At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), a press conference and forum titled “Climate Ambition into ICT Industry Action” attracted particular attention. The event was hosted by Dr. Peng Chi-ming, general secretary of the Taiwan Climate Partnership (TCP), and Nick Molho, executive director of the UK-based Aldersgate Group, with the former sharing the story of the TCP’s founding by eight of Taiwan’s most important ICT firms. Moreover, through the online forum, the founding members’ achievements and goals relating to net-zero carbon emissions were shared with the world, demonstrating the Taiwanese ICT industry’s commitment to net zero.

From golf to climate change

Today more and more countries are making net-zero pledges, and the European Union will implement the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, a carbon tariff system, in 2026. In addition, many big international brands, including Apple, have announced that they aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. As an important link in Apple’s supply chain, Taiwan’s ICT sector realized that green energy and low-carbon production will be essential to its ­future.

Peng Chi-ming, a meteorologist by profession, founded his company WeatherRisk Explore Inc. more than ten years ago. The firm, like 90% of Taiwan’s ICT industry, is a member of the Taipei Computer Association. Peng, who regularly has opportunities to interact with high-tech industry leaders, quips that in the early days company bigwigs all asked him about the weather because they wanted to go golfing, but in recent years these bosses have been anxious to discuss climate change with him. Considering the intense competition in trade, and with growing numbers of enterprises joining international climate advocacy initiatives such as RE100 and EV100 (committing to goals of using 100% renewable electricity and 100% electric vehicles), corporate leaders have come to recognize that carbon reduction is now critical to firms’ competitiveness.

Nevertheless, these leaders also observed that in general, people in Taiwan were not yet aware of the adverse impacts of climate change. Therefore several likeminded corporate executives, eager for action on climate change, organized eight of Taiwan’s leading ICT enterprises into the Taiwan Climate Partnership.

The founding members of the Taiwan Climate Partnership organized a net-zero-themed pavilion at the 2022 Smart City Summit and Expo to share enterprises’ net-zero practices and draw attention to the latest low-carbon high-tech products.

Peng Chi-ming (left), general secretary of the Taiwan Climate Partnership, and Nick Molho, executive director of the UK’s Aldersgate Group, hosted a press conference at COP26 in 2021, at which Peng told the audience about the net zero commitment of Taiwan’s ICT industry. (courtesy of TCP)

Unity for net zero

However, the TCP also needed some outside impetus. For example, Catherine Nettleton, former UK representative in Taiwan, introduced the TCP to Britain’s Aldersgate Group to engage in a dialogue to understand how a similar non-­governmental organization operates in Britain. Peng tells us that the Aldersgate Group is a cross-industry coalition that expresses views on climate change issues and has become a bridge for communication among industry, government and public. “We learned from Aldersgate that climate change responses cannot be determined by just one party to the debate, but require everyone to work together.”

Peng says that the peer effect among TCP members means that they push each other forward, making for a virtuous ­cycle. For example, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has set targets of zero growth in carbon emissions by 2025, and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Delta Electronics has committed to using 100% ­renewable electricity and achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. Acer and Asustek have set goals of 100% green energy use by 2035, while AU Optronics has opted to achieve that goal by 2050 and to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by 2025 as compared to 2018. TCP members have joined RE100 one after another, becoming global benchmark enterprises for the electronics industry.

Net zero won’t come overnight

In March of 2022, the TCP held an international symposium on the subject of working with Taiwan’s ICT supply chain to advance to a net-zero future. At the event the TCP shared the urgency of climate action with the more than 300 representatives of Taiwanese electronics suppliers in attendance, and TCP members also discussed their net-zero experience.

Among the speakers, Lora Ho, senior vice president and ESG (environment, social responsibility, and corporate governance) Committee chairperson at TSMC, noted that TSMC set up a committee on energy saving and carbon reduction measures as early as 2016, created a renewable energy program in 2017, launched a carbon credit development program in 2019, and laid out its roadmap to net zero in 2021. In fact, before making its net-zero pledge, TSMC spent five or six years preparing, indicating that net zero is not something that can be achieved overnight.

