張榮發慈善基金會於2023/4/25與台灣永續能源研究基金會、聯聖集團，共同舉辦「社會責任如何影響中小企業永續的經營與發展」國際論壇，並邀請中小企業和社福團體共同參與，超過200位人員熱情出席參加，共同關心社會責任議題。 More here.

Iris Liu is the Vice President at Taiwan Mobile (TWM), the second largest telecom company in Taiwan. She joined in 2014, the year that Taiwan Mobile formed its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) steering committee. Iris oversees sustainability, brand management, public relations, as well as the TWM Foundation. This allows her to create synergies within the company and develop multiple-win projects. Taiwan Mobile has become a pioneer of sustainability and innovation in Taiwan’s telecom sector, not only reducing environmental impact but also actively creating shared value. CAPS spoke to Iris Liu in January 2022 to understand Taiwan Mobile’s journey towards sustainability.

CAPS: Thank you, Iris, for sitting down with us. You started with Taiwan Mobile at the beginning of their sustainability journey. Can you share an important learning from the past eight years with the company?  

Iris: Without a doubt, it is the importance of leaving no one behind in our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) planning. Everyone in the company must be on the same page and recognize the same goal. We really struggled in the first two years because people didn’t know what they should do. It took many workshops to communicate with our employees and the steering committee, as well as our executives. This process helped us to get everyone on the same page.  

CAPS: How has Taiwan Mobile crafted its ESG strategy and goals? 

Iris: We update our strategy annually through a collaborative process with employees. Every year, we hold key workshops where around 200 executives gather to learn about the company’s ESG focus. This year the focus of the workshop is on Net Zero planning for 2050. We examine 52 KPIs for sustainability across the company and ask ourselves whether these are achievable and ambitious enough. Then at the end of the year, we review our progress and each business unit is assessed on its ESG performance. For instance, one of the KPIs I set for my team was to complete 50 hours of training, which they surpassed.  

TWM also asked employees to “imagine the year 2030” when creating long-term goals, which helped shape the direction of our ESG strategy. TWM aims to reduce its footprint and be a responsible business. Overall, we emphasized staff working together to reach goals, and routinely updated them to respond to the changing world. Along the way, we offer many educational classes, movies related to ESG, and training support for our employees to integrate sustainability into their thinking and work. 

CAPS: Who provides these workshops and classes? And when your team needs support, who can you turn to? 

Iris: Since sustainability is integrated into our employees’ daily work and responsibilities, a lot of the classes are delivered internally by Human Resources. We also offer online training. In fact, during Covid-19, this option made it easier for our employees to participate because they could choose their preferred time and select what they wanted to learn. We also have an external consultant, KPMG, and we consider their advice when creating projects. And, luckily, our team always has strong support from other business units like Technical Group, Information and Technology Group, Customer Business Group etc. that give us all the resources we needed in every different projects. Most important and strongest support is from our president, our chairman, and the Board.  

CAPS: Can you tell us about some of the projects that you’ve been doing as a result of this work? 

Iris: Yes, for example Solar for Good. Sunnyfounder, a social enterprise, helps people develop solar energy projects in Taiwan. Sunnyfounder identifies non-profit organizations (NPOs) with available rooftop space where solar panels can be built. Sunnyfounder then attracts investments to build the infrastructure, and the energy generated by the solar panels can either be used by the NPO or sold to generate income

When I heard about this project I was immediately excited as we had a previous campaign where NT$2 from the sale of any device through Taiwan Mobile’s channels went towards developing green power and I wanted to create greater synergy by merging the two concepts. We could use the technical knowledge from Sunnyfounder to build solar panels on NPOs’ rooftops. TWM would donate one million NTD on each project and help raise money to support more NPOs to install solar panels. We named this project as “Solar for Good”.  

We started “Solar for Good” since 2017, help 5 NPOs raised over NTD 24 million to build up the solar energy systems and generate over 1.4m kWh of green electricity, with more than NTD 8 million revenue accumulated till now for those five NPOs. In 20 years, the estimated total revenue for those five NPOs will be around NTD 63.21 million and approximately 9.36 million kWh of green electricity will be generated, equivalent to carbon reduction of 4907 tons of CO2e. That means that we guarantee a 20-years stable income for those NPOs and also benefit our planet with more clean energy at the same time.  

CAPS: You’re creating a win-win-win for the NPOs, the community, and the environment. That is wonderful.  

Iris: Thank you. For us, the win-win-win is very important. Not only are we helping to boost renewable energy, we are also helping NPOs. We also saw invisible benefits. The solar panels on the rooftops lowered the temperature of the whole building by 3-4 degrees, and so the energy consumed by the NPOs was also reduced.  

CAPS: We also heard about your fiber optics project, can you tell us a bit more about that?  

Iris: Three years ago we started the Circular Economy Forum. At the time, our performance on circular economy and waste management was not good enough, so we wanted to force ourselves to be better. We co-worked with KPMG and host the first forum, made a declaration with our suppliers that we would become more circular. In the second year, we consulted with our technical group to see what kind of waste we were producing and try to figure out the item that we can start our efforts with. They noted that we produced a lot of waste fiber optic cables (FOC) and identified a company, Miniwiz, researching to reduce waste. We now work with Miniwiz as well as Chang Gung University to identify how fiber optic waste cables can be turned into new products.  

