Alibaba Group this week issued its first Environmental, Social and Governance Report. Unveiled at the company’s Investor Day conference, the report covers the seven issues identified as most critical to the sustainability of the company by internal and external stakeholders. Among the stakeholders were50 institutional investors, comprising $65 billion of Alibaba’s market capitalization.
The topics addressed include corporate governance, human capital, intellectual-property-rights protection, social impact, cyber security, data protection and the environment. Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma outlined the rationale for issuing the ESG report.
“We believe that a profitable and prosperous business can only be achieved and sustained by solving large-scale societal problems. Today, the Alibaba Digital Economy not only supports the infrastructure of commerce but also serves hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of millions of enterprises, most of them small businesses. This economy extends far beyond our immediate customers to impact the lives and businesses of all stakeholders in our ecosystem. Alibaba has become an institution of public trust. In this ESG report, our first such report for the investment community, we will share with you how we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards of public trust.”
Read the full report here.