Taiwan’s Sustainability in Action

“Global sustainable development is entering the era of ‘ESG 2.0.’ Beyond the conventional ESG pillars—Environmental, Social, and Governance—the importance of Energy, Security, and Geopolitics is also rising rapidly,” said Eugene Chien, chairman of the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE). He explained that six intertwined forces—net zero, energy, geopolitics, artificial intelligence, supply chains, and nature—are reshaping corporate and national competitiveness.

President Lai Ching-te visited the SDG Asia Expo to learn about sustainability initiatives by exhibitors from various sectors of society. (courtesy of the Office of the President)

Resilience is the foundation of national development

Speaking at the expo’s opening ceremony, President Lai Ching-te said that in the face of climate change, geopolitical tensions, and the restructuring of global supply chains, Taiwan must build greater national resilience and use innovation to open up new pathways for the sustainability transition. The government has continued to advance the energy transition: Offshore wind generated more than 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2025, helping to make the energy supply more stable. The government will also leverage Taiwan’s technological strengths in the net-zero era as it works toward cutting emissions by 28±2% from 2005 levels by 2030.

The Health and Sustainability Pavilion of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) brought together 26 ministry-affiliated hospitals to showcase the healthcare system’s digital and net-zero transitions. (courtesy of the Office of the President)

At the expo, the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ “GO ZERO! Low-Carbon Transition in Progress” pavilion presented achievements in renewable power generation and fishway ecology; smart grids; carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) tech; and the circular economy. The Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), meanwhile, brought together 26 ministry-affiliated hospitals to showcase carbon-reduction efforts ranging from energy conservation and energy management to tracking the carbon footprints of healthcare services. Among the exhibits was Cishan (Qishan) Hospital’s smart Traditional Chinese Medicine pulse diagnostic device, which it uses during outreach visits to remote communities. Combining theories of blood circulation with a database of more than one million clinical records, the device analyzes pulse waves and demonstrates how technology can save patients long journeys while providing more precise, low-carbon healthcare.

At the MOHW display area, visitors saw useful products made from recycled medical waste, including massage balls, hair clips, and placemats.

Sustainability is everywhere in daily life

Eugene Chien, formerly Taiwan’s Ambassador-at-Large for Climate Change and Sustainability, said that sustainability cannot be driven by government or a handful of large corporations alone; it requires the participation of government agencies, businesses, hospitals, schools, and the public. The expo’s many booths, all showcasing initiatives closely connected to everyday life, brought that point home.

In the MOHW’s “low-carbon meal” game, a screen displayed the carbon emissions of the ingredients (printed on cards) that visitors placed in a mock cooking pot, then converted the result into the number of trees needed to absorb those emissions. The game helped participants learn about healthy plant-based and low-carbon diets.

One example is the MOHW’s display of its recent promotion of plant-based meals for staff and reusable meal containers. Over a two-year period, 78,185 reusable meal containers were used, cutting emissions by more than 30,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (kg CO₂e). At its booth, the ministry also offered a “low-carbon meal” game: Visitors placed cards representing ingredients into a mock cooking pot, and a screen instantly calculated the meal’s carbon emissions, helping people learn about healthy plant-based and low-carbon diets.

7-ELEVEN’s coffee-ground recycling system turns spent grounds into store uniforms, socks, soap, and other products.

Convenience stores, an integral part of daily life in Taiwan, are also pursuing sustainability. In 2023, 7-ELEVEN launched a system to collect spent coffee grounds and turn them into various products including store uniforms, socks, and soap. Zhongjie Biotech, which makes shell-calcium cleaning products from discarded golden clam shells, has partnered with Taiwan FamilyMart to collect the milk bottles used by the chain’s Let’s Café service and make them into containers using 100% post-consumer recycled plastic for “picupi” brand products such as fruit and vegetable wash, laundry stain remover, and cosmetics-tool cleaner—returning empty plastic containers from stores to the consumer market in an example of circular reuse.

Zhongjie Biotech makes shell-calcium cleaning products from discarded golden clam shells. It has also partnered with Taiwan FamilyMart to collect milk bottles used by the convenience store chain’s Let’s Café service and remake them as recycled plastic containers for “picupi” brand products.

Taiwanese retailer PX Mart drove its 7.5-metric-ton “mobile supermarket” into the exhibition hall to highlight its service in remote communities with poor transport links—which it touts as a manifestation of sustainability. A single vehicle can carry 300–400 products, from dry goods such as toilet paper, cleaning supplies, canned foods, drinks, and cookies to fresh produce, fish, meat, and eggs—covering as many of residents’ daily needs as possible.

PX Mart brought its “mobile supermarket” to the expo, showcasing its service to remote communities as a manifestation of sustainability. (courtesy of PX Mart)

Protecting Taiwan’s biodiversity, from forests and farms to the sea

Beyond applications in technology and industry, this year’s expo also refocused attention on the natural environment. Under the curatorial concept “Sustainable Agriculture: Locating Your GPS Coordinates!” the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) demonstrated sustainability actions across forests, farmland, fishponds, and the ocean. Along with its partners, it addressed issues related to forest restoration, biodiversity, circular agriculture, and marine resources. As an example of MOA partnerships, MUJI Taiwan supports the government’s Golden Corridor Program, which involves contracting with farmers to grow water-saving crops on farmland along the Taiwan High Speed Rail line in Yunlin County. MUJI has come out with soy milk made from locally grown soybeans while turning the resulting soy pulp into rice crackers—adding value to a by-product while supporting local agriculture.

MUJI Taiwan contracts with farmers to grow water-saving crops, uses them to make soy milk from locally grown soybeans, and turns the resulting soy pulp into rice crackers, supporting local agricultural development.

Every purchase is a choice for sustainability

In one part of the exhibition space, department stores and property developers also showcased a range of approaches to sustainability. The department store Qsquare, for example, offers reusable shopping bags through a redemption program and stopped routinely providing paper bags, challenging the department-store industry’s old practice of treating the number of carrier bags handed out as a proxy for sales. It has also launched a solitary-bee conservation program, selling bee hotels and encouraging people to create pollinator-friendly habitats on their balconies. This gives pollinating insects a home in the concrete jungle and brings city life and nature into harmony. Meanwhile, Radium Life Tech Group, which began in construction, has also rethought the industry’s wasteful practice of discarding architectural models after use. It now makes models from wood with interlocking joints so they can be fully dismantled and recycled, putting circularity into practice.

A solitary-bee hotel on a balcony creates a welcoming urban habitat for pollinators and helps support global food sustainability.

Radium Life Tech Group uses wood and interlocking joints to build architectural models that can be fully dismantled and recycled, putting circularity into practice.

Every purchase is a vote for the world we want. From government policy and corporate green innovation to one less plastic bag used in daily life or a patch of greenery preserved in the city, the vibrant SDG Asia Expo showcased sustainability as it is now unfolding across Taiwan.

As ESG 2.0 gathers momentum, Taiwan is weaving sustainability into its land and daily life through innovation and action across society, while working with the world toward a sustainable future of resilience and shared prosperity. (courtesy of the Office of the President)