As a member ofTaishin FHC, Taishin Securities dedicates itself to fulfilling its corporatesocial responsibility and following Taishin FHC's sustainability motto,"Dedicated to Sustainability & Living Green." It is keen tofacilitate economic, environmental, and social progress and achieve sustainabledevelopment goals (SDGs).
As part of itscommitment to sustainable development, Taishin upholds integrity, commitment,innovation, and cooperation as its core values, and believes in that anyone cango "From Zero to Hero" in reverting the climate crisis. Taishinstrives to utilize its core competencies to provide more inclusive and moresustainable financial services, and become a partner with the knowledge ofsustainability for its customers and the public at large.
The world isexperiencing the impacts of climate change. As a result, sustainability hasbecome a hot topic in many countries. Taishin Securities published theSustainability Report and the Task Force on Climate-related FinancialDisclosures (TCFD Report). It outlined sustainable development strategies,voluntarily disclosed its sustainability results, and provided climate changescenario analysis for better risk management. As a firm believer of carbonreduction starting with action, Taishin Securities is actively promotingdigital banking services to reduce paper consumption, encouraging employees toadopt green commuting, and collaborating with customers and business partnersin working towards a sustainable future. These efforts are aimed to achieveco-prosperity in society and green lifestyles.
Taishin FHCset a long-term goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. As such, TaishinSecurities will strengthen disclosure of financed carbon emissions on anongoing basis and take carbon inventory for long term investment positions.Jia-Horng Guo, Taishin Securities Chairman, said that sustainability is animportant mission for businesses. To achieve the vision of climate actions andcreate an inclusive financial sector, the Corporate Sustainability Committeesupervised by the Board of Directors is formed to show to low level employeesthe commitment from upper management in incorporating sustainability into corebusinesses.
Taishin Securitiesmakes full disclosure of its sustainability results in the SustainabilityReports and the TCFD Report. The TCFD Report adopts the Task Force onClimate-related Financial Disclosures framework promulgated by the FinancialStability Board (FSB). Furthermore, based on the climate change scenarioanalysis established by the competent authorities, Taishin Securities performsclimate change scenario analysis to monitor risks, quantify financial impacts,and ensure three effective lines of defense. The goal is to reduce climatechange impacts on the business.
Meanwhile, TaishinSecurities also dedicates resources to create innovative digital services whichare not typically offered by securities dealers. These new services offercustomers one-stop online loan services ranging from account opening todisbursement. Taishin Securities is constantly optimizing online accountopening service. The number of new Taishin Securities accounts opened onlinereached 50% of the total number of new accounts last year. The paperless operationsaved 1.4 million sheets of paper in a year. In addition, Taishin Securitiespartnered with the EASYCARD Corporation last year to introduce an affiliatedESG Sustainability Card to encourage employees making use of publictransportation. As of the end of May this year, more than 80% of TaishinSecurities employees used their ESG Sustainability Cards, which translates toan impressive reduction of 60 tons of carbon dioxide. Taishin Securities willcontinue to work with employees, customers, and business partners in carbonreduction and become a partner equipped with sustainability knowledge for itscustomers and the public at large.
Globalwarming is inducing extreme weather conditions, making environmentalsustainability a international issue. In Taiwan, a growing number of governmentagencies and private companies are investing resources and taking actions toachieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Taishin FHC, for example, recently held atree planting ceremony in Taitung County in mid-October. Accompanied by TaishinFHC directors, supervisors and managers, Thomas Wu, Chairman of Taishin FHC,took lead of the ceremony. The ceremony embodies the start of a positive cycleof environmental sustainability. Taishin's subsidiary, Taishin Securities alsoannounced partnerships with companies including Coretronic Corporation,Taiwan-Asia Semiconductor Corporation (TASC), Qisda Corporation, InventecCorporation, and Fortune Electric in the Contract Bamboo Forest project as partof the effort to achieve environmental sustainability.
