Fulfilling one’s duty as a member of the global village and helping to save the planet is easier said than done.
There are few incentives for big-time business tycoons to conserve electricity to help reduce the nation’s carbon emissions, since they can afford utility price hikes.
However, two of the nation’s most successful entrepreneurs, Bruce Cheng (鄭崇華), chairman and founder of Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the world’s largest provider of switching power supplies, and Anthony Lo (羅祥安), chief executive officer of Giant Inc (巨大集團), the world’s biggest bicycle manufacturer, set fine examples of leading an environmentally friendly life.
For months, Cheng, who takes pride in his role as the company’s chief environmental officer, has given up his appetite for beef, which had been a mainstay of his diet since acquiring his wealth.
Cheng even drinks goat milk these days after learning that cattle top the list of the least environmentally friendly agricultural products.
“Chairman Cheng, who has a strong will, has never tasted beef since,” said Jesse Chou (周志宏), senior director of Delta’s corporate communications.
Cheng said studies have found that each kilogram of beef produced generates 15kg to 25kg of carbon emissions. Meanwhile, pork generates only 5kg and chicken 2kg of carbon emissions per kilogram.
Cattle herding, moreover, consumes far more grain and water than raising pigs or poultry, and is thus more energy-intensive, he added.
Cheng’s personal choice was recognized by the board of Delta, which in November gave its go-ahead to impose a beef ban on meals served in the company’s cafeteria, a proposal well received by company employees.
After the proposal was instituted, Delta cut the company’s beef consumption by 40kg per month, which is expected to help cut its carbon emissions by 17.4 tonnes in a year, the company said in an e-mailed statement.
Cheng’s decision to stop eating beef was also based on health considerations, as well as his mother’s advice to him as a child that cows should be humans’ best farming friends, Chou said.
Cheng, the nation’s first owner of an energy-saving Toyota Prius hybrid car, isn’t alone in trying to reduce his carbon footprint. Lo has his own way of helping cut carbon emissions. He often cycles uphill to work from his home in Taichung City to Dajia Township (大甲) in Taichung County, a three-hour journey, and cycles back home in the evening.
The cycling keeps him fit while also serving a professional function — test-driving the company’s newly designed bikes, he said.
“This is also my way of cutting carbon emissions, by cutting back on driving,” he said.
Lo says that cycling is fun, healthy and friendly to the environment.
Other than cycling and abstaining from beef, those who are not as determined as Cheng or Lo can still find other measures to help save the planet.
For example, one can start replacing old electric appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines with the latest, energy-efficient ones, which the government has been encouraging through various programs.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs also encourages people to use stairways more often than elevators, or ride the elevator up, and take the stairs down.
It also urges car drivers to maintain their highway driving speed at around 90kph, which consumes less fuel than driving at 120kph.
It’s never too late to act and small individual contributions can add up to make the Earth a better place to live.
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