2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference | Green products receive their first "Digital Identity Card," promoting the integration and transformation of global digitalization and green development

(Source: Beijing Business Daily)

Guiding practice with green design laws and planning, China is entering the Green Design 3.0 era. On the morning of March 29, during the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference, a press conference themed “Green Design Empowers Sustainable Development” was held at the forum’s news center. Xing Lei, Secretary-General of the World Green Design Organization (hereinafter referred to as “WGDO”) and Chairman of the Board of the Beijing Guanghua Design Development Foundation, said that the Green Leaf Mark MA, jointly created and first launched globally by the Zhongguancun Institute of Information and Communication Technology (hereinafter referred to “China Code Institute”) and the WGDO, has been officially released. It integrates digital encoding and full lifecycle traceability technologies, giving green products a trustworthy “digital identity card.” Zhang Chao, President of the China Code Institute, said he hopes that by using the Green Leaf Mark MA as a starting point, China will provide scientific, transparent, and efficient solutions for the certification, circulation, and realization of value for green design products worldwide, guiding global green trade toward standardization, digitalization, and intelligent development.

In the future, the integrated transformation of digitalization and greening is an inevitable choice for global sustainable development. With the promotion and application of the Green Leaf Mark MA worldwide and China’s domestic cities accelerating their green transformation, China will inject momentum into global sustainable development.

Connecting with the Global Green Market

At present, the Green Leaf Mark MA assigns an unalterable MA code to each green design product, enabling end-to-end lifecycle data collection, chaining, and visual traceability—from raw material procurement, manufacturing processes, to carbon footprint accounting and recycling and disposal. This addresses industry challenges at their root, such as “false green” and “greenwashing,” and, through a quantified assessment of 16 core environmental factors across a product’s full lifecycle, produces a 1-to-5 star tiered result. This provides globally recognized, verifiable, and traceable authoritative evidence for a product’s green design grade. Zhang Chao said the core value of the Green Leaf Mark MA has been thoroughly validated through industry case studies such as hydrogen energy, and has resulted in replicable and promotable practical experience.

On the level of industrial development, Zhang Chao further pointed out that, in response to the current situation in which certification standards differ across countries, as a globally common digital interface, the Green Leaf Mark MA can connect the green certification systems of different countries. It helps enterprises meet green market access requirements in multiple countries in a single step, providing compliance assurance for companies to expand overseas. Fundamentally, it reduces the institutional costs of green trade.

Meanwhile, in the face of issues such as the lack of unified technical standards for the global green transition, a shortage of professional talent, and insufficient international alignment, Wu Chen, Vice Chairperson of the WGDO and Dean of the School of Human Settlements Sciences at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed that the next steps will focus on three areas: promoting the inclusion of green design engineers in the national occupational roster, clarifying job definitions and competency standards; strengthening policy incentives in pilot provinces and cities by giving tilt to certified enterprises and individuals in areas such as applying for green projects and allocating carbon quotas, encouraging enterprises to incorporate qualification allocation into ESG assessments; and deepening international cooperation by expanding the scope of mutual recognition of professional qualifications, supporting R&D of key technologies such as low-carbon materials and intelligent energy-saving systems, and enabling two-way support for talent cultivation and technological innovation.

Green Design Leads Green Development

In China, the “dual carbon” goals have created an urgent demand for green design. Xing Lei said that end-of-pipe environmental remediation is often costly and has limited effectiveness; the real solution must shift to the front end. Green design should become the source approach for leading green development. Xing Lei also mentioned that the WGDO standard specialization committee is currently taking the lead in drafting the “International Standard for Green Design,” covering 11 sub-fields including green products, green buildings, and green energy, providing technical support for the standardized development of the global green industry. In addition, to establish an international benchmark for city-level green transition, the WGDO launched the “World Green Design Cities” awards.

On March 29, at the “World Green Design Forum” event during the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference, Foshan Shunde and Tianjin Eco-City won the “World Green Design Cities” awards, showcasing China’s cities’ green transition practices.

Li Jian, Standing Member of the Shunde District Party Committee and Deputy District Governor of Foshan, said that while Shunde has two major 400-billion-yuan-level traditional industrial clusters—home appliances and mechanical equipment—60% of above-scale industrial enterprises in the entire district have set up R&D and design institutions. Shunde has more than 1,000 design enterprises and 35,000 practitioners, and it has 8 national-level and 47 provincial-level industrial design centers. These dual advantages of “manufacturing + design” make green design more than wishful thinking; it is directly embedded in the industrial chain and translated into productive forces. In the future, Shunde will take the “World Green Design Cities” award as a driver for high-quality development, empower industrial revitalization with green design, comprehensively upgrade advantageous industries such as home appliances, mechanical equipment, furniture, automotive parts, metal materials, and the new generation of electronic information. It will also embed green design concepts into the entire process of urban planning, construction, and management, while further deepening the city’s international linkages and humanistic value.

Digitalization and greening are becoming the two major engines driving economic and social development, but their integration still needs to be deepened. Looking ahead, Xing Lei said he will actively promote the establishment of a collaborative mechanism that integrates industry, academia, research, and application. He will support the deep integration of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data with green design, empowering strategic emerging industries such as new materials, new energy, and intelligent manufacturing. This will help green design truly become the bridge connecting technological breakthroughs and industrial upgrading, and empowering sustainable development.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Zhang Xuwang; internship reporter Mao Siyi