Bureau Veritas Issues First Greenhouse Gas Verification Statement and ESG Report Assurance Statement for CenturyLink in China's IDC Industry

Bureau Veritas has recently been commissioned by Century Internet Group Co. CenturyLink became the first domestic IDC company to receive a greenhouse gas verification certificate. At the same time, Bureau Veritas performed third-party verification services for the CenturyLink Group Limited 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance Report ("ESG Report"), and ultimately issued an independent assurance statement for the ESG Report.

In response to the country's "Double Carbon" strategy, CenturyLink has made the application of clean technologies one of its core initiatives, and has developed its own carbon neutral strategy and taken concrete actions to help achieve the country's "Double Carbon" target and the sustainable development of the company. At the same time, CenturyLink supports its customers and other partners to reduce energy consumption and emissions in IT infrastructure applications through its cloud services, contributing to the realization of a zero-carbon society.

The scope of the professional carbon verification service provided by Bureau Veritas includes the actual carbon emissions of CenturyLink's headquarters and branches nationwide from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021. As a responsible third-party data centre service provider in China, CenturyLink, based on the results of the carbon inventory and Bureau Veritas' GHG verification, combined with its own past carbon reduction practices, has developed a carbon neutral strategy that is in line with its business model, making full use of renewable energy transition, energy efficient technology applications, carbon sinks, carbon trading, and upstream and downstream industry chain empowerment to commit the Group to, no later than 2030, to:

Achieve Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon neutrality at the operational level

Achieving 100% renewable energy use at the operational level

ESG is an acronym for Environmental, Social and Governance, an investment concept and corporate evaluation standard that focuses on the environmental, social and corporate governance performance of companies rather than traditional financial performance. Although ESG investment in China started late, it has a promising future and is developing rapidly as ESG research deepens and relevant regulatory regimes are introduced. ESG disclosure by enterprises provides an important reference path for high-quality corporate development and builds a bridge for China's integration into the international economic system and participation in global governance.

As an industry service provider of third-party neutral data centres, CenturyLink, not only practices China's "Double Carbon" goal, but also places great importance on the integration of ESG practices with the industry. For CenturyLink's 2021 ESG Report, Bureau Veritas provides independent verification services on the accuracy and reliability of the information disclosed in the report.