Taiwan csr overview and trend in 2017c

Contents

Foreword p.3 Methodology p.4

Key Findings SDGs are the key to global existence, but only 40 (8.7%) companies addressed them in their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports p.8 About 83% of Taiwan's top 100 companies are already compiled CSR reports. p.12 Listed and OTC companies that have compiled CSR reports have better EPS than stock index for 3 consecutive years p.13 Among all the listed and OTC companies, the number of voluntary reports doubles the number of mandatory reports. p.14 Top sustainability issues of 2015: Training and education became the number one issue, replacing economic performance p.16

2

06

Climate change is the biggest global threat. Only 37% of the companies in Taiwan have reported about their mitigation and adaptation measurements. p.17

07

The WEF believes that international conflict is Taiwan's biggest risk while companies in Taiwan focus on financial risks. p.19

08

Nearly 30% of the CSR reports disclose their spending on social welfare at an average of 0.82% of income before tax. p.20

09

The new integrated reporting (IR) has come into prominence. Uncover the sustainable values between financial and non-financial information p.21

10

Almost half of the companies pay attention to the quality of their CSR reports. The assurance market grows 23% annually. p.22

11

Taiwan's financial services are now aware of the importance of responsible investment.

More than half of them are willing to include ESG into their investment policies. p.24

12

The food industry has a lower risk awareness of climate change. Most companies in this industry have no ESG goals. p.26

Foreword

CSRone Reporting Gennie Yen, Founder of CSRone Reporting

Leveraging SDGs to Unfold Taiwan,s Sustainability Potential This is the fourth year that all published CSR reports in Taiwan are analyzed on the CSRone Platform based on the indicators locally and globally in terms of critical risks and issues. The findings demonstrated an improvement in sustainability strategies and practices among Taiwanese corporations. The international survey and analysis have also illustrated the same outcome.

In the Bloomberg ESG disclosure and performance evaluation, Taiwan has the highest score in environmental, social and governance among APAC corporations. In fact, 20 Taiwanese corporations has made the top 100 list of 2016 Channel NewAsia Sustainability Ranking, following Japan’s 33.

The United Nations has developed a common goal for world sustainability after an in-depth research and discussion from 2012 to 2015 - the SDGs (Sustainability Development Goals, SDGs), where 193 nations are committed to achieve 17 goals and 169 targets in 15 years. SDGs are not only goals for national development and corporal business opportunities, but are also the common language for communicating sustainability. Therefore, SDGs are chosen as the theme of the launch of Taiwan CSR Overview and Trend Analysis this year. Along with the practice benchmarks of selected corporations, we hope to review Taiwan CSR performance in terms of global view and vision.

This year, our research covers 458 CSR reports published in Taiwan, including qualitative and quantitative analyses such as GHG emission, renewable energy usage, compliance and 149 GRI G4 indicators. We hope to provide a comprehensive and realistic reference for Taiwan CSR overall performance and practices. We have also interviewed and reported 10 outstanding corporations and their superior practices. Herein we would like to show our sincere appreciation for their generous sharing that we believe are definitely valuable reference models.

Meanwhile, I would also like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude to Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy, National Chengchi University Sinyi School, PwC Taiwan and academic experts for their guidance and cooperation. Great thanks to CSRone colleagues and partners. Without their continuous efforts and patience, this report could not have been made possible. Any further comments from partners and readers are most welcome for the improvement of future analysis reports.

3

Promoting CSR via CSR reports It is the second year that Sinyi School cooperated with CSRone to build up the database of Taiwanese CSR Reports. In these two years, the global and local business environment had changed toward sustainability dramatically.

United Nations forwarded the Post 2015 Development Agenda with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015. In response to the COP22 in November 2016, more countries participated in the discussion of carbon reduction. Although the environment policy of Mr. Trump, recently elected American president, seems not friendly to the green development, forward-looking companies don’t slow down to integrate SDGs into their business strategies. Regarding the local environment, Taiwanese companies are facing the challenges of adapting new regulations, such as “Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Management Act” in 2015 and “one fixed day off and one flexible rest day” policy in 2017. Actually, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), Taiwan, mandated four domains of companies to submit corporate social responsibility reports since 2015 and decided to expand this regulation to listed companies with capitals NT$5 billion and the above in 2017. To corporations, it enhanced the awareness of CSR and became a positive drive to integrate SDGs into development strategies in the future.

In 2016, the collected CSR reports revealed richer and diversified indicators than what was presented in 2015. Companies with more than once experience in writing CSR reports were more likely to adopt comprehensive indicators of GRI 4 than beginners in CSR reports. In addition, 8.7% companies have integrated SDGs into their business sustainable strategies.

Furthermore, some companies voluntarily employed the Integrated Reporting framework to prepare their CSR reports in line with the trend of global sustainability. All these facts illustrated that Taiwanese companies no longer used the CSR report for publicity only, but considered it a review and goalsetting process for corporate development in sustainability.

Sinyi School was founded in College of Commerce, National Chengchi University in 2013. The purposes of this establishment are to promote the concept of business ethics and corporate social responsibility to the publics, to develop education in sustainable development for higher education and business, and to demonstrate the responsible role in business education.

Sinyi School has hosted seminars and workshops for students, professors, and business managers. Since 2015, Sinyi School started to co-work with CSRone to code and analyze published CSR reports. The profiles of these companies with CSR reports and their CSR performances can enhance the sustainability consciousness of the society. The statistical results are also a foundation for the future improvement and international comparison. Hopefully, we all can learn from these reports and contribute more to our better future.

Lien-TI Bei, Chief Executive Officer of Sinyi School, College of Commerce, National Chengchi University

PwC Taiwan chairman Dexter Chang

Catching the Current Trend of CSR In 2014, Taiwan listed companies of certain industries were requested to launch CSR report by Financial Supervisory Commission R.O.C. Since then, there are significant and rapid growth in both the quantity and quality of CSR report. In addition to government's aggressive promotion, CSRone has published annual “Taiwan’s CSR Report Survey” to sum up insights of Taiwan’s CSR Report progression which stimulate corporations to develop sustainability.

It's a great honor for PwC Taiwan to cooperate with CSRone in conducting a close investigation on CSR reports presented by Taiwan's corporations.

Twelve key insights have been concluded in this year’s annual report. For those companies aiming to improving CSR report quality and sustainability development, they might find those insights informative. To highlight, a growing number of large-scale enterprises are publishing CSR report. In 2014, only 56 out of Top 100 Companies submitted CSR reports while the number has increased to 83 in 2016. Furthermore, as more and more companies compile CSR report voluntarily, it’s self-evident that presenting CSR report is a prevailing trend. Also, since the corporates recently place considerable emphasis on the quality of CSR report, the numbers of CSR reports that are assured is increasing. Currently, 46% of CSR report from listed company are assured by the third party.

To advocate sustainability development, UN steered SDGs on January 1st, 2016. It’s anticipated that governments from all nations to formulate sustainability policies with visions of global sustainability development.

