Research analyst of Shanghai Green Light-Year

Yixiang Xu, an international relations student from Xi‘an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, is now working as a research analyst at Shanghai Green Light-Year. He is a passionate, responsible researcher who stays curious about new things. Additionally, He used to be involved in agricultural activities in the countryside, such as growing wheat. It was with these experiences that he saw how difficult it is to grow crops.

In June 2023, he participated in research called Chinese Corporate ESG Performance Research 2023: Based on the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Benchmarking Methodology, organized by Shanghai Green Light-Year, where he was also the Food and Agriculture Group Leader of the research. After studying the ESG aspects of Chinese food and agriculture companies, he gained a deep understanding of the gap between Chinese companies and the world’s best. At the same time, he has gained insights into the standards that the world expects from food and agriculture companies. He also hopes that the results of this research will help Chinese companies to narrow the gap with the world’s best.

In addition, in July 2023, he also participated in research called China Eco-Apprenticeship Program (CEAP) this summer, organized by Shanghai Green Light-Year. He and the rest of the team went into the company and developed the questions to the sustainability aspects of the company based on the GRI criteria as well as the company’s reality. Based on these questions, they collected information from the company and interviewed executives to learn more about the company’s sustainable efforts. With the information gathered, an ESG report was written for the company. Through this research, he not only applied the knowledge of ESG accumulated in the previous period, but also improved his team organizational skills, and became more adaptive to the offline as well as online mode of cooperation with team members. Through this research, he felt the importance of sustainable development to the development of the company, and also experienced that sustainable development is the future no matter what industry in the future to achieve the purpose.

From 16 to 20 October 2023, he had the honor of being selected to participate in the World Food Forum 2023 (WFF 2023) in Rome, as he was the leader of the Food and Agriculture Group of the research ” Chinese Corporate ESG Performance Research 2023: Based on the World Benchmarking Alliance’s Benchmarking Methodology “. Therefore, he can also bring his research results to the site of the World Food Forum to discuss and share with outstanding young people around the world. In addition, he had seen at the Forum the sustainable development programs offered by outstanding young people from around the world to address food and agriculture issues in their own countries and communities and had heard about the sustainable development of the food and agriculture system from staff at Headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. He realized the enormous power of youth in promoting food and agriculture systems. Meanwhile, outstanding young private entrepreneurs shared their private sector sustainability models at the forum. He found that today’s private companies follow the Sustainable Development Goals set by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and that they also value their own ESG development. Therefore, in the future, he hopes to help the private sector of food and agriculture in China and the world to promote the development of ESG, and to help these companies to better carry out sustainable development.

Through these experiences, he became a student who is interested in the sustainable development of food and agriculture and who hopes to make a difference in China and the world through his efforts. As a student of international relations, he also hopes to learn more about food and agriculture from other scholars, and to help Chinese food and agriculture companies to be able to understand the world’s sustainable development model of food and agriculture. He also hopes to combine his own knowledge with the actual situation of Chinese food and agriculture companies to promote the sustainable development of Chinese food and agriculture companies.