The number of buildings in Taiwan receiving or being pre-approved for green building certification has risen almost 70 times in eight years, to 349 last year from five in 2000, the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said yesterday.
Considerable progress had been made promoting sustainable buildings since the Ministry of the Interior launched its green building program in 2001, the CEPD said.
As of September this year, 2,295 buildings have been certified as “green buildings,” and they have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 521,000 tonnes annually and saved users NT$2.16 billion (US$66.5 million) in electricity and water charges.
Taiwan became the fourth country in the world to implement a green building certification protocol when it introduced its unique EEWH (ecology, energy saving, waste reduction and health) system in 1999.
The system, specially tailored to account for Taiwan’s tropical and subtropical climate, considers nine indicators in the four categories to determine whether a building meets “green” criteria.
Taiwan was also the first country in which the government took the lead in promoting the initiative, renovating public buildings and requiring them to meet the criteria, while including special clauses in its building code on sustainability.
Last year, Taiwan launched a four-year program to promote ecological cities and green buildings. It is expected to spend NT$2 billion by 2011 on renovating metropolitan districts and traditional street areas, improving interior green design technology and establishing a market mechanism for green building materials, the CEPD said.
The four-year project is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 270,000 tonnes every year and lower electricity and water fees by NT$890 million a year.
The CEPD also said the government would look to place controls on projects with large construction sites to improve the quality of living in cities.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS