From June 6 to 7, 2026, the offline growth camp SheShapes ESG Bootcamp was successfully held at the headquarters of Mengniu Group in Beijing. Lily Yeung, Senior Vice President of Asia-Pacific ESG Strategy Research Institute (APESG) and Executive Director of International Association for Sustainable Economy (IASE®) China Chapter, was invited to attend the event. As a roundtable panelist for the session Her Voices: A Panoramic Dialogue on the ESG Ecosystem, she held in-depth exchanges with numerous female sustainability practitioners and young Fellows on site. The discussion centered on the growth of female sustainability professionals, exploring the real employment landscape and career challenges within the industry.
Key Takeaways from the Roundtable: Understanding the Industry’s Real Talent Gap
During the roundtable discussion, Lily Yeung shared insights drawn from frontline industry observations around two hot topics: disparities in ESG implementation between China and overseas markets, and ESG challenges facing Chinese enterprises going global. She pointed out that ESG theories and standards originated in Europe and the US, which operate under a fundamentally different development model compared with China’s top-down policy-driven framework. Blindly copying mature overseas standards often leads to poor local adaptation and fails to align with domestic regulatory requirements and industrial realities. Meanwhile, fragmented global ESG regulatory standards, coupled with practical hurdles including difficult supply chain data tracing and cumbersome overseas due diligence procedures, expose Chinese outbound enterprises to a host of ESG compliance risks. This clearly highlights the current industry talent gap: the market no longer demands siloed specialists who only grasp either domestic practices or international rules; cross-disciplinary professionals equipped with both global vision and local implementation capabilities are the core industry need.
She stated that bridging the cognitive and practical divide between domestic and international ESG development hinges on integrating global standards with local practices. This is the original intention behind IASE’s Chinese-version ESG certification programme: built upon its original globally authoritative curriculum framework, it adds dedicated China-specific modules covering domestic ESG regulatory policies, local disclosure rules and real-world case studies of Chinese enterprises, forming a dual-track learning system of “global frameworks + Chinese practices”. Beyond delivering professional knowledge, the programme prioritizes equipping learners with capabilities to tackle both cross-border and domestic ESG challenges. It empowers practitioners to break down cognitive barriers between Chinese and global ESG systems, cultivating professionals who connect China’s market with the worldwide sustainability sector.
We extend gratitude to the organiser SheShapes for the invitation, which has built a sincere, pragmatic and inclusive exchange and growth platform for female ESG practitioners. Centered on female empowerment, this ESG Bootcamp helps young female ESG practitioners gain a holistic view of the industry, clarify their career positioning, and unite female talent to explore new development opportunities for the ESG sector.
Moving forward, APESG and IASE China Chapter will continue to prioritize the career development of female sustainability talent, rolling out authoritative, locally tailored ESG professional training resources. We will stand alongside more industry peers to deepen engagement in the sustainability field and support their steady long-term career growth.