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The pressing need to mitigate climate change has resulted in the acceptance of the Bali Roadmap of COP13, UNFCCC, for deep cuts on the greenhouse gas emission. The world’s governments embarked on an 18-month process to develop a new deal for global climate action post 2012. The new deal is to be agreed in Copenhagen in 2009 (COP15). Energy and climate must be a key issue to business in a carbon-constrained age. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has demonstrated the importance of climate risk and opportunity. Not only do more institutional investors endorse CDP, but also more prominent companies are invited to participate. At the same time, the supply chain’s GHG accounting was initiated in 2008 through the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC) of CDP. We believe that energy and climate issue will play a more important role in the global CSR performance rating. For example, Greenpeace’s Greener Electronics has added energy criteria from the second quarter of 2008.
Despite of the Hokkaido G8 Summit’s vague conclusion on GHG reduction, Acer remains fully supportive of the reduction targets proposed by the EU, which are to cut GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050 globally and 30% by 2020 from industrialized countries (compared to 1990 levels).
As a leading IT company, Acer’s major missions are not only to provide the best advanced products to meet our customer needs, but also to enhance the quality of life of people at large on this planet. Acer recognizes that climate change is currently a big challenge of global sustainability, and is fully convinced that proactive actions have to be integrated into Acer’s long-term business strategy.
We commit to support the global efforts on the deep cut of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and on the negotiation for a sound climate policy framework. From 2008 onwards, through integrated energy and climate change strategies, Acer has conducted a comprehensive examination of all potential methods to conserve energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Not only has Acer taken up the initiative to fight global warming, the company is aspired to lead members in its supply chain to take part in the fight against global warming.
The integrated strategy of energy and climate change covers four major areas: greenhouse gas (GHG) emission accounting, carbon reduction, energy conservation and efficiency, and low carbon business model. Our goal is to become a climate-friendly PC brand. GHG inventory starts from the operations within Taiwan first in summer 2008 and will extend to the global operations in the autumn 2008. “Inventory” covers manufacturing, distribution and operation. Thus, the inventory will extend to the supply chain, through the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC) of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). Low carbon products will be our focus for carbon reduction. A global survey will be conducted in 2008 for purchasing renewable energy. In the areas of energy conservation and efficiency, actions include implementation or assessment on green office, business travel, low carbon vehicle, and such. Acer expects to finalize its mid- and long-term GHG reduction targets in winter 2008.
Climate changes and global warming are the most severe threats that mankind faces today. These phenomena not only bring serious impacts on our environments and ecological systems, but would also result in dramatic changes to our economy and society in ways that are hard to predict. Being a contributing member of the global society, Acer strives to continue its efforts to control actual risks and opportunities through “Acer’s Integrated Energy and Climate Change Strategy” so as to fulfill its social responsibilities.
Acer began a corporate-wide greenhouse gas emission examination in April 2008, with the GHG Protocol established by the WBCSD and WRI as the central guiding principles in the examination. The entire inventory deploys in five stages. The first stage focuses on the operations within Taiwan. The second stage focuses on the operations outside of Taiwan. The third stage will inventory the emission caused by usage of products. The fourth stage will implement the inventory of supply chain. The fifth stage will inventory the emission from the transportation of products and services. Acer had finished the initial inventory of the first stage in late May 2008. In 2007, the operations within Taiwan included two subsidiaries that totally emitted 25,680 tons CO2e. The amounts and percentages of the emissions from Scope 1 to Scope 3 are displayed in the following chart.
The emissions of Scope 1 include fuel usage and refrigerant leakage. Scope 2 represents the indirect emissions caused by electricity use. Scope 3 currently focuses on the emission from business travel by air transport. As to the emissions from employee commutes, the inventory deploys continually from Q3 2008 within and outside of Taiwan.
The second stage inventory started in June, and by the end of Q3 2008, data on the emission of electricity and refrigerants leakage from several operations outside of Taiwan were collected. In 2007, CO2 emitted from purchased electricity (scope 2) in China was 586 tons, while preliminary data from 10 countries/regions in EMEA (scope 2) was 2210 tons. GHG emissions from refrigerants leakage (scope 1) was 25 tons CO2e. As to the follow-up reduction action, Acer has improved the electricity use of air conditioners in its headquarters in Taiwan. In addition, through studying the inventory data, Acer will develop more thorough action plans for GHG emission reduction.
And Acer has started preliminary study on our GHG emissions from product transportation and services logistics since June 2008.We plan to cooperate with our business partners who have provided logistic service to us to develop the appropriate approach and implement the inventory related to transportation by the end of the third quarter.
Beginning 2007, Acer has received invitations from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). To summarize, the project was established by major investment bodies around the world to state GHG emissions and issues on environmental policies while disclosing the content of the CDP5 questionnaire. This year, Acer will continue to cooperate with CDP’s efforts and reply to the CDP6 questionnaire before the end of May.
In addition, Acer is well aware of the significance of topics such as climate changes, GHG and their vital relation to supply chains. This is why Acer is participating in the Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC) project initiated by the CDP: through the contents of the SCLC08 questionnaire, Acer is encouraging all first tier suppliers to reply to issues such as GHG emissions and environmental policies and disclose relevant data openly or to the SCLC members by the end of October. At the first stage, we provided main supplier list to the CDP SCLC program and delivered this requirement during the supplier conference on 9 July,2008.
With integrations through the SCLC project, more data from suppliers of various tiers will be available in the future to obtain more comprehensive GHG disclosure.
For detailed content relating to the CDP and SCLC project, please visit http://www.cdproject.net.
Apart from the company’s effort in reducing GHG emission, Acer is also conducting feasibility assessment for reusable energy such as solar power and wind power in its global operations. In addition, Acer is taking concrete actions relating to specific goals set forth in the “Acer’s Integrated Strategy on Energy and Climate Change.” |