Ho emphasized that although TSMC is a major user of electric power, the semiconductor products it manufactures can save users four times as much electricity as was used in making them. Two years ago TSMC initiated the company’s internal ESG Awards, to encourage employees to propose ideas for sustainability and to recognize the enthusiastic commitment of staff to ESG. For example, the smart water chilling system that won an ESG Award in the “Most Influential Idea” category in 2021 can reduce TSMC’s annual ­energy use by 185 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) and its ­annual carbon emissions by 97,000 metric tons.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has set up the TSMC Supplier Sustainability Academy online learning platform, which offers bilingual, interactive courses to share net zero practices free of charge in hopes that even more people will join in the fight for sustainability. (screenshot from TSMC Supplier Sustainability Academy website)

Carbon reduction is good business

Delta Electronics founder Bruce Cheng, whose firm faced the 1973 oil crisis not long after it was founded, long ago realized that the earth’s resources are limited. Delta chairman Yancey Hai, who chairs the TCP, says that as a leading firm in the field of power supplies and energy management, Delta strives to raise the efficiency of its power supply products in order to save resources and reduce energy use for the good of the planet. “From 60% in the past, thus far we have raised efficiency to over 90%, with some power supplies even reaching 98 or 99%,” says Hai. He also reminds us that many people have a misconception that carbon reduction measures are all costs, but says that his company’s operating performance shows that carbon reduction can also be a business opportunity, and efficient products can benefit both customers and the company. From 2010 to 2021, Delta’s program for high-efficiency products saved 35.9 billion kWh of electricity for customers around the globe, thus reducing carbon emissions by some 19.01 million tons.

Delta’s chief sustainability officer, Jesse Chou, states that the company’s business objectives are closely linked to sustainable development. “Based on our core electrical and electronics technologies, in recent years we have also focused on areas such as electric vehicles, energy storage, microgrids, and intelligent green buildings in response to the trend toward net zero.”

For example, the Y.S. Sun Green Building Research Center at National Cheng Kung University, funded in large part by Bruce Cheng, was built to a design suited to the hot, humid subtropical environment of Southern Taiwan. It includes features like broad shade-giving eaves and natural buoyancy ventilation to reduce temperatures inside the structure, so that no air conditioning is needed for five to six months of the year. The building also has excellent natural lighting and is fitted with solar panels. At the time it was completed it was estimated that it would use 65% less electricity than similar structures, but after ten years of operation with careful maintenance, in fact that figure has reached 86%.

This building, which has been nicknamed the Magic School of Green Technologies, not only won Platinum certification under the US’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, it is also one of seven exemplary low and net zero energy buildings worldwide showcased in the Sixth Assessment Report of the Inter­govern­mental Panel on Climate Change.

The Y.S. Sun Green Building Research Center at National Cheng Kung University, also known as the Magic School of Green Technologies, has been in use for more than a decade now and achieves energy savings of 86% compared to similar non-green structures. It can serve as a global model for carbon reduction. (courtesy of Delta Electronics)

In recent years Delta Electronics has invested a great deal of effort into R&D on energy storage, such as working with the Taiwan Power Company on a grid and energy storage project for the Zhangbin Solar Power Plant to stabilize its power output.

Big and small advance together

One of the aims in founding the TCP was for the example and leadership of the founding members to drive their tens of thousands of supplier firms to take action themselves.

For example, Delta has not only introduced a section on climate change in its supplier conduct guidelines, it also provides expert educational and training resources and guides companies in undertaking greenhouse gas inventories.

Meanwhile, TSMC has founded an open learning platform called the TSMC Supplier Sustainability Academy, sharing learning resources—such as the company’s operating and governance experience—with suppliers and the general public. The content includes labor rights, supply chain sustainability strategies, and more, and the learning modules are offered in both Chinese and English in order to expand the potential audience.

The TCP is also working with National Tsing Hua University to establish a Taiwan Climate Academy. It will hire teachers who are well versed in sustainability and invite international lecturers to deepen dialogue and foster links with the international community. Peng Chi-ming adds that the TCP hopes to introduce the concept of carbon asset management (including carbon trading) to Taiwan. If climate change is seen as a business opportunity, young people can innovate new technologies and advance toward net zero.

As President Tsai Ing-wen said at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Social Design Action Forum, which was held on Earth Day (April 22) and entitled “Sustainability—The Solutions for Our Earth”: “Long-term carbon reduction will depend on breakthroughs brought about by new technologies, and Taiwan’s high-tech industry is competitive at a global level.” Achieving net zero carbon emissions has never been a simple goal, but the TCP, organized by Taiwan’s ICT industry, will strive to accelerate its realization.

The TCP is working with the ICT supply chain in hopes of collectively addressing the global climate crisis by guiding high-tech industries to move from low-carbon operations to net-zero carbon emissions. (courtesy of TCP)