Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is to put environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) considerations into each employee’s key performance indicators, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said at a forum for sustainable finance and climate change yesterday.
In addition, the company would earmark 1 percent of its research and development budget to ESG initiatives, Liu said.
Hon Hai’s research and development budget is about NT$200 billion (US$7.2 billion) annually, meaning the ESG budget would be about NT$2 billion per year.
Photo courtesy of Sinyi Realty Inc
ESG would be an integral part of Hon Hai’s strategy going forward, Liu said, adding that climate change is the most pressing concern behind its drive.
“Extreme climate is a threat to the lives and properties of people all over the world,” Liu said. “Without a market, there is no enterprise.”
Hon Hai last year made a commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but some of the firm’s biggest clients have a more aggressive goal of reaching net zero by 2030, he said.
To reach its goal, Hon Hai is a part of the Carbon Disclosure Plan and has set up committees to reduce emissions and inspect the carbon footprints of its suppliers.
“We hope that ESG is not just a matter of spending money, but encouraging people to feel a sense of pride and participation in making the world a better place,” Liu said.
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last