According to PwC Global SDGs survey, 92% of the interviewed companies are aware of the significance of SDGs while 71% of them are planning the corresponding measures. As in Taiwan, cognizance toward SDGs is at the early stage. Only 40 CSR reports mentions SDGs. Obviously, Taiwan is falling behind in terms of catching international trends.

Given the situation, Taiwan’s corporations should perceive the contingent impacts of SDGs. More importantly, it’s imperative for companies to craft its CSR strategies in keeping with this trend.

Shih-Ching Liu, Research Director of Sinyi School, College of Commerce, National Chengchi University

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5

Methodology

Challenges and Innovation Actions to Initiate Sustainable Benchmarks

"Taiwan CSR Overview and Trends in 2017" is jointly published by CSRone Reporting, Sinyi School of National Chengchi University and PwC Taiwan (hereinafter referred to as the research team. It regularly collects corporate sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, or environment and safety reports (hereinafter referred to as CSR reports) published in Taiwan each year. More than 1,500 CSR reports have been accumulated within the CSRone website to provide stakeholders in various fields a complete and plentiful CSR reporting platform.

Research Time

Research Reports

Analytics Item

Number of Data

7months

458

505

300,000

Distribution of CSR report by industry 49 49

Financial and Insurance

The research team compiled a survey form by combining academic points of view, consulting experience, and long-term observation of CSR development trends in Taiwan; followed by conducting studies on 458 CSR reports. The correlation among data collected has been studied through cross analysis in order to further examine the overall status and development trends of CSR reporting in Taiwan. In addition, we hope to provide readers more diverse and comprehensive views on sustainability.

43 41

Chemical industry

34

Other

23 34

Computer and Peripheral Equipment

27 32

Semiconductor industry

27 31

Electronic Parts / Components

23 29 28

Food industry

22 20 19

Optoelectronic industry

Focus of analysis

Scope of analysis

Electric Machinery

13 17 14 16 13 14 11 13 11 13

Communications and Internet

As the topic of sustainability draws attention in the international community, companies play a key role in reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations. To help Taiwan's companies keep up with the global trend of sustainability and respond to global sustainable development for the next 15 years, our focus for this year is "Challenges and Innovation: Actions to Initiate Sustainable Benchmarks".

Besides studying the development trends of the SDGs and their influences on companies, the research team also went out and interviewed ten companies to find out how they think and what they do from different aspects.

-Analysis samples: All CSR reports published as of February, 2017; the total number of research sample includes 458 CSR reports.

-Reporting year: CSR reports published in 2016 covered contents disclosed from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015.

-Areas of disclosure: Taiwan-funded enterprises, foreign invested companies, and other organizations based in Taiwan.

-Information source: CSR reports published by various companies were obtained from their official company websites or the Market Observation Post System (MOPS).The financial data of all publicly traded companies were obtained from MOPS and TEJ (Taiwan Economic Journal).

-Scope of infor mation: The survey list included publicly traded companies in Taiwan, enterprises and organizations awarded with the Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Award, Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility, and Corporate Social Responsibility award presented by Global Views Monthly.

Biotechnology and Medical Care Other Electronic Tourism industry Iron and Steel

8 12

Building Material and Construction

9 11 11 10 10 9

Plastic industry Shipping and Transportation Trading and Consumers' Goods Industry

7 7 6 6 6 6 5

Textile industry Automobile Information Service Nonprofit Organization

4

1

4 3 4

Paper, Pulp

Number of CSR report publications

Unit:number of report

Total number of CSR reports analyzed by the research team Unit : number of report

186

458 384

Oil, Gas and Electricity

2 4 3 3 3 3

Cement industry Electronic Products Distribution Electrical and Cable

1 3 3 3 3

Rubber industry

65

65

72

151

35

39

92

17 16 1

2

3

4

5

Government unit

6

7

14 8

6

3

9

10 11

4

Glass,Ceramics

1 14

Hospital institution

2013

2014

2015

2016

1 1 1 0

2016 2015 Unit:number of company

For more information, please go to CSRone Reporting and search "interactive infographic."

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Key Finding

01

SDGs are the key to global existence, but only 40 (8.7%) companies addressed them in their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports

The United Nations published 17 SDGs in September 2015; these goals may seem challenging, but at the same time, they are also potential business opportunities. For this reason, studying the SDGs is one of the focuses of the research team this year.

We hope to find out if the company is able to identify a sustainable development goal that matches company’s own core values and offer a suitable solution, product or service. The research team examines the CSR report to make sure that the SDGs are mentioned, and confirms which goals to respond to. This helps us understand how much companies in Taiwan are reacting to the global trend of sustainability.

According to survey results, 40 out of 458 companies have disclosed information on SDGs in their CSR reports, which only accounts for 8.7% of 2016's CSR reports.

Among those 40 companies, the majority is in the financial industry and computer and peripheral equipment industries, at 7 reports each. After further analysis on the backgrounds of these 40 companies, 70% of them had won the Taiwan Corporate Social Award in 2016, and all their CSR report frameworks adopted the GRI G4 guidelines and had up to 85% of external assurance (with only a 48% overall average).

This means that these 40 companies are highly proactive in sustainable development.

Climate action is the sustainable development goal that gets most attention from Taiwan's companies

Among the 17 SDGs, the goals that get the most attention from Taiwan's companies are Goal 13: Climate Action, Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, and Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production; the goals that get the least attention are Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities, Goal 2: Zero Hunger, and Goal 15: Life on Land.

However, according to the research done by PwC in 2015 on how global companies carry out SDGs, the goals that are most likely to cause an impact on business operations are Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 13: Climate Action and Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, while goals with the most potential opportunities are Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure and Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.

This shows that global companies and Taiwan's companies share a number of same views on SDGs. Taiwan's companies conform to eight goals on average, which means that most companies choose a few out of the 17 SDGs to align to. Companies such as First Financial Holding, Taiwan Sugar Corporation and Inventec that have disclosed all 17 goals did so by providing corresponding chapters and pages on the “Sustainable Development Goals Content Index”. This help stakeholder to clearly understand the relation between company and SDGs.

