the year, achieving a comprehensive improvement in the "quantity-quality-efficiency" of the environmental control system of subway stations... As one of the earliest explorers of the digital transformation of China's manufacturing industry, Gree started with air conditioners and has spanned multiple fields such as home appliances, consumer electronics, and high-end intelligent manufacturing. It has explored transformation, innovation, and high-quality development on a large scale and accelerated the cultivation of new quality productivity.

Gree Electric Chairman Dong Mingzhu once publicly stated that for manufacturing companies, having new quality productivity means having more ability to challenge innovation and breakthroughs, having the ability to independently master key core technologies, and using their own advanced technologies to create consumer products to improve the quality of life of consumers; on the other hand, new quality productivity lies in transforming the production mode of traditional industries and becoming more intelligent, thereby improving efficiency and quality control.

Intelligent manufacturing is an important focus of Gree's development of new quality productivity. The Gree High-end Intelligent Appliance (Gaolan) Industrial Park, which was officially put into production in June 2023, has a total investment of 15 billion yuan and covers an area of about 1.586 million square meters. It is a major measure for Gree to implement the national high-quality development strategy, quickly respond to market demand, and achieve transformation and upgrading in the intelligent manufacturing industry. According to reports, the industrial park has achieved "four comprehensives":

--Full automation. Using Gree's independently developed CNC machine tools, industrial robots, intelligent warehousing and logistics, intelligent environmental protection equipment, etc., the overall automation rate is 80%, reaching the industry-leading level. The industry pioneered more than 30 technologies such as automatic assembly and automatic welding, achieving an 80% increase in production efficiency.

--Full connectivity. Through the industrial network, video network, 5G, WIFI6, and office network, nearly 3,000 devices are fully connected, tens of thousands of business terminals are fully connected, 7 edge convergences and 1 Gree cloud platform, and the daily data collection volume reaches hundreds of billions.

--Full digitalization. Create a digital management system that is "horizontally to end, vertically to the end, and end-to-end fully integrated", fully open up the six major business areas of market, planning, procurement, logistics, manufacturing, and sales, realize digital scheduling of production plans, digital visualization of manufacturing processes, and improve management efficiency by 50%.

--Full intelligence. Through the deep integration of digital technology and intelligent equipment, accurate identification of customer needs is achieved, 3D simulation is designed and developed, and 18 intelligent manufacturing scenarios such as two-device lean intelligent manufacturing factory, sheet metal flexible intelligent manufacturing factory, smart logistics, and smart energy have been completed, and the title of National Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration Factory in 2023 has been obtained.

Relevant research institutions believe that in recent years, Chinese companies have made breakthroughs in many major intelligent equipment manufacturing through continuous R&D investment and technological accumulation. With these breakthroughs, coupled with local service advantages and in-depth understanding of subdivided industries, a group of highly competitive intelligent equipment companies have emerged in China, accumulating a large number of independent intellectual property rights, and product performance and technical levels have reached a relatively high level in the world. In some downstream application fields, they have formed a greater competitive advantage over foreign companies.

It is understood that as of July 2024, Gree Electric has applied for more than 120,000 patents, including more than 60,000 invention patents; it has 46 "internationally leading" technologies and has won 2 National Science and Technology Progress Awards, 2 National Technological Invention Awards, 3 China Patent Gold Awards, 3 China Design Gold Awards, 15 Geneva Invention Exhibition Gold Awards, and 10 Nuremberg Invention Exhibition Gold Awards. Supported by such a deep technical accumulation, the continuous large-scale innovation and exploration practices of leading manufacturing companies will also release greater industrial competitiveness of China's smart manufacturing.

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