A Pioneer in Net Zero EPC Calling Upon All Employees to Participate in ESG

─ Joanne Ho, Chief Sustainability Officer at CTCI

Founded in 1979, CTCI has accumulated over 40 years of experience in executing engineering projects around the world. It has steadily grown into an international engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) group that is "No. 1 in Taiwan and Top 100 in the world," enjoying excellent track record. CTCI is also one of the forerunners in the Taiwanese engineering industry that pays attention to its corporate social responsibilities (CSR). Not only has CTCI focused on CSR and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues since 2008, it also sees sustainable development as its responsibility. In recent years, as net zero gained worldwide attention, CTCI has been keeping pace with the times and continues to adopt its core "green engineering" technologies and actively promote "net zero EPC," so that it can make an impact in sustainable engineering, achieve the goal of net zero emissions, and keep the Earth sustainable.

Looking Back: The First Engineering Company in Taiwan to Have Published a CSR Report

CTCI is both an international EPC group and a leader in promoting ESG performance in the Taiwanese engineering industry. As early as 2008, CTCI has set up a CSR Committee and designed a sustainable development policy, as well as published the first CSR report, ahead of all its counterparts in the Taiwanese engineering industry. In 2015, without being required to do so by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), CTCI voluntarily conducted the greenhouse gas inventory and external audit. In 2021, the former "Sustainable Development Committee" under the Board of Directors was renamed as "ESG & Net Zero Committee." Additionally, a Group-level "Sustainability and Net Zero Office (ESG Office)" was established, and for the first time a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) was named to be responsible for making sustainability and net zero strategies, action plans, and overseeing their implementation. The CSO reports to the Deputy CEO of CTCI Group Engineering Business, who is also the President of CTCI Corporation. A Group-wide sustainability and net zero meeting is convened every month, where ESG progress is reported to the Group Chairman.

A highlight of CTCI’s ESG practices is the creation of "ESG Moment Presentation Database" since 2019 as a way to increase staff’s awareness of ESG issues. Staff is required to select a presentation slide from the database and make a short presentation on an ESG topic before the meeting begins.

Where We Are Now: Strengthen ESG Practices and Make Sustainability a Part of Everyone’s DNA

CTCI is committed to combining its core business with ESG. As the Group Chairman, John T. Yu, always says, "We advocate sustainable practices from all employees. We want everyone to know that sustainability comes from what they do in their daily operations.” In other words, CTCI wants its employees to be proud of their contribution to the Earth's sustainability, identify with what they do, so that they are willing to continue to invest in their daily work and make even greater impact on sustainability. The following are CTCI’s recent and important sustainability initiatives:

1. Call Upon All Employees to Participate in ESG and Implement Net Zero EPC

CTCI is actively promoting "Net Zero EPC" by proposing energy saving and carbon reduction solutions for various stages in EPC projects. CTCI also works with its partners to create a low-carbon supply chain. Based on the concept of "Full Employee Participation in ESG and Fulfilling Net Zero EPC", CTCI has created greenhouse gas inventory and emissions reduction teams in each of its global offices, which are required to develop implementation plans. CTCI has assigned staff to attend internal inspector training courses held by SGS and obtain certificates, thereby gradually setting up a mechanism for conducting greenhouse gas inventory and green energy planning for domestic and overseas locations.

To make the industry become greener, as well as improve its net zero technologies, CTCI holds monthly Group refinement meetings on sustainability and net zero issues. Each business group is required to submit five feasible proposals on improving sustainability, and the Executive Committee will review the sustainability proposals from each unit to jointly optimize and deepen the sustainability culture. Each employee would therefore realize that doing their daily work well is a part of sustainability, helping the company move towards a more stable and trustworthy path of sustainability. Besides, CTCI has also created a platform that can show owners and project teams the energy-saving and emission-reducing benefits from net zero EPC green technologies, in the form of data and graphs. 

To facilitate ESG communications internally, CTCI uses the internal corporate EIP website as a communication channel, where events are announced. There is a webpage called "ESG for All Employees." CTCI has held an event called "Tamsui River Environmental Action, Guarding the Wetland in Guandu" in conjunction with community groups. CTCI has organized special promotional sales activities by calling employees to vote for "green vendors." CTCI also supported the initiative from the Environmental Protection Administration's "Green Office" by making the exhibitions “greener.” In addition, CTCI has held the first "ESG Award of Excellence & Sustainability." 

To facilitate ESG communications externally, CTCI runs Facebook page, publishes bimonthly ESG e-newsletters, and teams up with Impact Hub to hold SDGs workshops. These measures allow ESG practices become a part of CTCI staff’s DNA. They also allow the public to understand that sustainability has become an important goal for CTCI.