8

Rank

SDGs survey on global company

SDGs survey on Taiwan company

Impact

Opportunity

Goal 8 Decent work and economic growth

Goal 8 Decent work and economic growth

Goal 13 Climate action

Goal 13 Climate action

Goal 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Goal 8 Decent work and economic growth

3

Goal 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Goal 12 Responsible consumption and production

Goal 12 Responsible consumption and production

4

Goal 4 Quality education

Goal 13 Climate action

Goal 4 Quality education

5

Goal 3 Good health and well-being

Goal 3 Good health and well-being

Goal 5 Gender equality

6

Goal 12 Responsible consumption and production

Goal 4 Quality education

Goal 3 Good health and well-being

Goal 5 Gender equality

Goal 11 Sustainable cities and communities

Goal 11 Sustainable cities and communities

8

Goal 7 Affordable and clean energy

Goal 7 Affordable and clean energy

Goal 16 Peace, Justice and strong institutions

9

Goal 6 Clean water and sanitation

Goal 5 Gender equality

Goal 7 Affordable and clean energy

Goal 15 Life on land

Goal 6 Clean water and sanitation

Goal 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure

11

Goal 17 Partnerships For the goals

Goal 17 Partnerships For the goals

Goal 6 Clean water and sanitation

12

Goal 11 Sustainable cities and communities

Goal 15 Life on land

Goal 17 Partnerships For the goals

13

Goal 2 Zero hunger

Goal 2 Zero hunger

Goal 1 No poverty

14

Goal 16 Peace, Justice and strong institutions

Goal 16 Peace, Justice and strong institutions

Goal 14 Life below water

15

Goal 1 No poverty

Goal 1 No poverty

Goal 15 Life on land

16

Goal 10 Reduced inequalities

Goal 10 Reduced inequalities

Goal 2 Zero hunger

17

Goal 14 Life below water

Goal 14 Life below water

Goal 10 Reduced inequalities

1

2

7

10

9

SDG Compass quickly links companies to SDGs

In order to help companies of all sizes to adjust their business strategies to meet the SDGs, to evaluate how much they contribute to the SDGs, and then propose appropriate management measures. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and the United Nations Global Compact jointly developed the “SDG Compass�. The SDG Compass guide presents five steps for companies to maximize their contribution to the SDGs and review the relevance between their core business and the SDGs. 1.Understanding the SDGs: Companies should first understand the 17 goals and the 169 targets, and be able to identify the relevance between these goals and themselves.

2.Defining priorities: Not all 17 SDGs are relevant to the operation of a company, so for each goal, companies can create different values and make different contributions. We suggest engaging in the value chain analysis first to find out the positive and negative impacts your company might have on the SDGs, and then define the priorities.

3.Setting goals: Set specific, measurable, and time-based goals. They will improve the effectiveness of the priorities that are executed in your company.

4.Integrating: By integrating the SDGs into your core business, including your products or services, consumer relations, supply chain management, raw material procurement, transportation and waste disposal, or even by encouraging your partners to participate in the integration. This way, your goals can be achieved more effectively.

5.Reporting and communicating: To meet the needs of the stakeholders, companies can regularly disclose the progress and results of their sustainable development goals through their CSR reports or websites.

Through these five steps, companies can clarify which goals are closer to their core business strategies. SDG Compass also put together a table which links SDGs to the GRI Standards. As long as your CSR report uses the GRI G4 guidelines, it is compatible with this table, and you can directly identify highly relevant SDGs.

10

11

Key Finding

02

About 83% of Taiwan's top 100 companies already compiled CSR reports.

Among the 458 CSR reports available, the research team compared the top 100 listed and OTC companies by revenue in 2015 and found that 83% of them already compiled CSR reports, which is a 6% increase from last year's 77%. Besides legal support from the government, the topic of corporate social responsibility has also been getting attention in Taiwan. Listed and OTC companies are becoming aware that stakeholders care about more than just financial performance, and have started disclosure and communication with them through CSR reports.

Government regulation is an important force in driving the market and promoting CSR

Key Finding

03

The research team studied the database of Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) and found that there were 1,645 listed and OTC companies in 2015. After further research work, the research team also found that only 25% of the listed and OTC companies have compiled their CSR reports. However, all companies that have compiled their CSR reports account for 79% of total revenue, which converts to about NT$25.6 trillion.

This shows that despite the low percentage of companies compiling CSR reports, the impact on the overall revenue of Taiwan's stock market is still large.

CSR report percentage of top 100 listed and OTC companies

77%

83%

56%

2014

2015

The relationship between corporate sustainability and financial performance has always been an issue of concern for stakeholders everywhere. The research team has analyzed the earnings per share (EPS) of all listed and OTC companies from 2013 to 2015. One can see in the line chart that companies which have compiled CSR reports have higher EPS than all other listed and OTC companies for 3 consecutive years. As the number of CSR reports compiled gradually increases, the gap between companies that compile them and companies that do not gradually expands as well.

2016

Comparison chart of total number and revenue of publicly traded companies

According to law, listed and OTC companies with over $10 billion capital should compile CSR reports starting in 2015. Comparing the CSR report that the research team has collected over the past three years, there were 151 CSR reports in 2014, and their number increased by 154% to 384 in 2015. Because 2016 was still in the transition period before the mandatory compilation stage, CSR report growth rate has decreased to 19%. Although the total number of CSR reports has slightly increased, it still shows that government regulation is important and is the main market driving force in the promotion of CSR.

1,645

1,236

The Taiwan Stock Exchange and Taipei Exchange have both announced the revised "Corporation Rules Governing the Preparation and Filing of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports by TWSE Listed Companies" (hereinafter referred to as “the Rules�), and asked all listed companies with over $5 billion but under $10 billion of capital stock to start preparing and declaring the CSR reports for 2016 in 2017. The research team selected a total of 109 listed and OTC companies with capital between $5 billion and $10 billion, and found that 51% (56 companies) publish CSR reports voluntarily.

Among the top 100 companies in Taiwan, 17 have not yet prepared their CSR reports, and the capital of 6 of them is over $5 billion. As required by law, these companies will have to compile a CSR report in 2017. Based on this data, it is possible that the percentage of top 100 companies that compile CSR reports will reach up to 90% next year.

Socially responsible companies tend to show decent financial performance despite a bad economy.

3

Not yet compiled CSR Report 75%

NT$ 6.6 Trillion

2 1.5

2.3 2.15

2.03

1.94

2.12

1.82

2013

2014

2015

1.98

1

NT$ 25.6 Trillion

0.5

Has compiled CSR Report 25%

79%

Total number of publicly traded companies

Total revenue of publicly traded companies

0

Publicly traded companies Has compiled CSR Report Not yet compiled CSR Report

According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics, Executive Yuan, Taiwan only had a GDP growth of 0.85% in 2015, the worst year in the past 6 years. The revenue and net profit growth rates of all listed and OTC companies in 2015 were -1.55% and -1.99% respectively, both showing negative growth, while in 2014, the revenue and net profit growth rates were 5.76% and 18.97%., showing a significant drop between 2014 and 2015. We took this data and differentiated companies by whether they compile CSR reports or not, and found that companies that do compile CSR reports all perform better than companies that do not in terms of revenue and net profit growth rate. Companies that compiled CRS reports still maintained a positive 0.41% net profit growth in the economically depressed year of 2015. This shows that a socially responsible company can still perform well financially in a bad economy, due to its long-term, comprehensive strategies and risk assessment.

2014

12

2.68

2.61 2.5

21%

Has compiled CSR Repor 409

Three-year average EPS

$32 Trillion Not yet compiled CSR Report

In addition, government and non-profit organizations are starting to compile CSR reports as well. For example, Bureau of Labor Funds under Ministry of Labor, Tzu Chi Foundation, and Chang Jung Christian University all published their CSR reports for the first time. This definitely indicates that Taiwan's companies and organizations are starting to realize the importance of CSR reports in sustainable business operations.

