Taiwan ranked seventh out of 11 countries and territories in a global sustainability survey, with room for improvement, business data and analytical insights provider Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) said on Thursday.
Taiwan ranked ahead of Australia, Ireland, the US and New Zealand, based on D&B’s competitiveness analysis of supply chains in terms of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance, the US-based firm said in a statement.
The UK ranked the highest in ESG performance, followed by Germany and France, with Sweden, Canada and Hong Kong ranked fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, it said.
Photo: Kelson Wang, Taipei Times
As global brands such as Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Nike Inc adopt ESG into their corporate strategies — and consider the use of renewable energy, carbon reduction, environmental protection and other issues in their businesses — similar sustainability policies have been extended to the global supply chain.
“ESG has obviously become the entry ticket for small and medium-sized enterprises to the global supply chain, but the evaluations are not standardized in the market,” D&B Taiwan (鄧白氏台灣) general manager Michelle Sun (孫偉真) said in the statement.
“Dun & Bradstreet hopes to reveal data-driven insights that are comprehensive and objective, enabling Taiwan businesses to review and put their ESG goals into practice, while strengthening their competitiveness in the global market,” she said.
The company aims to expand the global coverage of its ESG rankings to more than 100 countries and regions this year, as it seeks to provide a single measurable standard for the global supply chain, it said.
Its ESG competitiveness analysis of Taiwanese supply-chain firms was built on information sourced from its own database, company annual reports and Web sites, D&B said.
MAJOR SUPPLIERS
The survey evaluated 691 suppliers in Taiwan serving six leading manufacturers that made the Fortune Global 500 list: Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), Pegatron Corp (和碩), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) and Wistron Corp (緯創).
D&B used a computer model to analyze data collected from Feb. 1 last year to Feb. 22 this year, it said.
“In general, 691 Taiwan suppliers performed relatively well in social and governance categories, thanks to the Taiwan government’s long-term interest in these areas,” D&B said. “On the other hand, there still exist challenges to be resolved in the environmental category.”
“Based on observations, emission reduction and management driven by the government is necessary, as Taiwan aims to achieve net zero by 2050,” it added.
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