Jia-HorngGuo, Chairman of Taishin Securities, pointed out that Coretronic Corporation,TASC, Qisda Corporation, Inventec Corporation, and Fortune Electric are allmajor companies that have contributed significantly to Taiwan's economic growthand delivered outstanding results in their own sectors. These companies arestrong supporters of ESG efforts and widely praised by investors from home andabroad for their excellent performance in this regard. Guo emphasized thatTaishin Securities considers itself fortunate to be chosen as a stock transferagent by these companies and is able to work with them in the Contract BambooForest project besides stock transfer transactions. The project supports thegovernment's net-zero policy and represents a new cross-industry partnershipfor environmental protection. It is also a way for Taishin Securities to takereal action in working with customers to create sustainability values outsideof financial services.
With idealclimate and geography for growing bamboo, Taiwan has about 200,000 acres ofbamboo forests. Bamboos grow quickly and can be harvested for commercial use infour to five years. In particular, a bamboo forest is three to six times betterthan a generic forest in carbon sequestration. For example, growing 8,000bamboos on an acre of land can sequester 47.36 tons of carbon per year, farexceeding 7.45 tons to 14.9 tons of carbon per acre sequestered by genericforests in a year. This means that how to effectively develop, manage, andutilize bamboo forests will be an important topic in achieving net-zero emissionsby 2050. This is highly meaningful as the Contract Bamboo Forest project is thefirst multi-corporation collaboration in Taiwan.
Furthermore,while contract bamboo forests are a natural way of early carbon sequestration,bamboo can be used to make natural fiber composites (NFC) through innovativeproduction processes to replace plastics and other carbon intensive materials.NFC can be used as the packaging or casing materials for IT products and helpto reduce their carbon footprint. In particular, Taiwan plays a key role in theglobal IT supply chain. Compounded by EU's carbon border tariff which will comeinto effect in 2026, making good use of contract bamboo resources will helpTaiwan's exporters become greener and more competitive.
The Contract BambooForest project is a collaboration between Taishin Securities, CoretronicCorporation, TASC, Qisda Corporation, Inventec Corporation, Fortune Electricand the Nantou County Government. It is coordinated by Taiwan Sustainable ValueCo., Ltd. The forests are located in Zhushan Township. According to ScottChuang, CEO of Taiwan Sustainable Value, contract bamboo forests can contributeto E (environment) in ESG as bamboo has incredible strength in carbonsequestration. It can ease greenhouse effects and benefit the environment. Thecontract bamboo can contribute to S (society) by creating jobs and income forfarmers and indigenous people. The benefit in terms of G (governance) comesfrom corporate management teams which become more actively in responding tostakeholders' expectation of environmental sustainability. Scott Chuang saysthe cross-industry partnership among Taishin Securities, CoretronicCorporation, TASC, Qisda Corporation, Inventec Corporation, and FortuneElectric in contract bamboo forests starts a new page in the history of corporateESG efforts.
Following itsrole in facilitating an international strategic partnership between O'rightInc. of Taiwan and b-ex Inc. of Japan, Taishin Securities announces moreongoing work in helping customers create solar power development platforms andconduct share acquisition, financing and investment solicitation. TaishinSecurities provides real support in developing the renewable energy industry aspart of its corporate social responsibility and support for net-zero emissions.
TaishinSecurities has been working on promoting the renewable energy industry or ESGbusinesses and acting as a facilitator for industry integration anddevelopment. It does so through its investment banking operations in recentyears. For example, the Merchant Banking Division of Taishin Securities willact as a financial advisor to help customers acquire shares in solar powercompanies, and to provide financing and solicit investment for solar powerplants. Currently, Taishin Securities has accumulated projects with solardevice capacity of approximately 100MW.
The aforesaidprojects altogether are generating a maximum of 130 GWh and reduce carbonemissions by 66,000 tons every year. This is equivalent to 5.518 million treesor 170 Da'an Forest Parks in carbon reduction. Taishin Securities expects thecumulative solar device capacity to reach 250MW by the end of the year and headtowards 500MW next year.
TaishinSecurities is, over time, being selected by Taiwan's well-known energycompanies, semiconductor companies, and EPC suppliers to be their financialadvisor in solar power projects. Taishin Securities assists by introducing themto financial/strategic investors, arranging to meet with third-party experts toconduct financial due diligence, designing transaction framework and execution,building financial models, planning power plant acquisition and transactions,drafting contracts, communicating and negotiating with investors, facilitatingfinancing plans/proposals, and arranging syndicated loans. The total investmenthas exceeded NT$10 billion.
