On October 20th, 2016, the “Tsinghua Students Dialogue with Board Members” was in full swing as part of the series of activities of Tsinghua SEM 2016 Advisory Board Meeting. Ms. Marjorie Yang, Chairman of Esquel Group, an Advisory Board member of Tsinghua SEM, visited Tsinghua x-lab. Ms. Yang held face-to-face exchanges with startup teams and shared her ideas on corporate management and innovation with a selected group of students who attended the talk.

After a short tour presided byTsinghua x-lab, three startup teams introduced their projects and products to Ms. Yang. Wang Xuan, founder of Bluepha, a technology company originating from x-lab, studied at Tsinghua University School of Life Science and his team are committed to research and development of low-cost biodegradable materials, hoping to solve problems such as long degradation period of traditional packaging plastics. With their innovative materials, their plastic products could degrade completely in nature within several months, and they are currently used in plastic packages and agricultural mulch films. After introduction by Wang Xuan, Ms. Yang showed great interest and pointed out that the agricultural mulch films used in Xinjiang cotton farms of her company, Esquel Group, would have a good potential of incorporating their products. Ms. Yang said Esquel uses a large amount of plastics for mulch films and packaging bags of shirts, and has also been looking for alternatives for packaging bags that are more eco-friendly.

Xiao Pengfei, founder of Beijing Neatrition Inc., from Tsinghua University Peking Union Medical College presented his start-up business next. Beijing Neatrition focuses on research and services in new materials, and its product of nano soil layer material provides relevant interrelated body waterproof, inkproof and oilproof surface to materials. Xiao Pengfei explained that materials of Neatrition were simulated from the surface structure of the lotus leaf, enabling the surfaces of all objects to form a resistance from other substances, like the form of clean lotus leaves growing from a muddy pond. The material could be utilized in such fields as PV glass, glass curtain wall, textile and metal. Currently, such materials have been adopted in the PV glass industry in countries like Ukraine and Japan, and the company is also collaborating with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Logistics Department. For the products of Xiao Pengfei, Ms. Yang was interested to know the impact of such products on cotton textiles. Xiao Pengfei said that their products, different from general water-proofing agent, could enhance the hydrophobic characteristic of materials without changing other characteristics of materials, and they hope to establish collaboration with Esquel Group.

The third team was Beijing T-cair Technology which was incubated from x-lab, and once visited and positively received by Premier Li Keqiang under the recommendation of x-lab. In the presentation, Zhao Long, founder of Beijing T-cair Technology shared his intelligent water washing air purification project to the audience. The company focuses on purification of air contamination and optimization of air comfort. Different from traditional filtration type air purifiers, their products utilized the method of simulating natural rain to purify haze or air contamination. Currently, the project has obtained the support of local governments of Beijing and Nanjing, etc, and had obtained two rounds of seed and angel financing.

Marjorie Yang, Chairman of Esquel Group

Afterwards, Ms. Yang, as an entrepreneur engaging in corporate management and innovation for several decades, shared her views on the topic about innovation. She said there are two major problems in the today’s society, one being the climate change and pollution, the other being the problem of the widening wealth gap. She took her own company, Esquel Group, as an example and explained the role of innovation in solving the above two major problems in a seemingly traditional industry. In terms of sewage treatment, Ms. Yang said Esquel has the capacity to treat over ten thousand tons of industrial sewage every day, and is cooperating with other companies to explore innovative technologies for more efficient sewage treatment to further reduce the environmental hazards. In addition, she pointed out that the "reworking" phenomenon, where clothes are remade because of defects, in the textile and apparel industry could be prevented, and the generation of pollutants could therefore be reduced if more qualified products can be achieved through improved company management and other internal innovations. Ms. Yang quoted that Esquel had great interest in the utilization of new materials for buttons. Using one European company which produced shirt buttons with milk as an example, she pointed out that the utilization of new materials as degenerative raw materials in traditional industries could effectively avoid contamination. On the dyeing process in the textile industry, Ms. Yang said the chemical dyeing method, although quick and cheap, is less environmental, while the traditional organic dyeing method is more environmental friendly but has color constraints. Esquel is currently studying a new method to combine the advantages of the two dyeing methods. On the issue how technological innovation might affect employment, Ms. Yang shared her view that technological innovation should serve to improve the production capacities of employees rather than replace them. A win-win situation could be achieved from technological innovation and the income of grass-roots workers could not only be preserved but improved, as long as technologies are utilized well. Citing the example of garment factory of Esquel Group, she said automation reduced manual input, but did not cause reduction in income or unemployment of workers. On the contrary, the income of workers in her company has been increasing, and the income increase of workers is one way to help solve the problem of the widening wealth gap. Ms. Yang added that many workers did not know how to utilize technologies, without any sound technology foundation, but Esquel Group teaches employees to learn systematic thinking and new technologies and encourage employees to participate in the application of new technologies.

After her speech, Ms. Yang further interacted with the audience and conducted a quick Q&A section. At the end of the session, Ms. Mao Donghui expressed her gratitude to Ms. Yang for her visit and sharing, and expressed the wish to continue to collaborate with Esquel Group and Ms. Yang in the future. Lastly, Ms. Mao Donghui presented a commemorative plaque to Ms. Yang as a token of appreciation. (provided by Tsinghua x-lab)