Environmental Protection Outside the Factory

In the past two years, a vogue of corporate environmentalism has taken shape. Environmental protection months or environmental protection weeks -- the names of the activities are legion. Besides indoor activities, they also seem to favor the great outdoors, neighborhoods, and campuses.

Environmental creativity--to each his own:

In terms of companies whose raw materials come from nature, and who want to pay their debt to nature, let's take the example of the forestry work of the Yuen Foong Yu Paper MFG Company. As early as 1980, Yuen Foong Yu undertook reforestation in seven locations in eastern Taiwan, totaling over 1,000 hectares, including cultivation of some species of rare trees unique to Taiwan.

In 1986, the company worked with the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute of the Taiwan Provincial Government's Department of Forestry to construct a 30-hectare experimental forest. Relying mainly on the principle of "commercial use," they studied cultivation of fast growing trees (ones ready to be cut for wood in five to seven years), hoping to change the view most people have that the paper industry "only knows how to chop down trees, but doesn't know how to grow them."

Encouraging clean seas, immaculate mountains, and bountiful plant life are the main ways enterprises work on behalf of Mother Nature.

The Taiwan branch of the Dutch corporation Philips began as early as four years ago to adopt stretches of coastline. With each operation taking two years, thus far they have already adopted Paishawan along the north coast and Nanwan, near Kenting, in the south. In the initial stage of the adoption project, Philips' staff and their families do beach cleanup work. Thereafter the company pays more than NT$10,000 per month to cover cleanup costs. Beginning in August of this year, they will begin a "clean mountains" campaign, with each of the four company regions in Taiwan adopting one mountain. Besides working on behalf of the environment, this also gives staff a recreational area they can feel is part of the family.

Undertaking neighborhood environmental work can achieve the goal of cozying up to one's neighbors. For example, Texas Instruments' Taiwan branch, located in Chungho in Taipei County, has undertaken cleanup projects with the participation of local residents. And at the same time that they were "greenifying" the factory, they didn't forget to save some plants to donate to the people next door. Recently, when the local primary school came up short on funds for decorating the wall around the campus, TI provided the paint for a mural competition on the theme of environmental protection.

Inevitably there is friction when cozying up to the neighbors. Chung Hsing Textiles, located in Yangmei, had done a good job on waste water treatment. Then local farmers, who had had their fill of the polluted water from local streams, asked the company if they could use the treated waste water to irrigate their fields. The managers considered the possibility for some time. However, in the future they intend to completely recover and reuse the waste water. They were also afraid that by some tiny chance a problem might arise with the rice crop and it would be impossible to fix responsibility. The managers had little choice but to refuse.

Environmental protection is an urgent task:

In order for environmental protection work to set down firm roots, many companies focus on campus environmental protection. For example, the "environmental protection train," with each car a recycling container for a different item, was provided to the Jen Ai Primary School by Yue Loong Motors. After Yue Loong's "Environmental Protection Year One" was launched last August, they held a school environmental protection essay contest. Not only did all the winners receive prizes, but all the classmates of the top three winners received a set of environmental protection books. And the school of the top student had only to submit a campus environmental protection plan to receive an NT$500,000 ecology fund.

Although supporting public service activities is the social responsibility of business, these are never as important as truly realizing environmental education within a company, no matter how fervent the activities it sponsors outside the company.

Last August, the Taiwan branch of the American DuPont company sponsored an activity in which it encouraged employees to take their obsolete and unused items and clothing and donate them for resale at a low price, in order to encourage people to learn the ecologically sound attitude of cherishing and reusing objects. The activity was quite a success, and the NT$10,000 they raised was donated to the Homemakers' Union.

At the end of last year the 500-person strong Taipei headquarters of Philips sponsored activities to save on the use of paper and styrofoam cups. The company provided each employee with a porcelain cup complete with environmental slogan. Less than a year later, the results have been startling. The original figure of more than 10,000 cups used per month is now down to about 3,000. In meetings, employees who have forgotten to bring their cup are so afraid of being seen as paper cup wastrels that they just get left high and dry.

From observing the various environmental protection activities, it seems that foreign-based companies are more active. And there is no lack of cases of foreign managers personally taking part. Texas Instruments' environmental protection chief Stanley Chen still recalls with feeling his former American manager, because the latter's personal efforts made Chen realize that corporate participation in conservation need not be just smoke and mirrors. It can truly come from the heart and show true concern for the place where one lives.

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Corporate sponsorship of "clean mountain" or "clean beach" activities is good for the environment and also brings together employees. (photo by Vincent Chang)