Companies with capital stock of over $5 billion will be the next stage of targets for mandatory enforcement

Listed and OTC companies that have compiled CSR reports have better EPS than stock index for 3 consecutive years

2015

Revenue growth rate

Net profit growth rate

Revenue growth rate

Net profit growth rate

Publicly traded companies (1645)

5.76%

18.97%

-1.55%

-1.99%

Has compiled CSR Report (409)

6.45%

24.16%

-0.79%

0.41%

Not yet compiled CSR Report (1236)

3.24%

0.16%

-4.39%

-12.75%

13

Key Finding

Among all the listed and OTC companies, the number of voluntary reports doubles the number of mandatory reports.

04

Among the listed and OTC companies that have compiled CSR reports (409), 208 of them were required by law, and 201 of them were voluntary, each making up about 50%. Reports were made mandatory in September 2014, so by the end of 2016, 122 companies had been required to compile CSR reports for two years. In 2015, 6 companies met the requirements for a mandatory CSR report, and so wrote their first reports in 2016. In total, 128 companies were required to compile CSR reports in 2016.

It is worth noting that among the mandatory companies that have been compiling CSR reports for over three years are classified as voluntary before the regulation. Thus, among the listed and OTC companies of 2016, 281 reports were voluntary, which is 2.2 times of the 128 mandatory reports. This means that almost 70% of the listed and OTC companies that have compiled CSR reports have done so voluntarily.

The average EPS of companies that compile CSR reports voluntarily is $2.93.

2015 Financial Performance All listed and OTC companies

The number of the listed and OTC companies that mandatory or voluntary compiled CSR report

Mandatory

Second year

208

122

The number of the listed and OTC companies that have compiled CSR reports

Mandatory

6

128

Mandatory: Listed and OTC companies preparing CSR reports in their first or second year, within the mandatory scope

281

Voluntary: Listed and OTC companies that have been preparing CSR reports for more than 3 years, within the mandatory scope; and listed and OTC companies that prepare CSR reports voluntarily but are not within the mandatory scope.

Above third years 80

Voluntary

49

201

Above second years 152

Voluntary

First year

409

There is still room for improvement on CSR governance for Taiwanese companies.

Number

Average Average Average Revenue Net Profit EPS

1645

19.6 billion 1.1billion

2.03

1236

5.4 billion 0.2 billion

1.82

Listed and OTC companies that have compiled CSR reports

409

62.7 billion 3.8 billion

2.68

â—? Listed and OTC companies that are voluntary

281

75.3 billion 4.4 billion

2.93

â—? Listed and OTC companies that are mandatory

128

35 billion 2.6 billion

2.14

Listed and OTC companies that have not compiled CSR reports

In addition, 49 reports were compiled voluntarily for the first time, and most (53%) of them are from companies in the technology sector.

First year

On financial performance, companies that have compiled their CSR reports have significantly higher average revenue, net profit, and EPS than companies that have not. They perform the best financially, with a high average EPS of up to $2.93. Contrary to popular belief, compiling CSR reports will not bring extra costs to a company and impact its financial performance. As a matter of fact, a socially responsible company is able to help society and the environment while making profit at the same time.

In order to analyze the performance on CSR governance from the voluntary and mandatory reports. The research team drafted the investigation items referred to the GRI G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines Implementation Manual which outlines principles for defining reporting content. Amongst the principles, the "Sustainability Context" and "Materiality" require that CSR reports should contain goal disclosure. Thus, the research team classified the goals into administration, economics, environment and society, and then added a new item, "Report last year's goal achievement," to find out whether or not after goal disclosure companies have reported in detail their goal achievement progress from the previous year.

Unfortunately, the results show that the number of goal disclosures has been decreasing for both voluntary and mandatory reports. The goals with the highest percentage are still environmental goals, at 28% and 13% each; the lowest ones are social goals, at only 10% and 2% each. Through these results, no matter if the CSR reports were compiled voluntarily or mandatorily, all of them should improve the CSR governance performance and information disclosure.

Percentage of CSR governance disclosure from voluntary and mandatory reports

Items

14

Listed and OTC Listed and OTC Listed and OTC companies that companies that are companies have compiled CSR voluntary (281) that are reports (409) mandatory (128)

CSR Committee

54%

54%

48%

CSR Policy

50%

53%

39%

Governance Targets

13%

14%

6%

Economic Targets

11%

12%

6%

Environmental Targets

26%

28%

13%

Social Targets

9%

10%

2%

Review the achievement of the target for the previous year

18%

22%

9% 15

Key Finding

Top sustainability issues of 2015: Training and education became the number one issue, replacing economic performance

05

Key Finding

06

Climate change will have huge impact on the global environment. It is the responsibility of all companies to find ways to reduce the impact of extreme weather. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, it was the third consecutive record-breaking year.

Ever since the Industrial Age, global temperature has increased by 1.2°C on average, which is close to the 1.5°C limit of the Paris Climate Agreement. According to The Global Risks Report 2017 published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2017, extreme weather is the global risk most likely to take place, with an impact second only to weapons of mass destruction.

After reviewing the disclosed material topics in 458 CSR reports, the research team found that the topics companies and stakeholders care about the most are "Training and Education", "Occupational Health and Safety", and "Economic Performance". The top three topics are the same as last year's, but "Economic Performance" went from number one to number three, while "Training and Education" rose from number three to number one. This shows that companies that compile CSR reports have switched from being benefit-oriented to focusing on their most valuable assets: the employees.

According to research done by Corporate Register, employees are the most important stakeholders who read CSR reports, which means that employees care about the information disclosed in CSR reports. The research team analyzed the disclosure level of three indicators from the GRI aspect "Training and Education," and found that all three indicators - the average hours of training per year per employee (LA9), programs for skills management (LA10), and percentage of employees receiving regular performance and career development reviews (LA11) - have over 60% disclosure in the CSR reports.

Two strategies proposed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to respond to global warming are mitigation and adaptation. The research team found that 37% of the companies have disclosed their policies on climate change in their CSR reports, describing how they implement mitigation and adaptation, while 30% reported about the risk issues and potential business opportunities brought about by climate change. Companies are advised to add disclosure of their climate change management to their CSR reports so that stakeholders can rest assured that the companies are fully prepared for the biggest global threat.

More than just employees, potential job applicants are starting to read CSR reports as well. They read these reports to learn about the salaries, employee benefits, training programs, and career advancement performance of companies, so that they can familiarize themselves with the culture and work environment before sending job applications. Therefore, disclosing employee benefits in their CSR reports is key to both retaining their best employees and recruiting new talent.

While the research team was interviewing companies, we learned that some companies use CSR reports as a training material for new employees to help them fit in faster.

