CCTV News From November 28 to December 1, the 8th China International Hotel Industry Conference, hosted by the China Hotel Association, Hainan International Economic Development Bureau, and Hainan Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, was held in Haikou, Hainan. With the theme of "Green Leading, Integrity and Innovation", this event focuses on five major sections, including annual inventory outlook, high-quality results release, green annual meeting, green product docking, and free trade port cooperation, to grasp the general trend of development, clarify development ideas, expand consumption space, innovate consumption scenarios, enrich consumption experience, and lead the industry's high-quality development with "green dual national standards". The guests at the meeting actively made suggestions and suggestions on related topics, and jointly contributed wisdom and strength to the high-quality development of China's hotel industry.

With the continuous optimization of the overall economic structure and the continuous upgrading of the consumer market, the takeaway business has become an important part of China's catering market. Green and low-carbon transformation is imperative. From adding the "no tableware required" option to encouraging merchants to provide small meals, from exploring the green management of the entire life cycle of plastic lunch boxes to developing environmentally friendly lunch boxes, the "green ordering" carbon reduction practice is becoming a new exploration for takeaway platforms. At the event, Liu Xiaoqing, Vice President of Ali Local Life, said in an exclusive interview with CCTV.com that green should become the background color of the development of the takeaway catering industry.

Photo: Liu Xiaoqing, Vice President of Ali Local Life (left), accepted an exclusive interview with CCTV.com

Question: At present, the takeaway market is constantly expanding, and the environmental impact of takeaway packaging and delivery is also increasingly concerned. As the center of the industry, Ali Local Life bears the important responsibility of promoting green design and environmentally friendly packaging in the whole chain connecting packaging suppliers, merchants, riders and consumers. Can you share Ali Local Life's specific practices in green packaging, plastic reduction, promotion of small meals and reduction of food waste?

Liu Xiaoqing: As an instant e-commerce platform, we have the responsibility and obligation to use technology and products to create a low-carbon mindset and form a low-carbon lifestyle. On the one hand, it is the reduction of plastic on the consumer side. We launched the "no tableware required" option on the Ele.me platform. More than 1.4 billion orders have chosen this environmentally friendly option, which is equivalent to reducing the use of more than 6,000 tons of wood and more than 3,000 tons of plastic. At the same time, we also tried the green management of the whole life cycle of plastic lunch boxes. At the source, we jointly formulated the takeaway packaging standards with professional organizations; during use, we provided merchants with green design guidelines and procurement channels for takeaway packaging; after use, we tried to recycle lunch boxes and plastic bottles. We spun the recycled PET beverage bottles into yarn and used them in fashionable waist bags and rider clothing.

On the other hand, it is to reduce food waste on the merchant side. We designed from the product service aspect, set up a one-person meal column and a small meal venue, and encouraged merchants on the platform to provide small meals. At present, one million merchants have participated. At the same time, in order to encourage consumers to choose small meals, we give carbon points rewards, and currently tens of millions of consumers have participated. In this process, we found that, for example, Sichuan's Dandan noodles and Meicaikourou set meals can reduce food waste by an average of 60-70 grams after being made into small portions. On this basis, we have jointly developed the industry's first standard for reducing carbon waste in food with professional institutions, and jointly launched the "Joint Laboratory of Sustainable Food Systems" with the Academy of Agricultural Sciences to carry out industry-university-research cooperation, and released the industry's first sustainable food indicator system for the catering industry. According to the estimation method of reducing food loss and emissions for small-portion meals, each "small-portion meal" takeaway order can reduce food waste by 110.23 grams on average, and the resulting food waste reduction ratio is 53.3%. Taking the 2021 data as an example, the amount of food waste reduced by Ele.me's "small-portion meal" orders throughout the year is approximately equal to the annual food demand of 540,000 people.

Question: Green delivery has become an important development direction for food delivery services. How does Alibaba Local Life integrate innovative technologies and logistics systems to reduce the carbon footprint of the entire delivery process and improve delivery efficiency?

Liu Xiaoqing: There are millions of riders on our platform. They are important infrastructure in the entire business chain and an important link in the carbon reduction process. We have done a lot of product optimization and technical transformation in green charging, optimizing routes, and improving efficiency. In terms of green charging, we are actively exploring feasible solutions with our ecological partners; in terms of route optimization, we have shortened the distance by more than 20% through a series of technical means; in terms of improving efficiency, we have launched the "group buying" service, which provides consumers with a choice. If they are willing to wait for a while, they can be delivered together with other people's goods. Since its launch, the group buying rate in the business district has reached 80%. "Group buying" has also been included in the carbon account to further guide everyone to develop low-carbon habits, which not only reduces the electricity and energy consumption in the delivery process, but also eases traffic congestion and reduces the workload of riders.

Question: In May this year, Ali Local Life (Ele.me) and the China Hotel Association jointly held the third China Takeaway Festival and signed a cooperation agreement on the intention to host the fourth China Takeaway Festival at the event. What plans or suggestions does Ali Local Life have for the fourth China Takeaway Festival?

Liu Xiaoqing: The Takeaway Festival is an industry event guided by the government, hosted by the association, and jointly participated by platform companies and merchants. By organizing a series of rich and special catering activities and high-quality industry conferences, it has a great role in stimulating catering consumption and promoting the prosperity and development of the catering industry. Last year, we proposed the "Rest assured" strategic system, advocating the construction of platforms and industry standards from three aspects: food safety, word-of-mouth praise, and scientific testing, to help the operation and growth of catering merchants and let consumers eat with peace of mind. This year, we hope to work with the China Hotel Association to promote the establishment of the "Rest assured" concept of catering in the industry and present it at the 4th China Takeaway Festival.

Question: Looking to the future, the concept of green catering is increasingly favored by consumers. Next, what long-term plans will Ali Local Life take to cooperate with the China Hotel Association to jointly promote the construction of green hotels?

Liu Xiaoqing: On May 18 this year, we jointly issued the industry's first small-portion meal standard "General Requirements for Small-portion Meals in the Catering Industry" with the China Hotel Association, which is also a response to the General Secretary's proposal to "stop catering waste." Previously, we found in our daily work practice that the catering industry had unclear definitions of small-portion meals and irregular implementation by merchants, which became a bottleneck for promoting small-portion meals to more merchants. In view of this situation and the actual needs of the healthy development of the industry, we jointly issued this standard with the China Hotel Association. The release of this standard will effectively solve the pain point of the definition of small-portion meals in the catering industry and is expected to accelerate the popularization of green ordering. In fact, this is just a microcosm of promoting the green development of the catering takeaway industry. In the future, we will continue to work hard to further deepen the green and low-carbon concept, strengthen cooperation with the government, industry partners and other parties, and jointly promote the catering industry to move towards low-carbon, environmentally friendly and sustainable development.

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