Green Purchasing by Public and Private Sectors Reached Record High in 2010

2011/09/21
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A ceremony was held by the EPA on Sep. 9 at the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to acknowledge public agencies and private businesses with outstanding performance in green purchasing, where award certificates were presented by EPA Minister Shen Shu-hung. According to EPA statistics, government agencies and private companies spent respectively NT9.1 billion and NT 3.4 billion on green procurement in 2010, totaling a record high of NT12.5 billion, up by 35% compared to NT 9.2 billion in 2009. A signing up ceremony was also held on the day to encourage private business involvement in green procurement, and 16 companies promised to strengthen their green purchasing efforts.
The EPA said that public agency performance of green procurement in 2010 was assessed according to their green procurement proportion and promotion efforts. 23 were evaluated as excellent, including 19 central government agencies (Office of the President, Judicial Yuan, Central Bank, Consumer Protection Commission, Central Personnel Administration, Fair Trade Commission, Mainland Affairs Council, Coast Guard Administration, Atomic Energy Council, Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Council for Economic Planning and Development, National Youth Commission, Public Construction Commission, National Science Council, Council of Agriculture, Council for Cultural Affairs, Ministry of the Interior, Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission, and Ministry of Education) and four city and county governments (Yilan County, Chiayi City, Kaohsiung City, and Changhua County).
The EPA added that 685 private enterprises and organizations reported their green procurement performance in 2010. Among them 37 spent more than NT20 million in that year alone. The companies came from 15 different industries, including manufacturing (papermaking, plastics, construction, beverages, electronics, photonics), medical service, finance, steel, telecommunications, chain store, passenger transportation, real estate, and professional services. These facts suggest that green procurement has increasingly become an essential component in private sector businesses. The awarded companies who spent over NT1 million in green procurement include Yuen Foong Yu Paper Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Jhunan Plant (papermaking), Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, Formosa Plastics Corporation, and Good Flag Biotechnology Corporation (plastics), Formosa Chemicals & Fiber Corporation (textile), Dragon Steel Corporation (steel), President Chain Store Corporation, Taiwan FamilyMart Co. Ltd. (chain store services), and Taoyuan Bus Station Co., Ltd. (passenger transportation).
A Green Procurement and Experience Sharing Meeting was also held by the EPA on the same day, which shed light on the international trends and current domestic development in green procurement. Chunghwa Telecom and Hair O’right International Corporation were invited to share their experiences in green procurement to over a hundred business participants present there. At the meeting, Minister Shen called on private enterprises to follow the global trend and fulfill their corporate social responsibility by implementing green purchasing and increasing business opportunities for green products.