However, only 16% of all the CSR reports disclosed that the companies put CSR in their training programs. As CSR receives more and more attention from people all over the world, raising awareness of it among employees and applying it in their daily work can really help companies reach their sustainable development goals. It is important in the cultivation of talents.

The research team also collected data on the energy-intensive industries' disclosures of their climate change policies and relevant management. Most of these companies have their own environmental management systems, and greenhouse gas verifications, despite slightly obscure disclosure on energy management. Greenhouse gas inventory is the basis of a company's climate change policy. Only by inventorying the greenhouse gases emitted by each stage of the life cycle and finding out the main emission sources can we come up with mitigation measures that actually make improvements.

The research team found that 21% of the companies have disclosed their results on carbon footprint, and 5% of them have disclosed information on carbon neutrality.

Percentage of energy-intensive industries' disclosures on climate change policies and management

Top material topics in CSR reports Rank

All industries

Manufacturing industry

Service industry

Technology industry

Financial industry

1

Training and Education

Occupational Health and Safety

Training and Education

Occupational Health and Safety

Training and Education

2

Occupational Health and Safety

16

Economic Performance Economic Performance

Training and Education

Customer Privacy

4

Energy

Energy

Energy

Labor/Management Relations

Governance

5

Labor/Management Relations

Labor/Management Relations

Customer Privacy

Energy

Risk Management

6

Customer Privacy

Effluents and Waste

Labor/Management Relations

Customer Privacy

Product Responsibility

Effluents and Waste

Social Welfare

Water

Compliance

7

Effluents and Waste

Water

Supply Chain Management

8

Governance

Product Responsibility

Compliance (Environmental)

9

Social Welfare

Emissions

Effluents and Waste

Emissions

Occupational Health and Safety

10

Product Responsibility

Customer Privacy

Governance

Governance

Remuneration and Welfare

energy-intensive industries

3

Training and Education Economic Performance Economic Performance Economic Performance Occupational Health and Safety

Climate change is the biggest global threat Only 37% of the companies in Taiwan have reported about their mitigation and adaptation measurements.

Industry

Climate Change Policy

Identified Climate Risk and Opportunity

Greenhouse Gases Verification

Environmental Energy Management System Management System

Total CSR report(458)

37%

30%

44%

58%

20%

Chemical Industry(43)

30%

26%

44%

60%

9%

Computer and Peripheral Equipment(34)

50%

44%

62%

91%

15%

Semiconductor industry(32)

47%

34%

63%

88%

31%

Electronic Parts / Components(31)

48%

26%

68%

90%

26%

Optoelectronic industry(22)

45%

36%

77%

91%

18%

Iron and Steel(13)

46%

31%

77%

69%

62%

Textile industry(7)

57%

57%

71%

71%

57%

Cement industry(4)

50%

50%

75%

50%

25%

Oil, Gas and Electricity(4)

75%

50%

25%

25%

25%

Paper, Pulp(4)

50%

50%

75%

100%

100%

* The table of the form with light color means the percentage is below to 50%

17

Key Finding

The government has made carbon reduction mandatory for energy-intensive industries.

07

Despite the low percentage of energy management system disclosures, from the industrial observation, significant changes occur in environment-related topics for material topics in manufacturing and technology industries (please refer to Key Discovery 5: Material Topics of CSR reports ranking chart). For example, "Energy " is number four on the 2016 manufacturing material topics, but was only number nine in the previous year.

In their Global Risks Report 2017, the World Economic Forum reported the trends of global risks of doing business in 135 countries. The report found that unemployment or underemployment, energy price shock, and fiscal crises are the most serious global risks for all businesses. In Taiwan, the biggest business risks are Interstate conflict, energy price shock and unemployment or underemployment, showing that the development of Cross-Strait relations is what WEF believes to be the biggest business risk in Taiwan.

The research team speculates that one of the reasons is that the Ministry of Economic Affairs has required energy-intensive industries to conform to energy conservation regulations. Some of these energy-intensive industries are the cement, steel, and paper industries. Among the 2016 CSR reports, certain energy-intensive industries have disclosed their energy management systems, with the paper industry being the highest at 100%, the steel industry at 62% and the cement industry at only 25%. We advise cement companies to disclose information on their energy management in their future CSR reports so that stakeholders will know how they respond to the government's requirement on carbon reduction.

Unlike the global risks that the WEF has identified, the risk that Taiwan’s companies disclose the most in their CSR reports is financial risk, followed by regulatory and market risks. Among all the biggest global risks, the only risk that Taiwan's companies can relate to is climate change. During risk identification, we advise companies to not only quote their financial, currency, and liquidity risks from their annual reports, but also review potential risks from international perspectives.

Through further review on the disclosures of GRI's "Energy" aspect, energy consumption (EN3) and reduction of energy consumption (EN6) are the highest indicators the manufacturing industries have disclosed, both over 80%. This means that most manufacturers see the importance of energy and resource management, and choose to disclose their actions and performance results.

The topic of water resources is gaining attention from the technology industries.

The WEF believes that international conflict is Taiwan's biggest risk while companies in Taiwan focus on financial risks.

Water resource management is among the top ten material topics of the technology industries. Taiwan has had a water shortage for several years, and this has a huge impact for technology companies which consume much water during their manufacturing process. The top three technology industries which have disclosed their water resource management in their CSR reports are optoelectronics at 86%, semiconductors at 78%, and electronic components at 77%. In addition, 15% of technology industry have disclosed information on water footprint, with semiconductors and optoelectronics being the majority.

In GRI's "Water" aspect, 77% of the technology industries have already disclosed on total water withdrawal by source (EN8), 51% of them have had their water sources significantly affected by withdrawal of water (EN9), and 64% have disclosed their percentage and total volume of water recycled and reused (EN10). All percentages are higher than average. The research team studied the total volume of recycled water required by EN10 and found that only 48 CSR reports from technology industries (38%) follow the guidelines and units required by GRI, whose total volume of recycled water is about 570 million tons, about 36% of the annual industrial water consumption in Taiwan.

As the extreme weather events take place more and more often, we advise waterintensive industries that have not adopted or disclosed a water resource management plan to start working on it before water shortages impact their businesses. It is prudent to be prepared for any potential environmental risk.

The Legislative Yuan passed the Enforcement Rules for Water Act in May 2016, and will start charging water resource fee and offer deduction rewards, in hopes of an effective water resource management. The water resource fee is estimated to be charged once every six months, in three class intervals for different monthly consumptions at different rates. Once requirements are met, for example, passing the water footprint inventory or acquiring the green factory or green building label, companies can get a deduction of up to 60% in the water resource fee.

Monthly water consumption Water bill levy rate

Class interval 1

Class interval 2

Class interval 3

1,000~3,000 tons

3,000~6,000 tons

Above 6,000 tons

10%

20%

30%

The research team studied all of the CSR reports and found that 74% of them have disclosed their risk management systems, but only 36% have elaborated on the opportunities and potential benefits they discovered from these risks. Risk and opportunity usually go hand in hand. Knowing how to prevent risk impacts and find new business opportunities is one of the keys to sustainable development.