In a follow-up interview with Arthur Huang, CEO of Miniwiz, in February 2022, CAPS learned that as a result of this project collaboration, Miniwiz developed the technology to take FOC waste and turn it into brick and rebar substitutes. Instead of sourcing steel for construction projects, for example, a builder might source FOC “rebar” instead, which is stronger and more water-resistant than steel. 

CAPS: What has been the most rewarding part of being part of TWM’s sustainability journey? 

Iris: The change in people. In our steering committee, I can see that each executive is really trying to learn more about sustainability: recognizing the issue of climate change, methods used to reduce carbon emissions, and so on. But this change was not limited to the executive team, the employees also changed. In less than 3 years we have seen employees really becoming interested in integrating ESG in their work. So, I would say the biggest achievement is that we set our goals and did it together.  

COVID-19 has exacerbated income inequalities and social disparities across Asia, serving as a force multiplier for trends already in place. Assessing performance across four sub-indexes – Regulations, Tax and Fiscal Policy, Ecosystem, and Procurement – CAPS’ biennial flagship study, the Doing Good Index 2022, examines the social investment landscape in Asia. Read here.

According to the Doing Good Index 2022, which analyses the social investment landscape in Asia, Covid-19 has exacerbated social disparities and income inequalities and across the region. We talk to Dr. Ruth Shapiro, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive of the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS), which conducts the study biennially, about the pandemic’s impact on people in Asia, her work and improving Hong Kong’s social sector. Read here.

Almost half of Asia’s social delivery organisations have reported a decline in funding in the last 12 months, some as much as 50 percent, according to new research. The Hong Kong-based Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS) surveyed more than 2,000 entities and some 120 experts across 17 Asian economies, including India, Pakistan, China, and Singapore. Read here.

Covid-19 has exacerbated income inequalities and social disparities across Asia, serving as a force multiplier for trends already in place. A new social impact study released today by the Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society (CAPS) shows how to maximize philanthropic and policy responses to cope with these post-Covid challenges. Read here.

Doing Good Index microsite

Our interactive microsite lets you visualize, explore and compare our data. Use our graphics and maps to help you understand Asia at a glance. The data dashboard allows you to compare economies and track changes across time. Economy profiles present a visual and digestible deep dive into each economy.

What is the Doing Good Index?

The Doing Good Index 2022 is the most comprehensive social impact index in Asia to date, highlighting the factors that drive or hinder private capital flowing towards social and economic challenges across 17 Asian economies.

The Doing Good Index comes at a critical time when economies have been heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Inequalities have been exacerbated, and hard-won progress in social and economic growth has been undone. An estimated two-thirds of those newly forced into poverty live in South Asia, East Asia and the Pacific.

To address these shared challenges, all parts of society—individuals, companies, government and the social sector—must work together to drive more resources towards building a better future together. The Doing Good Index shows how. It provides a roadmap of the policies and practices that can unleash this capital by mitigating the trust deficit; leveraging local support; and facilitating cross-sector collaboration.

In 2022 we surveyed 2,239 SDOs and interviewed 126 experts across 17 Asian economies. In mapping the landscape of social investment, the study examines four sub-indices: Regulations, Tax and Fiscal Policy, Ecosystem, and Procurement. We also include a section on how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the social sector.

The Doing Good Index is published every two years. Read the inaugural edition from 2018 and our 2020 edition.

There is a growing trend in Asia of governments and the private sector coming together to address social needs, and our latest study spotlights these “public-private partnerships for social good.” With 88% of top business leaders in Asia believing such partnerships will become even more common over the next five years, it is more important than ever to understand what they are and how they work.

We conducted an in-depth analysis of 20 notable PPPs for social good spanning 11 Asian economies and 9 sectors to find out. Our report showcases why this trend is taking root, what best-in-class PPPs for social good look like, and how they maximize impact.

The report sets out 6 strategies that enable public-private partnerships for social good to achieve greater impact, how they can prepare for sustainability, and how they can navigate risks.

Our DECODED series unpacks, explains and crystallizes issues critical for social investment in Asia. DECODED draws upon CAPS’ expertise in research, and access to an extensive network of sector experts and philanthropists in 18 Asian economies. This enables us to identify emerging trends in the region. Through DECODED, we translate these concepts into digestible insights.

This inaugural DECODED synthesizes how the social sector across Asia has risen to the occasion in responding to Covid-19, and what comes next. We end with recommendations for philanthropists, corporates and policymakers who want to invest in helping Asia’s social sectors thrive.

Catching the world unaware, Covid-19 has sent the global economy and the lives of billions into a tailspin. In the wake of this pandemic, the public, private, and social sectors must come together to work towards a stronger and more equitable Asia as we build our way out of this crisis. At a time when foreign funding is declining across the region, “Asia for Asia” philanthropy must fill the gap—and the Doing Good Index shows how.

CAPS’ Co-Founder and Chief Executive Ruth Shapiro and Director of Research Mehvesh Mumtaz Ahmed present the key findings of the index and showcase how governments, philanthropists, companies and the social sector can work together for mutual benefit. This discussion was moderated by Ronnie C. Chan, Co-Founder and Chairman of CAPS and Chairman of Asia Society Hong Kong Center.