Picture 1:
From left to right: Peter Pu (蒲樹盛), Pacific Regional Training Manager, BSI, Charles Haines, Senior Associate, Strategic Investor Initiative, CECP, Chu-Jui Hung (洪祝瑞), Executive Vice President ,Cathay Life Insurance, Hanna Hallin, Sustainability Manager, Sales Market Greater China, H&M, Joseph Chou (周建宏), Chairman, PwC Taiwan, Cheng-Mount Cheng (鄭貞茂), Vice Chairman, Financial Supervisory Commission, Dr. Eugene Chien, (簡又新) Chairman, Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy, Eliza Li(李宜樺), Partner, CMAAS, Capital Market and Accounting Advisory Service at PwCTaiwan, Gennie Yan(嚴德芬), Founder, CSRone Reporting and Dr. Lien-Ti Bei (別蓮蒂) Distinguished Professor, National Chengchi University.

Every year in March, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability professionals in Taiwan gather to exchange new ideas and best practices. This year’s CSR Forum also brought together a group of sustainability experts from overseas, including professionals based in Shanghai, Hong Kong and New York City, to discuss about the latest developments in CSR. 

The “Analysis of Sustainability Reporting in Taiwan Report Launch Event” held its 4th edition in Taipei on March 23. The event is co-organized by CSRone Reporting, PwC Taiwan, NCCU’s Sinyi School and Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy. Among some of the notable keynote speakers attending this year include Mr. Charles Haines, Senior Associate, CECP’s Strategic Investor Initiative (SII), Ms. Hanna Hallin, Sustainability Manager, H&M Greater China and Ms. Sunny Sang (桑毅林), EHS and Sustainability Manager, UL whom shared with the audience the latest trends in corporate sustainability and talked about how sustainability can turn into business opportunities.

Picture 2: Attendees expressing their support for the UN SDGs.

There were over 230 attendees at the conference, with all the tickets sold out in a matter of few days, demonstrating the strong momentum and increasing interest in CSR.  
In a speech delivered by Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission Vice Chairman Cheng-Mount Cheng (鄭貞茂), who has attended the forum for two consecutive years, he pointed out that the growth of CSR in Taiwan has been encouraging. The number of CSR reports published in Taiwan has reached 515, many of which published by companies in the financial and ICT sector. In addition to the growth in CSR reports, about half of the CSR reports (49%) have obtained third-party verification and certification, indicating that Taiwanese companies value the quality of CSR reporting. Moreover 143 companies (27.7% of the total) are already reporting, in one way or another, to the UN SDGs. There seems to be a disconnect between what SDG domestic companies prioritize the most (SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth) and what global companies prioritize the most (SDG 13: Climate Action). Vice-chairman Cheng also made a call to government organizations to similarly disclose information via sustainability reports in the future.

Dr. Eugene Chien (簡又新), one of the earliest pioneers in driving CSR in Taiwan and Chairman of TAISE, alongside Joseph Chou (周建宏), Chairman of PwC Taiwan and Sophia Cheng (程淑芬), Chief Investment Officer of Cathay Financial Holding Co. provided long-term insights for the industry and encouraged CSR professionals to continue their work.

Picture 3: Mr. Tino Chen (陳厚儒), Senior Manager of CSRone Reporting presenting the report’s findings to the audience

Subsequently, the highlights and findings of the report: “CSR Report Survey in Taiwan 2018” were presented by Mr. Tino Chen (陳厚儒), Senior Manager of CSRone Reporting. The research conducted for this report took about 7 months, in which the researching team analyzed 515 CSR reports issued in Taiwan looking at 505 different indicators. 

Key Findings:
1. The number of CSR reports issued in Taiwan reaches a new high at 515 reports
The number of CSR reports issued in Taiwan reaches a new record high at 515 reports published in 2017, an increase of 57 compared to the previous year (458 reports in 2016). Among them, 49% of the reports are assured by third-party certification bodies demonstrating how CSR is gradually getting embedded into business operations.

Moreover, among the 515 reports analyzed, 471 reports (accounting for 91% of the total) are issued by listed-companies in Taiwan. When looking at the largest 100 listed-companies in terms of revenue, 88% of them are already publishing a CSR report, an increase of 5% compared to last year.

Picture 4: The number of CSR reports issued in Taiwan per year since 2013.
Source: CSR Report Survey in Taiwan 2018

2. Companies that issue a CSR report have a higher average EPS and ROE
Publishing CSR reports has gradually become a common practice by Taiwanese corporates in recent years to take stock of sustainability efforts and improve the company’s operations, as well as earning investor’s confidence. 

Based on the report’s findings, the average earnings per share (EPS) of companies that issue a CSR report is 2.61 NTD, 2.1 NTD higher than the market’s average of 0.51 NTD. The same holds true for the average return on equity (ROE) of companies that issue a CSR report, which is at 7.5%, compared to companies which don’t issue any report whose ROE is at 1.02%.

Picture 5: Average EPS and ROE for listed companies that issue a CSR report (light green), the average listed-companies (green), and listed companies which don’t’s issue a CSR report (dark green).
Source: CSR Report Survey in Taiwan 2018

3. 27.8% of the CSR reports issued in Taiwan are already reporting on the SDGs
There are currently 143 reports out of 515(27.8%) that are already reporting, in one way or another to the UN SDGs. Collectively responsible for a combined revenue of 12.8 trillion NTD (USD $438 billion), this 143 companies represent 40% of the total revenue from all listed-companies in Taiwan. This demonstrates that Taiwanese corporates are getting keener on exploring the new business opportunities that will be created on delivering the SDGs.

Picture 6: Percentage of companies reporting on the SDGs. (Taiwanese companies on the left, global companies on the right.)
Source: CSR Report Survey in Taiwan 2018, PwC SDG Reporting Challenge 2017

4. 90% of companies in the top 5% of corporate governance ranking are already publishing a CSR report 

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has made great efforts in the past few years to improve the state of corporate governance and investment environment in Taiwan. The analysis also found that 91% of the companies that are ranked in FSC’s top 5% governance list are publishing CSR reports. For companies that received a lower ranking in FSC list, the percentage of companies issuing a CSR report is lower. This perfectly explains the strong correlation between corporate governance and CSR.

Picture 7: Percentage of listed-companies that issue a CSR report based on corporate governance rankings. (Column 1: Corporate governance ranking percentile, Column 2: Number of companies, Column 3: Percentage of companies that issue a CSR report, Column 4: Percentage of companies that don’t’ issue a CSR report.)
Source: CSR Report Survey in Taiwan 2018, PwC SDG Reporting Challenge 2017

In addition the conference also hosted a number of panel sessions where the audience have the opportunity to engage in conversations with panelists on different topics like the intersection of sustainability with R&D, organizational culture, and capital markets. 

Short-Clip Introducing Corporate Sustainability (2-mins in Chinese)
List of Most downloaded CSR reports in Taiwan (Article in Chinese)