A new white paper outlining ways for corporate actors to achieve net-zero carbon emissions has just been released in Beijing. The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the world's biggest corporate sustainability initiative and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have jointly authored the paper.

The paper summarizes the climate regulations and policies adopted by different countries. And it discusses what it calls three key elements of any net-zero corporate roadmap.

These are inventory baselines, reduction goals and initiatives across different industries.

The document also outlines the best practices from 55 companies in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.

Liu Meng, Asia-Pacific Head with the UNGC, said: "The UN Secretary-General once said the world will benefit from a Belt and Road Initiative that accelerates the efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Companies and the private sector can play a very important role to help transform the grey economy into a green economy. I believe the launch of the report on corporate net zero pathway and focus on major infrastructure sectors brings this opportunity to guide companies with the necessary tools and help identify 'the green space where the green principles can be realized into green action' as the UN secretary-general has emphasized."

Companies could also mitigate the impact on the climate by applying technologies to decarbonize the manufacturing process. For example, Chinese tech giant Lenovo implemented a low-temperature solder manufacturing technology in its PC manufacturing operations, reducing power consumption and carbon emissions by 35 percent. This innovation has been shared with other players.

"From Lenovo perspective, as a global company, it's not individual missions to promote the net-zero objectives, it's also [a] mission to promote this priority among our value chain and ecosystem. For Lenovo itself, we focus on green products and green value chain. We hope to share our technology and practice in the ecosystem and benefit others from all over the world," Hawk Xu, CTO of Lenovo Global Supply Chain.