Sustainability in Action

Asia Cement Awarded One Gold and Two Bronze Prizes

2023 Taiwan Sustainable Action Awards (TSAA) was held on July 21st. Asia Cement made great achievements in winning one Gold Award and two Bronze Awards. Ms. Doris Wu, Executive Vice President of Asia Cement, accepted the awards on behalf of the company. She expressed that Asia Cement has never ceased its efforts in three core missions: promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction, fulfilling commitments for ESG, and fulfilling the corporate’s social responsibilities. Asia Cement will continue to march ahead, strive for continuous improvement, transcend itself, and carry out its goals for sustainable development.

At TSAA this year, Asia Cement won the highest honor "Gold Award" for its initiative titled "Lighting Up the Beauty of the Tribe with Warmth and Heart”. This achievement has great significance for the company. Previous public misunderstanding of the cement industry has adversely affected the image of Asia Cement. However, it does not stop Asia Cement's dedication to build close and caring bonds among local indigenous communities. The company has, for many years, considered things from the standpoint of the indigenous people and focused on integrating mechanisms for sharing benefits with the indigenous people living around the Hualien plant. The system covers various aspects of the lives of the indigenous people, including birth, education, marriage, childbirth, employment, and caring for the elderly. Therefore, in February last year, when a vote was held based on the consultation and consent among alang Bsngan, in accordance with Article 21 of The Indigenous Peoples Basic Law, Asia Cement gained support from as many as 83% of the tribal households to continue its mining activities in the area. The result served as a precedent of the company's commitment to respect the rights of the indigenous people and became a model for peers in the industry to follow suit. The recognition of the TSAA Gold Award further validates the long-term efforts of Asia Cement, which have gradually gained recognition from all parties.

In the face of the climate change crisis caused by global warming, Asia Cement actively promotes greenhouse gas reduction and develops sustainable green economy. The company serves as a vital promoter of circular economy. It takes advantage of the high-temperature of cement kilns and extensively uses alternative raw materials and fuels to reduce depletion of natural resources. Furthermore, it has developed the first cement kiln processing refrigerant technology in Taiwan to assist the government in destroying smuggled refrigerants. In 2022 alone, the Company disposed 11.68 metric tons of R-12 refrigerant and 8.99 metric tons of R-22 refrigerant, which was equivalent to a reduction of 209,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions. This initiative effectively prevents refrigerant leakage and sets a model of cooperation between the government units and the private sectors to address environmental issues. Asia Cement was awarded a TSAA Bronze Prize for the project of "Coping with Climate Change through Public-Private Collaboration".

Asia Cement also earned another Bronze Award for the project "Promoting Low-Carbon Cement for a Better Net-Zero Scenario." The company has been dedicating in the development and application of low-carbon cement. It leads the industry with its exclusive development of Portland-limestone cement that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 10% and masonry cement that reduces emissions by 18%. Asia Cement actively participates in the revision of national standard and regulation of cement. It gathers promotional teams to communicate with customers across Taiwan with the aim at increasing the usage of low-carbon cement in hope to help achieve carbon reduction and even net-zero throughout the industry.

Ms. Doris Wu, Executive Vice President of Asia Cement, emphasizes that for the company, the word "sustainability" is not just a noun or an adjective but a verb. Every sustainable goal has corresponding action plans. Only through persistent endeavor, focus and work from all different perspectives can impossible tasks be turned into concrete objectives that has the opportunity to be realized.