2. Driving CTCI’s Sustainable Development with Three Aspects of Green Engineering

CTCI is committed to sustainability by applying its core competencies in green engineering, which include three aspects: green technologies, green contracting, and green investment. In terms of "green technologies", CTCI has set up AE groups in each engineering division to keep researching and developing advanced solutions. CTCI has established "New Business Development & Strategy Management Committee" in search for novel carbon reduction or net zero technologies, as well as investment opportunities. CTCI also works with clients and industrial research institutes to study the technologies and business potential for hydrogen energy, energy storage, carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), and carbon neutral applications. CTCI is also the convener of the Carbon Capture Group of the Taiwan-U.S. CCUS Industry Promotion Alliance to promote the development of net zero technologies. 

In terms of "green contracting", CTCI is actively expanding related businesses.  The backlog amount of low-carbon and environmental projects has increased by 450% from 2015 to 2021. As for "green investment", this refers to the investment models adopted by CTCI, such as Build-Own-Operate and Build-Operate-Transfer. Take solar power as an example, the total site capacity invested by CTCI has so far exceeded 130MW.

3. Green Commitment and Practice: Participation in Organizations and Initiatives

In support of carbon reduction, CTCI is a founding member of the Taiwan Alliance for Net Zero Emissions and the Association of Taiwan Net Zero Emissions. The Group Chairman and Vice Group Chairman were elected as executive directors and board members. Together, the alliance members promote net zero emissions in Taiwan and commit to achieving zero carbon emissions at offices by 2030 and zero carbon emissions at offices and production sites by 2050. 

Moreover, CTCI has joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2022, and commits to setting a net zero reduction target in line with the SBTi’s Business Ambition for 1.5°C. The annual reduction target is 4.2% between the period of 2020 to 2030, and 2.9% annually between the period of 2030 to 2050, eventually reaching net zero by 2050. To show its determination, senior executives from CTCI Group jointly pledged on behalf of all employees to strive for the goal during the "CTCI Net Zero Pledge Ceremony."

4. Green Supply Chain: Moving Towards Net Zero with Suppliers

In addition to the aforementioned initiatives, CTCI is also actively building a "green supply chain" by working with suppliers to move towards net zero target and providing low-carbon EPC and low-carbon supply chain services to clients, which is a win-win situation. 

Low-carbon EPC is about assessing a project from a full lifecycle perspective, and offering clients services through the most feasible green technologies, green procurement, and green engineering methods. Low-carbon supply chain services, on the other hand, is more than just requiring CTCI to be low-carbon. It is also about requiring suppliers to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and set their emission reduction targets from 2022 onwards. That way, CTCI helps owners and the supply chain to become energy-saving and achieve net zero targets throughout the value chain.

As an engineering group with global presence, CTCI works with thousands of suppliers. To properly manage its suppliers, CTCI would train them with the latest knowledge on sustainability and raise their awareness during supplier meetings. CTCI disciplines its suppliers with Supplier Code of Conduct, Corporate Commitment to Sustainable Management and Net Zero Emissions, Supplier Qualification Assessment Record, Sustainability Risk Survey Questionnaire, and Sustainability Audit Regulations. In 2022, CTCI has also studied the current state of its suppliers’ sustainability by conducting a "Survey on the Current Status of Corporate Sustainability and Net Zero Emissions" and encouraged the suppliers to set their carbon reduction targets. This will be supplemented with a reward and penalty mechanism later on, so that Scope 3 emissions reduction targets can gradually be met. This will also be in line with the government's net zero strategy, i.e. "Big Companies Take the Lead, Small Companies Follow Up." CTCI aims to take advantage of its leading position to push the supply chain to support climate actions.

Building the Future: A Net Zero EPC Pioneer that Seeks Continuous Green Transformation

CTCI is aware that climate change is deeply connected with, and has great impact on, the engineering industry. CTCI will continue to advance towards the 2025 sustainability target and conduct annual progress reviews. In terms of risk management, CTCI has adopted the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework since 2018 and has integrated it with the existing risk management process, which helps identify potential risks and opportunities concerning climate change on CTCI Group’s operations, so that response measures can be prepared in advance.

In terms of sustainability performance, CTCI has been selected as a component of the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Diversified Index (DJSI) for seven consecutive years, securing the second place in the global construction industry, and is the first and only Taiwanese engineering company to be incorporated into the index. To improve its performance, CTCI has invited experts from various fields in the sustainability industry in 2022 and launched a project to compare CTCI’s performance with that of international benchmark engineering service providers. This helps CTCI gain a deeper understanding on global trends and sustainable practices, which in turn helps CTCI excel in the future.

CTCI considers itself to be a "guardian of sustainable Earth." Looking forward, CTCI will continue to strengthen its ESG efforts and ensure that sustainability become part of every employee’s DNA. With its engineering expertise, CTCI will strive to fulfill net zero commitments, expand its green engineering businesses, and strategically engage all employees to take ESG actions, so as to bring greater value and contribution to global sustainability.