Sustainability Covalence, an alliance of 14 founding partners, was launched by BASF in Shanghai on Tuesday, with the aim to promote sustainable growth in areas such as low-carbon development, circular economy and societal engagement across the value chain of key industries.

Covalence is a chemical word meaning valence, or the degree of the combining power of a certain element. It is characterized by sharing of electrons, standing for the member partners' shared vision to jointly promote sustainable growth for China and to contribute to the nation's goals in carbon neutrality and green development.

"We firmly believe that through our joint efforts across the entire value chain, we can generate greater social, economic and environmental impact," said Zheng Daqing, senior vice-president of business and market development at BASF China .

"Together in the Sustainability Covalence, we will share best practices, form strong collaborations and actively contribute to China's objectives for sustainable development," Zheng added.

The initial joint initiatives under the Sustainability Covalence focus on carbon emission reduction, in which BASF's know-how and expertise will be leveraged.

Each partner will co-create with BASF a carbon reduction project, ranging from energy efficient housing, safe and durable plastic applications, low-carbon transportation to sustainable packaging solutions for food and beverages.

Zhong Junhui, president of China Resources Snowflake Technology Research Institute, said there are lots of collaborative opportunities for more sustainable development, Zhong is also chief of brewmaster of Snow Breweries.

Under the framework of Sustainability Covalence, BASF and Snow Breweries will cooperate on sustainable and innovative degradable materials on packaging applications. Their future projects would include degradable PET beer containers, renewable packaging materials, and increasing recycling rates.

The 14 founding members come from various industries along the chemical value chain. They are BASF, COMIY, Hongbaoli, Huaheng Biotech, INOV, Landsea, Red Avenue, Rokin Logistics, SCIP SITA, Sino Trans, Snow Breweries, Techstorm, Xiangfeng and Xilong Scientific.