Only 10% of the financial industry have listed information security as one of their risk topics.

It is also worth noting that while the topic in trend is big data, information security is now gainting attention as well. After many recent cases of customer information leakage, data breaches, and ransomware, not to mention the first cases in Taiwan concerning a hacker attack on a bank and hacker blackmail on a brokerage firm, the issue of information security is now even more critical than ever in the financial industry.

Among the 2016 CSR reports from the financial industry, almost 70% of them have disclosed their information security management systems, but only 10% listed information security in relation to risk management. This shows that information security is already part of operations management in the financial industry, but the potential impacts from information security leaks are probably still underrated in risk assessment.

On February, 2017, the Financial Supervisory Commission gathered many of Taiwan's bank top executives for a meeting, in hopes that banks would be able to set up dedicated information security teams according to their scale of operations, business complexities, and operational risks in the next 6 months, and then gradually promote them into independent teams to maintain the independence of information security.

World Economic Forum Global risks for doing business

Taiwan risks for doing business

CSR Report in Taiwan Risks focused

by Taiwan company

1

Unemployment or underemployment

Interstate conflict

Financial risk

2

Fiscal crises

Unemployment or underemployment

Market risk

3

Energy price shock

Energy price shock

Energy price shock

4

Failure of national governance

Fiscal crises

Operational risk

5

Profound social instability

Asset bubble

Information security

2017

6

Failure of financial mechanism Failure of national governance or institution

Credit risk

7

Terrorist attacks

Natural catastrophes

Climate change

8

Failure of critical infrastructure

Profound social instability

Currency Risk

9

Asset bubble

Deflation

Environment, health and safety risk

10

Interstate conflict

Extreme weather events

interest rate risk

Source: http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2017/global-risks-of-highest-concern-for-doing-business-2017/#

Source:Corporate water resource management and risk response, reported after the 2016 PwC Professional CSR Seminar

18

19

Key Finding

Nearly 30% of the CSR reports disclose their spending on social welfare at an average of 0.82% of income before tax.

08

In GRI G4's "Economic Performance" aspect, the G4-EC1 indicator suggests that companies provide disclosure of community investments. Therefore, the research team collected the community investment information disclosed in CSR and found that 27% of companies have disclosed data. The research team then calculated that the total amount spent on social welfare from listed and OTC companies that have disclosed their social welfare spending was NT$4.5 billion. On average, each company that reported spends NT$42.77 million each year. Out of them all, financial, telecommunications, and semiconductor industries have the highest disclosed amounts.

According to statistics, listed and OTC companies that have disclosed their social welfare spending had an average income before tax of NT$5.2 billion in 2015, higher than the NT$1.4 billion average of all listed and OTC companies. The research team also calculated that these companies’ social welfare spending is 0.82% of their income before tax.

According to the statistics from the research team, the most popular social topics among Taiwan's companies in 2016 are education and science, child and adolescent welfare, and local community welfare. Each of these three topics has over 50% disclosure in the CSR reports. Besides the common social topics mentioned above, different industries focus on different topics as well. For example, there is a significant increase in the manufacturing industry's focus on environmental protection, technology and service industries are focusing on disabled welfare, and financial industry are focusing on sports competitions.

An average of $40 million in community investment each year

In recent years, experts and scholars have been promoting the appropriate integration of company core values and products or services into the charitable works that companies devote themselves to. The research team found that about 40% of the CSR reports disclose information on how the companies integrate their core businesses and their charities. Providing volunteering leave for employees is another way of translating a company's core values into charities. According to statistics, about 6% of companies provide volunteering leave, mostly companies in the financial industry. The average amount of volunteering leave is 1.7 days per year, while China Trust provides the most paid volunteering leave at 10 days per year.

Key Finding

09

The new integrated reporting (IR) has come into prominence.

Uncover the sustainable values between financial and non-financial information

Among the 2016 CSR reports, over 90% use the GRI G4 framework, making it the most popular framework for the disclosure of the performance of the non-financial aspects of Taiwan's companies. On the "in accordance" options, 67% chose Core, and 4% chose Comprehensive. 11 companies still use the GRI G3 or G3.1 versions. They are all listed and OTC companies, and mostly technology companies. None of their CSR reports have been assured.

It is worth noting that since 2016, Taiwan's companies have started referring to the integrated reporting framework to disclose their financial and non-financial performances in 2015. The research team has reviewed every single CSR report to make sure that the integrated reporting framework is being referred to or at least mentioned. The results show that there are 12 CSR reports that use GRI G4 and refer to the integrated reporting framework. Compared to when Far EasTone prepared their first report in the previous year, more companies have tried to integrate and link their financial and non-financial performances in 2016.

The International IR Framework was published in 2013 by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). It includes seven guiding principles, eight content elements and six capitals, and provides important accordance standards for report integration and information disclosure. It also asks companies to include their business strategies and outlook in their reports, so that stakeholders can see the potential opportunities and risks that might impact the business value, and their strategies to create value in the short, medium, and longer term.

The research team also found that among the 12 CSR reports that refer to the integrated reporting framework, only three of them have passed two assurance standards: the AA 1000 and the ISAE 3000. These reports are from E.SUN Financial Holding, Taishin Financial Holding, and Pacific Sogo. Having CSR information reviewed by a third party assurance organization or an accounting firm can significantly increase the reliability of its non-financial performances.

CSR report framework Other frameworks 0.22%

GRI G3 0.44%

None 5.71%

The number of the listed and OTC companies that mandatory or voluntary compiled CSR report

67%

71%

GRI G4 + IR 2.64%

GRI 0.44%

In accordance of GRI options

GRI G3.1 1.32%

B 0.22%

Comprehensive 3.93%

55%

34% 34% 36%

40% 42%

None 28.17%

45% 46% GRI G4 89.23%

21% 22%

27%

Core 67.69%

15% 8% 3% ily

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21

Key Finding

10

Almost half of the companies pay attention to the quality of their CSR reports.

The assurance market grows 23% annually.

The assurance number and percentage in recent three years.

Number

Percentage

250 Among all of the 2016 CSR reports, 48% acquired third party assurance, meaning almost half of them pay attention to the quality of their CSR reports. Moreover, the number of reports that have passed two assurance standards (AA 1000 and the ISAE 3000) is also increasing, from two reports last year to seven reports this year. The top three companies in the assurance market, ranked by numbers, are BSI, SGS, and PwC. Looking at CSR reports from 2014 to 2016, even though the assurance percentage stays around 50%, the overall number is still increasing. In 2014, there were 79 reports assured, while in 2015, the number grows 2.28 times and goes up to 180 reports. This is mostly due to the government's requirements of CSR reports from specific industries.

