As of 2023, a total of 35 companies in Taiwan have been selected as constituent stocks of the international Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI, The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices), and Zhongding Engineering (below) ranks as the largest in Taiwan and among the top 100 turnkey engineering companies in the world. (referred to as Zhongding), is not only the first and only engineering company in Taiwan to be selected, but has also been listed for 9 consecutive years.
When it comes to construction projects, it is easy to be labeled as unenvironmentally friendly and highly polluting. Faced with the high global concern about ESG issues, Zhongding Chairman Yang Zongxing said that Zhongding Group has conducted fundamental thinking: not only in all aspects of operations, , striving to achieve environmental protection indicators of energy conservation and carbon reduction, but also to go back to the source and promote green transformation from the business model, which not only helps the sustainability of the environment, but also maintains the sustainable operation of the enterprise.
Therefore, Zhongding will take environmental impact into consideration from business contracting, technology application to investment, and develop towards "green projects". In addition to DJSI, Zhongding also ranked in the top 1% of the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook in 2024, and its group revenue also reached NT$ 103.5 billion, setting a record high.
Sustainability must be combined with core business to promote further growth of the organization
From domestic to overseas, Zhongding provides one-stop services of engineering design, procurement, construction and operation, and has repeatedly won major engineering projects. When thinking about how to promote sustainable behavior, Yang Zongxing said, "It must be integrated with the company's core business and future growth to be sustainable." Based on this thinking, Zhongding focuses on three aspects, including green contracting and green technology. and green investment to embark on sustainable transformation.
In terms of green contracting, it refers to undertaking projects that are "beneficial to the environment", such as water resource recycling centers, solar photovoltaic plants, etc. This is equivalent to incorporating sustainable evaluation criteria from the nature of the "source of the project". Yang Zongxing pointed out that Zhongding hopes to achieve this. As long as the owner launches a similar project, the company will try its best to obtain it, and it has achieved results: in 2024, the proportion of low-carbon environmental protection projects in the total contract amount will account for about 58%.
Green technology refers to conceiving and implementing energy-saving and carbon-reducing plans for owners during the turnkey factory construction process. Taking engineering projects in Taiwan as an example, the proportion of local procurement in 2023 will be as high as 96.9%. As for green investment, it is increasing its research and development efforts on environmentally friendly technologies, focusing 63% of the research and development amount (NT$ 85 million) on innovative technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen energy.
Yang Zongxing said frankly that any environmentally friendly actions with good intentions require the support of customers. However, even if they agree with the concept, they must pay a higher cost in practice, which often invisibly adds resistance. In order to convince customers, Zhongdinghui recommends adopting a long-term thinking. For example, using energy-saving label equipment will indeed be more expensive than ordinary equipment, but the electricity bill saved will recover the cost within 5 years; if the time is extended to 10 years, the overall expenditure In fact, it is more economical.
ESG is integrated into daily work, and employee recognition reaches 86%
In addition to promoting green transformation in its existing core business, Zhongding also uses its one-stop services to expand new services and business opportunities, and consolidate sustainable operations through sustainable actions.
For example, when seeking private enterprise's recycled water plant business, we can provide a business model from investment, design, construction to operation and operation (DBOO, Design, Build, Own and Operation). Customers only need to pay for the use of recycled water and do not need to pay for the recycled water themselves. Construction and operation, and also cooperated with the Industrial Research Institute to develop advanced recycled water technology, thus obtaining a contract from a leading semiconductor manufacturer to build the world's first recycled water plant in Southern Taiwan Science Park to introduce industrial wastewater into the semiconductor manufacturing process.
In order to mobilize all employees to promote ESG, Zhongding not only sets up awards and encourages employees to propose proposals, but also integrates sustainability issues with performance, such as setting the green project contract completion rate. It has even been vigorously promoted to the extent that any meeting with more than 5 people must share the extent of their recent "ESG moments". The first page of the briefing is about daily sustainable actions or relevant new knowledge learned, and the system is extended to the world.
Starting from daily meetings, let employees see the company's emphasis on sustainability issues. In the employee engagement survey outsourced in 2023, Zhongding colleagues' recognition of ESG issues reached 86%, ranking first among all issues. one.
Only by integrating ESG with the company's growth can we sustain.
