On December 17, the 19th Solid Waste Strategic Forum 2025 opened in Beijing. At the event, Grandblue was honored as one of the “Top 10 Influential Solid Waste Enterprises” for the 12th consecutive year. Grandblue President Jin Duo attended the forum and delivered a keynote address.
Solid Waste Strategic Forum 2025
Charting the Industry's Path to Advancement Under the 15th Five-Year Plan
At this critical juncture as the 14th Five-Year Plan draws to a close and the 15th Five-Year Plan blueprint unfolds, the solid waste industry finds itself amid profound transformation and strategic realignment. With technological self-reliance and industrial self-strengthening reaching new heights, the carbon-peaking agenda entering a critical acceleration phase, and comprehensive green transformation constrained by increasingly rigid requirements, solid waste enterprises are being compelled to reassess their strategic positioning. Within the broader context of the national dual-carbon strategy, resource security, and industrial competitiveness, such reassessment is not only essential for overcoming current development bottlenecks but also a fundamental prerequisite for achieving value-driven, high-quality advancement across the industry.
Breaking Through and Leaping Forward
Exploring Enterprise Resilience and Growth in the Industry's Transitional Cycle
“How far into the past we can see determines how far into the future we can envision.” Drawing on this perspective, Grandblue President Jin Duo shared insights into the company’s development strategy for the new era. His address reviewed the solid waste industry’s accumulated achievements over the past 15 years and offered a forward-looking assessment of the decade ahead, set against the backdrop of shifting global dynamics, evolving national macroeconomic policies, and industry transformation trends.
For the solid waste sector, the past 15 years were characterized by the relative certainty of steady growth and expansion within defined boundaries. Yet structural bottlenecks gradually became apparent. Looking ahead, the coming decade is marked by heightened uncertainty, requiring enterprises to move beyond established frameworks, expand strategic horizons, and actively explore new pathways for sustainable growth.
The Past 15 Years:
From Rapid Growth to Stock Integration
The 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan periods marked the solid waste industry’s “golden decade,” defined by policy-driven growth, rapid scale expansion, project-centric development, and steady gains in market share. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, however, the industry transitioned into a stock-market phase, undergoing a profound shift toward internal optimization and quality enhancement, while navigating a critical stage of consolidation and survival, adjustment, and integration.
In response to these cyclical shifts, Grandblue has maintained a proactive and forward-looking strategic posture. During the “golden decade” of incremental market expansion, the company accurately captured development opportunities, achieved nationwide expansion through the Chuangguan acquisition, pioneered a multi-dimensional collaborative industrial park model, and established a vertically and horizontally integrated solid waste value chain, building core competitive advantages through differentiated positioning. As the industry entered the 14th Five-Year Plan period of stock integration, Grandblue further strengthened its internal foundations through the strategic acquisition of Canvest Environmental, along with continuous optimization of organizational structures and operational systems. These initiatives have progressively reinforced the company’s resilience and capabilities, enabling sustainable growth across evolving market cycles.
The Next Decade:
Innovation-Driven, Green Value, Ecosystem Empowerment
The coming decade marks a pivotal period of global restructuring and profound transformation between old and new growth drivers, as well as a critical stage in China’s advancement toward national rejuvenation. The 15th Five-Year Plan period serves as a strategic bridge, both a crucial window for breakthroughs toward the 2035 long-term development goals and a foundational phase for the final acceleration during the 16th Five-Year Plan. At the same time, a new wave of technological revolution is set to reshape industries across the board, while the global order continues to evolve from a pattern of “one superpower with multiple powers” toward deepening multipolarity. In response, China has formulated a series of strategic breakthroughs: securing the commanding heights of the new development cycle through technological transformation, fostering a new development environment through policy reform, and cultivating new growth paradigms through industrial upgrading.
The solid waste industry’s pathway toward high-quality development is closely aligned with these strategic directions: First, technology is evolving from an “auxiliary tool” into the “core driver of new-quality productive forces”. This transition is marked by the deep integration of intelligence and digitalization to reshape operational models; breakthroughs in the commercialization of resource recovery technologies to resolve the long-standing “economic paradox”; and the cross-disciplinary application of emerging technologies to generate new solutions, business formats, and development models.
Second, policy orientation is shifting from “environmental regulation” toward “ecological value”. This includes leveraging rigid dual-carbon constraints to accelerate the market-based monetization of green value; establishing modern environmental governance frameworks that empower green industrial restructuring and innovation; and strengthening green finance infrastructure to unlock the liquidity and value of green assets.
Third, the industry is transforming from “scale expansion” to “efficiency and value creation”. Business models are evolving from cost centers to engines of value creation, while intensified K-shaped divergence is giving rise to a “barbell-shaped” industry structure. At the same time, capital logic is shifting from “asset accumulation” toward “capital circulation”.
“Innovation-driven, green value, and ecosystem empowerment” define the core keywords shaping the future of the solid waste industry. Continuous innovation across technology, business models, capital mechanisms, and organizational management will serve as the primary engine of industry advancement. Green transformation will evolve from a cost item and compliance requirement into a central source of value creation, while industry competition will shift from isolated project-based rivalry to competition in building and integrating industrial ecosystems. The 15th Five-Year Plan period represents both an “exploration phase” and a “value-forging phase” for the industry. During this stage, solid waste enterprises must consolidate their foundations, strike a careful balance between near-term survival and long-term strategic positioning, and secure competitive advantages by “operating steadily” before “operating innovatively.” In contrast, the 16th Five-Year Plan period will mark the industry’s “realization phase” and “value-release phase.” Enterprises that have successfully established new operational paradigms and business models will begin to unlock and harvest value, achieving sustained “operational success” through “operational innovation.”
Grandblue will pursue innovation-driven development by establishing a dual-engine business exploration model centered on its “core business” and “pan-green business.” On the one hand, the company will strengthen its core business through deeper value extraction from existing assets while expanding incremental growth opportunities. On the other hand, it will advance pan-green business development through a phased approach encompassing scenario openness, capital linkage, technology co-creation, management empowerment, and brand endorsement. Through this model, the core business will support the cultivation of pan-green businesses, while high-quality pan-green initiatives, in turn, will drive innovation and upgrading within the core business.
The conference announced that, during Grandblue’s tenure as the fifth rotating chair of the “Double Hundred Leap” Solid Waste Incineration Benchmarking Alliance, the company made notable contributions to the industry’s high-quality development. In accordance with a joint resolution adopted under the Alliance’s charter, Grandblue will continue to serve as the sixth rotating chair. Looking ahead, Grandblue remains committed to positioning itself as an enabler of green innovation and will continue to work closely with industry peers across the environmental protection sector to contribute to the sustained advancement of the solid waste industry.