Recently, the International Federation of Landscape Architects announced the winners of the IFLA AAPME Awards 2022 - “CLIMATE CRISIS DESIGN”. This year's Awards received a total of 318 submissions. Two ZEHO ECO projects have been recognised as the winners: Erhai Lake Ecological Restoration Project with an Award of Excellence and Tangshan Garden Expo Park with an Honourable Mention. 

Many projects by ZEHO ECO have won international well-known awards this year, such as IFLA AAPME Awards, LILA – Landezine International Landscape Award, Melbourne Design Awards and Japan IDPA Award. The achievement of the honor is not only an award for high-quality benchmark works but also an affirmation of ZEHO ECO’s adherence to innovation in all fields, its continuous increase in R & D investment, and the concept of driving the market with technology.

Innovation is the foundation of ZEHO ECO’s development. Several traditional businesses, such as the comprehensive management of the river basin water environment, coastline management, and the river and lake ecosystem construction, have achieved the upgrading of product functions through technological R & D.

For comprehensive management of the river basin water environment, ZEHO’s R & D team broke through the traditional mode and proposed an axial decision-making system with accurate pollution control, scientific policy-making as the guidance and numerical source analysis model as the core. Through the traceability model system and quantitative analysis, the optimal project scheme was determined to provide scientific decision-making support.

For coastline management, ZEHO ECO has collaborated with the Third Marine Research Institute of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Island Center of the Ministry of Natural Resources to establish a ministerial laboratory for marine ecological protection and restoration, focusing on the research and development of ecological transformation technology for hard seawalls, triple composite ecological seawall construction technology, coral reef transfer, beach restoration, mangrove restoration and other comprehensive coastal sea ecological governance technology products. Among them, the ecological work method module training technology based on the concept of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) solves the problems of low survival rate of strong dynamic coastal vegetation and high construction cost in the open sea, and provides a new solution for the ecological transformation of hard seawalls.

Putian Mazu City Blue Bay project

Ecological Restoration of the Outer River of Lingshan Island, Nansha, Guangzhou

In terms of river lake ecosystem construction business, ZEHO ECO adheres to integrated design using NbS technology and actively explores organic integration with new business areas.

Erhai Lake Ecological Restoration Project, Dali

Fengpei Canal Ecological Restoration and Improvement Project

The innovative spirit of ZEHO ECO is also reflected in the continuous increase of R & D investment in new products and the active expansion of new business areas for comprehensive layout.

The development of digital technology business is a major strategic move of ZEHO ECO digitally transforming the traditional ecological and environmental protection industry. The “Ecological Housekeeper” product it developed by NbS and positioned as a “smart ecosystem service platform based on comprehensive environmental data and multi-dimensional ecological information”, providing a package of, whole chain and multi-modal comprehensive services such as environmental monitoring, comprehensive management, park services, ecological value assessment, carbon sink calculation, GEP accounting, etc.

ZEHO ECO "Ecological Housekeeper" Product

The industrial operation business empowers the urban green ecological space with the “Park +” mode, carries out commercial operation and cultural tourism activities based on urban green space, converts blue-green value into economic value, and focuses on the development of “Life Kingdom” theme park products based on natural education. As an original biodiversity theme IP Park, Life Kingdom theme park is an “immersive nature exploration park linking people, nature and technology”, which will be practiced in Tangshan Huahai and Guizhou Infinite Cloud Resort projects. ZEHO ECO focuses on promoting rural revitalization through cultural tourism. In recent years, it has continuously increased relevant investment, improved the quality of human settlements through the construction of beautiful villages, promoted the development of the cultural tourism industry.

Guizhou Infinite Cloud Resort

The continuous innovation of technology and products is attributed to the consistent attention and training of R & D talents. Up to now, the company has 591 employees, including 385 design and R & D personnel, accounting for the forefront of the industry. The main specialties range from the combination of urban planning, environmental science, economics, ecology, hydrology and water conservancy, botany and other professional fields to the addition of databases and big data, computer science, digital design, cultural tourism planning and planning required by digital technology, industrial operation and other businesses, covering all businesses of the company in a full range and wide fields.

The external situation has transformed dramatically in the past few years. ZEHO ECO strengthens the talent echelon construction, and attracts social talents from different specialties to join through social recruitment, college student recruitment and independent talent cultivation, all of which reflect the concept of valuing talents.

The long-term persistence in product and technological innovation has now shown remarkable results. ZEHO ECO is the National High-tech Enterprise and Beijing Enterprises Technology Center. It is a member of the Engineering Technology Committee of the National Engineering Laboratory of Lake Water Pollution Control and Ecological Restoration Technology. The company has undertaken research work on such topics as “research and development of ecological housekeeping smart assessment and management system”, “research and development of ecosystem carbon neutrality smart assessment system” and “research on ecological wetland biological habitat restoration and protection technology”.

Ecosystem Carbon Neutrality Smart Assessment System

ZEHO ECO has actively carried out industry university research cooperation and exchanges with ministries and commissions and academic circles, including signing strategic cooperation agreements with the State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology under the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, and continuously increased its cooperation in ecosystem service functions, ecosystem value assessment, ecological value accounting (GEP), biodiversity protection R & D investment in marine ecological restoration and marine carbon sink. The company has also been invited to speak at many ministerial and academic conferences, and the honors of many international awards are all recognition of ZEHO ECO’s emphasis on R & D and innovation.

ZEHO ECO made a keynote speech on the ecological restoration practice of NbS in the Erhai Lake Ecological Restoration Project at the COP15 Ecological Civilization Forum

ZEHO ECO was invited to share the practical experience of the project at the National Marine Carbon Sink Alliance Meeting

In the future, ZEHO ECO will continue to adhere to the innovation gene, closely follow the relevant national policies and ecological civilization strategy, continue to improve the “DBIFO” business model and constantly optimize the company’s product functions based on focusing on core business. Through continuous investment in technology research and development, we will upgrade traditional businesses and develop emerging businesses, adhere to the path of scientific and technological innovation, and respond to opportunities and challenges.