Cishan Sugar center gains green certification

• By Esme Yeh / Staff reporter

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The Cishan Sugar Refinery’s (旗山糖廠) community-based environmental education center on Saturday obtained a carbon footprint verification certificate, the first environmental education site in Taiwan to pass such certification.

The National Environmental Research Academy awarded the certificate to the center.

Academy president Chang Shun-chin (張順欽) said tech giants in Taiwan have an increasing demand for low-carbon venues, as they and their supply chains need to meet international carbon reduction requirements, such as RE100 and carbon border adjustment mechanisms.

Cishan Sugar Refinery’s carbon footprint verification certificates are pictured in Kaohsiung on Saturday.

Photo: Screen grab from the Ministry of Environment’s Web site

Using venues with third-party carbon footprint certification to hold employee trainings, family days or volunteer activities reduces companies’ indirect carbon emissions, in line with Scope 3 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Chang said.

That would not only improve a company’s environmental, social and governance performance evaluation, but also reduce its cost of export compliance, he said.

Using such venues would also meet international buyers’ requirement for supply chain carbon transparency while avoid the risk of overseas greenwashing, Chang said, adding that it would help companies enhance green competitiveness.

Center chairwoman Tseng Yu-hsuan (曾渝媗) said that with the guidance of the academy, the center has been promoting carbon reduction and net zero transition, and won an excellence award from the National Environmental Education Awards in 2022.

It complied with international carbon verification standards by accounting for events’ carbon footprint and took part in the Ministry of Environment’s “Green Point” program, she said.

The center completed carbon footprint inventory for two environmental education programs, the results of which were verified by a third party, Tseng said.

The programs’ average footprint is 0.206kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per hour per person, equivalent to charging a smartphone to 100 percent about 28 times, she said.

The academy said Taiwan has 281 environmental education sites like the center, six of which began conducting carbon inventory this year under its guidance.

Companies can find more environmental education sites for low-carbon travel or employee training programs on the academy’s “Environmental Education Go” Web site, it added.