Going forward,Taishin Securities will continue to work hard to develop the solar powerindustry, consolidating resources within Taishin FHC to provide a full range ofservices to customers.
For thepurpose of promoting sustainability for partners in regional revitalization andstrengthening social influence, Taishin FHC (2887) signed a memorandum ofunderstanding (MOU) with Taiwan Regional Revitalization Foundation. Goingforward, Taishin Securities will provide advisory services to regionalrevitalization teams in organizing IPO conferences and consult on relevantmatters. Regional revitalization has become a mainstream doctrine for development.Taiwan Regional Revitalization Foundation is the first national regionalrevitalization foundation. It was established for the purposes of buildingresource matchmaking platforms and promoting regional revitalization in Taiwan.There are currently more than 191 revitalization partners on the platform.Industry, government, academic, research, social and startup resources arepooled together to better train talents in regional revitalization, and connectresources and commercial mechanisms.
Building aninterdisciplinary community engagement platform starts with understanding acommunity's needs. This is followed by raising community awareness, helping thecommunity explore its characteristics, attract businesses and residents back tothe rural area. These efforts work to maintain a stable population, and createa strong local economy, which will lead to balanced development between urbanand rural regions and realization of regional revitalization.
Welch Lin,President of Taishin FHC, said that Taishin will utilize its core competence inthe financial industry to provide IPO mentorship and related courses to supportthe sustainable development of regional revitalization teams through practicalactions. One of the regional revitalization teams is Dawoko located in HsinchuCounty. Dawoko utilizes the Rewood technique to make use of pruned branches andleave zero waste. It develops the management of leftover slash and woodresidue, supporting growth in forestry, from a single tree to e-commercevendors, and house cleaning services.
Fish Bar from HualienCounty is the first company in Taiwan that incorporates fish diet education andocean sustainability into events, products, and knowledge platforms. It alsoassists the government and businesses in conducting fish diet educationprograms. Taiwan BlueMagpie Tea in Pinglin District, New Taipei City adopts the"river basin recovery," a strategy that creates an ecosystem brandbased on hillsides transformed into pesticide free farms. Apart fromenvironmental education, it also promotes in-depth experiential agriculturaleducation, technological integration, and eco-friendly produce.
By upholdingTaishin FHC's (stock code: 2887) sustainability motto, "Dedicated toSustainability & Living Green," Taishin Securities became the firstsecurities dealer to partner with the EASYCARD Corporation to launch anaffiliated ESG Sustainability Card for employees. The data is used to calculatecarbon emissions of their employees' commute. Taishin Securities encouragesemployees to use public transportation and adopt a greener lifestyle. Theeffort is also made in anticipation of the International SustainabilityStandards Board (ISSB) requiring businesses to disclose carbon emissions in thefuture.
In responseto the government's net-zero emissions targets by 2050, the FinancialSupervisory Commission (FSC) launched the Sustainable Development Guidemap forTWSE- and TPEx-Listed Companies on March 3, 2022. The guidemap sets multiplestages in which all TWSE- and TPEx-listed companies will be required todisclose GHG inventory and validation information. In particular, reporting ofGHG inventory can be divided into three scopes, i.e., scope 1 (direct GHGemissions), scope 2 (indirect GHG emissions associated with energies), and scope3 (other indirect GHG emissions).
Given thatscope 3 covers carbon emissions by upstream and downstream enterprises on thesupply chain as well as employee commuting, the data required is more extensivethan scope 1 or scope 2, and therefore, the data collection is much morecomplex. Many companies are yet to provide scope 3 disclosure. TaishinSecurities is the first company to take action on carbon reduction in scope 3,category 7, employee commuting. It is also part of its early preparation forthe ISSB's requirement for businesses to disclose carbon emissions in thefuture.
To encourageemployees using public transportation for commuting to and from work, TaishinSecurities launched a green commuting campaign, where employees with bettercarbon reduction results would have a better chance of winning rewards. TaishinSecurities tried to initiate a positive cycle through incentive and increasethe percentage of employees adopting green commuting.
Since thelaunch on July 17 this year, Taishin Securities calculates the reduction ofcarbon dioxide emissions to be 16,208kg so far based on the ESG SustainabilityCard data. It is the equivalent of planting 108 trees. All employees werededicated in adopting a green lifestyle and taking on green commuting.