2016 was a transition period to the mandatory reporting for companies with $5 billion capital or higher in the government's next phase, so reporting was not absolutely mandatory yet. However, the number of assured CSR reports still went up to 221, a 23% growth rate. This shows that despite in the transition period, there was still growth in the assurance market. This also means that more and more companies are aware of the importance of their CSR report credibility.

70% of companies keep the same assurance provider each year.

The percentage of assurance standards.

GRI G4 Check 0.9%

100%

221 200

150

100

AA1000 & ISAE 3000 3.17%

48%

47%

60%

40%

78

ISAE 3000 31.67% AA1000 61.54%

50

0

20%

0% 2014

2015

2016

After comparing the 2015 and 2016 CSR reports, we saw that almost 70% of the companies maintained the same assurance organizations. Only 5% of the companies worked with different assurance organizations, meaning most companies maintain good partnerships with their assurance organizations, and made no frequent changes in their assurance organizations.

For the other 25%, there were 18 CSR reports that were assured in 2015 but not in 2016, and 33 reports that were not assured in 2015, but were assured in 2016 for the first time. This improvement is praiseworthy. We advise companies to hire third party assurance organizations every year to ensure the quality of their CSR reports. Regular review and inventory of CSR content from other organizations will also help companies increase their CSR performance.

AA1000ďź?DNV GL Protocol 0.9% DNV GL Protocol 0.9%

80%

180 52%

unknown assurance standards 0.9%

Assurance percentage SGS & PwC 0.9% AFNOR 1.4%

Deloitte & BSI 0.9% SGS & Other accounting firms 0.5% Other assurance organizations 0.5% LRQA 0.5% BSI & PwC 0.5% SGS & Deloitte 0.5%

TUV 1.8% Other accounting firms 2.3%

DNV 2.3%

KPMG 3.2% Bureau Veritas 3.2% BSI 33.9% Ernst & Young 6.8%

Non-assurance 52%

Assurance 48%

Deloitte 8.1%

PwC 11.3%

22

SGS 21.7%

23

Key Finding

11

Taiwan's financial services are now aware of the importance of responsible investment.

More than half of them are willing to include ESG into their investment policies.

In response to the fast growth of investment in global sustainable development, investment agencies are now paying attention to the disclosure of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and other non-financial information to evaluate risk levels and long term profitability. In the GRI G4 Financial Service Sector Disclosures section, financial services companies are asked to disclose policies with specific environmental and social components applied to business lines, procedures for assessing and screening environmental and social risks, and processes for monitoring clients’ implementation of and compliance with environmental and social requirements included in agreements or transactions. The regulations proposed by the Taiwan Stock Exchange state that, "Listed companies within the financial and insurance industry shall enhance disclosure of the specific management approaches and performance indicators of the economic performance and the environmental and social aspects for financial products or services provided by the listed companies."

Financial services companies that have disclosed their responsible investments do better financially.

Financial performance of financial services companies that have and have not disclosed their responsible investments.

Accordingly, the research team studied the investment policy information disclosed in the 49 CSR reports from financial services companies to see if those companies have signed the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) or Equator Principles, or referred to non-financial information like ESG in their investment policies. The results showed that 61% of them have disclosed such information, and 82% of them referred to the indicators in the GRI G4 Financial Service Sector Disclosures.

As of January 2017, only two financial services companies in Taiwan, Cathay United Bank and E.SUN Commercial Bank, have become official members of the Equator Principles. Among the 49 CSR reports from financial services companies, 19 of them have disclosed that they will refer and respond to the Equator Principles in the future. They will review borrowers' environmental protection, credibility, and social responsibilities before giving them loans or financing them. Some financial services companies have indicated that their responsible investment guidelines have passed their board resolutions and are already in their official investment policies or implementation manual. They also said that borrowers who have prepared CSR reports will get a credit rating bonus.

CSR reports disclose information on responsible investment CSR reports follow the GRI G4 Financial Service Sector Disclosures

CSR reports in accordance with the CSR reports disclose information GRI G4 Financial Service Sector Disclosures on responsible investment

The research team also analyzed the financial performance of financial services companies that have disclosed their responsible investments. The results show that financial services companies that have disclosed the information have higher revenue growth, net profit growth, and average EPS than those that haven’t, with the biggest difference, almost 10%, being in net profit growth. Moreover, the top ten financial services companies by revenue have all disclosed information on their responsible investments. This means that responsible investment is becoming a necessary sustainable strategy among Taiwan's financial services companies.

CSR index are getting more and more attention from investors.

2015 Financial Performance

Revenue growth rate

Net profit growth rate

Average EPS

Listed and OTC financial services

1.68%

4.48%

1.57

Responsible investment disclosed

1.79%

5.74%

1.83

Responsible investment not disclosed

-0.18%

-5.94%

1.31

Most financial services companies have explained in their CSR reports that they will refer to the CSR indices and include them in their investment portfolios. The first CSR index of Taiwan, the Taiwan Employment Creation 99 Index, was proposed by the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 2010. They later published the Taiwan Corporate Operation 101 Index, the Taiwan High Compensation 100 Index and the Corporate Governance 100 Index.

According to Taiwan Index Plus's press release in January 2017, in the past year, the increase (+18.39%) of the Corporate Governance 100 Index has been better than that of the weighted stock index (+15.99%). This means that companies with good governance are popular among investors. The Taiwan High Compensation 100 Index, which uses employee salaries as its filter criteria, has seen an +18.50% increase, which is better than the weighted stock index, and has been the best performing theme index for the past year. This means that socially responsible companies have a higher valuation, which is reflected on index performance.

Since 2012, CommonWealth Magazine has been selecting the top 25 listed and OTC for their Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility list, and weighting them according to the ranking to prepare their own CSR index.

18% Non-accordance 39% Not disclosed 61% Disclosed

24

82% Accordance

National Taipei University released their first Taiwan CSR Index in May 2016. This index evaluates over 400 conditions in the four aspects of society, economics, environment, and disclosure to assess the CSR scores. Meanwhile, it also reviews companies’ financial indicators, which are made up of the top 50 constituent stocks by overall ratings. The results also show that their long term performance is better than the Taiwan 50 Index.

From the above development context of Taiwan's CSR indices, one can tell that the government, the media, and academia have all released their own CSR investment targets. Financial services are starting to pay as much attention to CSR requirements and standards as they do to credit reviews or investment policies. This means that in the future investment market, having transparent integrity and a strongly sustainable performance will get more opportunities and investors for your company; preparing a CSR report to disclose your non-financial information is the first step toward implementing sustainable development.

25

Key Finding

12

The food industry has a lower risk awareness of climate change.

Most companies in this industry have no ESG goals.

In the first wave of listed and OTC companies (financial, food, and chemical industries and companies with over $10 billion capital) that are required to publish their CSR reports, financial and food industries are the closest to the general population and have the most direct impact on them. Through data analysis, we found that even though the food industry has been required to be ISAE 3000 assured through accounting firms to increase the credibility of the data in their reports, they still need to improve their knowledge and implementation of sustainability. In these results, 55.2% of companies in the food industry have not disclosed their CSR policies, and they have much weaker policies on climate change and identifying the potential risks and opportunities.

