As the world’s No. 3 PC brand, Acer is dedicated to achieving the goal of triple bottom lines: outstanding and balanced performance in economy, environment and society. Walking the talk on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the key for Acer to achieve corporate sustainability.

Responding to challenges from the organizational level, Acer set up a Corporate Sustainability Office (CSO). We spent almost one year to complete an integrated strategy and set the 2008-2010 CSR action plans for a sustainable Acer. In spring, 2008, our Board of Directors highlighted the milestones for embedding CSR within Acer.

As the Corporate Sustainability Officer of the CSO, I will lead the corporate to fulfill CSR commitments in a much more comprehensive and proactive manner. We will focus on developing an effective corporate governance mechanism of CSR and sustainability issues, improving efficiency among working groups, initiating stakeholder engagement, and building for better internal and external communications.

The integrated strategy of energy and climate change covers four major areas, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emission accounting, carbon reduction, energy conservation and efficiency, and a low carbon business model. Our goal is to become a climate-friendly PC brand. Acer’s GHG inventory will extend to the supply chain, through the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC) of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).  
 
The integrated strategy of social issues covers four major areas, including corporate ethics and code of conduct, supply chain management, compliance auditing, and stakeholder engagement. Acer will actively follow the EICC toward the ultimate goal of promoting fairness within working and human rights. By working with Acer Foundation, our community involvement programs will include corporate volunteering, lessoning the digital divide, ecological conservation and participation in community activities.

The integrated strategy of green product covers four major areas including green design, resource and energy saving, supply chain management, and environmental communication. Our goal is to become an environmental friendly green company. Key issues of green design include chemical management, easy disassemble, easy recycle, and eco-label. Acer also plans to join the Climate Saver Computing Initiative (CSCI) in 2008.

The integrated strategy of takeback covers four major areas: market background survey, voluntary takeback, communication and training, and auditing to implementation. The goal is to achieve a concrete implementation of extended producer responsibility. Acer’s voluntary takeback regime will be launched in 2008. As to the compulsory takeback regime, Acer will focus on verifying the quantitative performance data in the European Union, following what has been done in Taiwan.

The integrated strategy of reporting will focus on the preparation of GRI’s G3 report for communicating the performance information toward the triple-bottom line. Our priorities in 2008 are performance data management and analysis system, consolidated reporting, and the integration of reporting and management processes. Our goal is to build up a sound governance framework for a sustainable Acer.

Acer’s CSR actions have been implemented proactively with strong commitments and determination from the top management. We will humbly review our progress periodically and quantify our footprint of implementation. These will be the base for setting a clear target of our next step.

Gianfranco Lanci