In additionto a green lifestyle, Taishin Securities also pays attention to employeehealth. Therefore, it partnered with Pulse Gym and encouraged employees to takepart in Taishin FHC's fitness allowance program by launching an employee healthpromotion program. Under the program, an allowance is provided to employees forcomprehensive physical exam reports, and professional consultation and advicefrom Pulse Gym. The program not only helps employees get fit and improve theirimmune system, but also meets the SDGs (SDG 3 Good Health and Well-Being).
Other efforts tofoster employee solidarity include Jia-Horng Guo, Taishin Securities Chairman,inviting employees and their families to a hiking trip along a hiking trail inLinshan Cape at the northern coast. In addition to inviting employees and theirfamilies for a hike, the event comprised a cleanup along the trail for a betterand cleaner environment.
Taishin FHCapproaches corporate sustainability with dedication and innovation. In supportof environmental sustainability actions, Taishin is the first financialinstitution to introduce the “Smart Recycling Machines,” which use smartidentification technology to collect and recycle used batteries, PET bottlesand plastic products. They effectively reduce marine and land pollutions, whilegiving employees and residents of the nearby communities diverse ways of livinggreen. This is a step in taking real action to achieve low carbon and net-zeroemissions.
Welch Lin,President of Taishin FHC, pointed out that Taishin is first in using the SmartRecycling Machines in designated branches in northern, central, and southernTaiwan. The machines comprise a recycling function of batteries and PETbottles, as well as sorting and cutting up PET bottles before collection. Theprocess significantly improves the amount of recycled materials per unit volumeand reduces environmental impacts of transportation. The Smart RecyclingMachines makes it possible to minimize the carbon footprint of transportingrecycled materials. The recycled materials are then supplied to vendors to turninto recycled goods, thereby achieving sustainability in a green circulareconomy.
As net zerobecomes a global consensus, Taishin FHC and its subsidiaries are takinginitiative to promote low-carbon lifestyle and banking, in hopes of workingwith consumers to contribute to environmental sustainability. The SmartRecycling Machines were collaboratively launched by Taishin FHC'sAdministration Division and E-Banking Division. The machines' exterior designincorporates Richart, the Taishin mascot. During the period of May 2, 2023 toDecember 31, 2023, the Smart Recycling Machines were launched through the"Loving Sustainability: Richart Turns Green to Gold" campaign. Duringthe campaign, people could register on Taishin's designated machines, collectRichart Life coupons and receive five Taishin Points (limited to the first10000 consumers). Those who successfully recycled batteries or PET bottles atdesignated machines, regardless of the quantity, would also be eligible toenter a prize draw for 1000 Taishin Points (limited to 20 winners). (OnlyRichart Life members were eligible to participate in any of the activitiesabove. Membership was verified and prizes were awarded after-the-fact.) Theseactivities encourage consumers to go green and receive Taishin Points at thesame time.
The eventtook place at the Taishin FHC Building (1F), Taishin Jianbei Building (1F),Taishin Neihu Building (1F), Taishin Life Building (1F), NKSP Phase 1 BuildingD (4F), Taishin Securities Building (1F), Taishin Bank Lingya Branch (5F),Taishin Bank Nantun Branch (1F), Taishin Bank Chongde Branch (1F), and TaishinBank Tainan Branch (1F). Taishin invited all employees and the public to jointhe From Zero to Hero campaign and take part in averting the climate crisis.
Taishin works hard topromote ESG sustainability in various aspects, for which Taishin has receivedrecognition from domestic and foreign awards and rating agencies in recent years.In addition, Taishin is also selected to be included in the Dow JonesSustainability Indexes (DJSI), i.e., DJSI World and DJSI Emerging Markets, forfive consecutive years, and ranked AA-leader by Morgan Stanley CapitalInternational (MSCI) ESG Ratings for three consecutive years. For the 2022Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Taishin was rated a A- leader. Taishin hasalso been consistently included in the Taiwan High Compensation 100 Index,Taiwan Sustainability Index, and the FTSE4Good Emerging Market Index. Taishinwill continue to pay attention to international trends and work to reduce theenvironmental and social impacts in the course of its operations. Taishin iscommitted to expanding its reach of sustainable activities and becoming anintelligent partner in sustainability for the public at large.