Sustainable goals are a big challenge for the food industry.

Sustainablity goals are promises a company make to its stakeholders. They increase the credibility of the CSR report and demonstrate the company’s determination be sustainable. Data shows that the goals of the food industry are similar to the overall industries only in the economic aspect; when it comes to environmental and social aspects, whether for short, medium, or long term goals, the food industry is behind the overall industries. They need to come up with a better CSR approach, and reflect on the goals and implementation of various aspects of sustainability to recover from their consistently negative reputation in recent years.

Comparison of CSR goals of food industry and overall industries Overall industries

The food industry needs to be more sensitive to climate change.

International benchmarking food companies like Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Unilever have all disclosed their policies and methods for addressing the potential for future food crisis and material shortage caused by climate change. However, 79.31% of Taiwan's food industry has not disclosed their climate change policies and 86.21% of them have not identified whether climate change is going to bring potential operational risks in the future. Taiwan's food industry has a low awareness of how climate change can impact them, which adds operational risks to the future of food industry.

15%

13% 7%

27%

Food industry

10%

10%

10% 2%

Governance target

Economic target

Environmental target

Social target

Whether climate change policies are disclosed Overall industries

Overal industries Food industry

Food industry

36.90% 20.69%

63.10% 79.31%

Food industry has not disclosed the CSR training program for employees at all

A company’s sustainable development requires support and recognition from its staff.

Once a consensus between management and executives is reached, the promotion of sustainability within the company will be accelerated. According to the Theory of Reasoned Action, there are four main factors that affect a person's behavior: belief, attitude, intention, and behavior. Belief refers to a person's opinions, what he/she thinks of the results of an event; therefore it is important in the implementation of CSR to give employees knowledge of the company’s sustainability values. It is also a way to bring people together, to increase the company's momentum in sustainability promotion. In Taiwan, 15.5% of all companies know the importance of CSR education, but the food industry's CSR reports do not disclose any CSR training programs. A CSR training program can be used as a company's short term project in the implementation of CSR.

The most important topic for the food industry is not food safety.

The material topics of CSR reports are the foundation of their content.

Important topics are found through materiality followed by the description of management, performance, goals, and commitments for the future. The research team put together the top ten material topics of the food industry and found that their most important topics are economic development and human resources. The food safety issues that have happened in recent years are not even in the top five. The related topics of "Product and service responsibility/ quality" and "product and service labelling" are at number nine and ten, respectively. Future studies can focus on the process analysis and method of the material topics in food industry.

Whether climate change and risks and opportunities are identified Overall industries

Overal industries Food industry

26

29.69% 13.79%

Food industry

70.31% 86.21%

Rank

Top 10 materiality topics for food industry

1

Economic Performance

2

Occupational Health and Safety

3

Training and Education

4

Energy

5

Governance

6

Labor / Management Relations

7

Supply chain management

8

Risk management

9

Social charity

10

Product and Service Labeling

27

Special thanks

Taiwan CSR Overview and Trends in 2017

Yung-Shun Shen, Daniel Chu, HO HUI PING, TS Wu, Alan Li, Kuang-Chih Li, Shih, Pi-Ju, Allen, Hsien-Lun Hu,

Publishers:Lien-Ti Bei, Dexter Chang, Gennie Yen

Yaling Lang, Mia Twu, Yung-Ming Shiu, Hsu Hsiu Kuan, Yu-Shan Chen, Tseng, Chih-Ming, Feng Yen, Dr. Grace Liu,

Editor-in-chief:Lee Cheng Pai

Iris Liu, Richard Lai, Po-Tsang, Hsieh, Dr. Eugene Chien, Sandy Wei, Ming-Shiow Lo, Wei-Chieh Su , Yang Ku

Deputy editors:Tracy Lin, Chen Hou-Ru, Shih-Ching Liu Executive editors:Lee Li-Nung, Yu-Chun Hsu, Chen, Chien-Yu, Jia-Chun Chen,

CSRone Reporting Platform

Chang Yen-Ling, Zora Peng, Tze-An Dung, Tsai Monru Research team:Liting Wang, Jeffrey Wang, Pei Jung Chiang, Tsai-Chen Wu, Ko Tien Lee, Lee Hung Yi,

Founded in June of 2013 and aiming to become the report library of the Chinese-speaking world, CSRone Reporting

Lin Yu Ching, Ching Shan-Hsu, Tung Nien, Ru Chieh, Chen, Tseng You-Ya,

has become the biggest platform for sustainability reports/corporate social responsibility reports in Taiwan with

Shih Han Huang, Pei Chi Liao, Tingyu Liao, Hung-Yin Tai, Yen I-Hsin

more than 1,500 reports collected to date. The CSRone consultant team conducts comprehensive analysis on the

Art design:Lu Shao-Ling, Ya-Hui Ou

sustainability reports published in that year, and releases key reports concerning CSR development in Taiwan in the

Publishing Agency:CSRone Reporting, Sinyi School of National Chengchi University, PwC Taiwan

hope of guiding domestic companies to be in sync with the international community, so that companies can move

Address:5F., No.178, Sec. 3, Xinyi Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106,

forward with greater vision and strategies with respect to sustainability topics.

Taiwan (R.O.C.), No.64, Sec. 2, Zhinan Rd., Wenshan Dist., Taipei City 116, Taiwan (R.O.C.) Website:http://csronereporting.com/, http://www.syschool.nccu.edu.tw/, http://www.pwc.tw/

Sinyi School, College of Commerce, National Chengchi University (NCCU) TFounded in June of 2013 and aiming to become the report library of the Chinese-speaking world, CSRone Reporting has become the biggest platform for sustainability reports/corporate social responsibility reports in Taiwan with more than 1,500 reports collected to date. The CSRone consultant team conducts comprehensive analysis on the

Email:service@csrone.com, syschool@nccu.edu.tw Telephone:(02)2704-3024, (02)2939-3091#85570, 85571 Date of publication:2017/3/24 Price:NT$ 500

sustainability reports published in that year, and releases key reports concerning CSR development in Taiwan in the hope of guiding domestic companies to be in sync with the international community, so that companies can move forward with greater vision and strategies with respect to sustainability topics.

PwC Taiwan At PwC Taiwan, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We're a member of the PwC network of firms in 157 countries with more than 223,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax and advisory services. We have six service offices and over 2,700 people in Taiwan with expertise across all industries ready to deliver the value you're looking for. Find out more by visiting us at www.pwc.tw.

The ability to create sustainable value has become a new evaluation standard for corporate competitiveness. The development of sound corporate governance, through implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and strengthening of information disclosure, is a fundamental requirement. As a leading professional services firm, PwC

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Taiwan is well equipped to provide companies with a total solution approach to developing an effective CSR strategy for

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sustainable business success.

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