TAIPEI: Five major companies representing the supply chain spectrum of Taiwan's high-technology industry have all obtained carbon footprint certificates from authoritative organizations from home and abroad for their latest products.

Their efforts, recognized recently by the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers Association (TEEMA), were aimed at keeping up with the global trend of protecting the environment and securing greater market potential for their products, said TEEMA Chairman Arthur Yu-cheng Chiao.

The five technological giants are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) , United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and ASUSTeK Computer (ASUS).

They were awarded TEEMA's low-carbon labels in November after they obtained carbon footprint certificates for their low-carbon products from professional verification organizations, including DNV in Norway, the Swiss group SGS, and Taiwan's Environment and Development Foundation.

"Supply-chain carbon footprint management is a key issue concerning the development of Taiwan's high-technology industry in the future," Chiao said.

Taiwan's electrical and electronic sector churned out $216.6 billion worth of products in 2008, representing 48.84 percent of Taiwan's entire industrial output, Chiao quoted TEEMA tallies as indicating.

Of that total, $118.7 billion worth of products went to exports, comprising 46.7 percent of Taiwan's total export trade that year.

"It's crucial that Taiwanese manufacturers start managing their products' carbon footprint," Chiao said, pointing out that reducing carbon dioxide emissions has become an increasingly pressing issue of global importance.

In a few years, he added, Taiwan's consumer electronics products bound for North America and Europe will not only have to be competitive in terms of pricing, they also must be competitive in terms of carbon footprint reduction.

Hsu Fang-ming, a TSMC official in charge of industrial safety, environmental protection and public health, noted that from 2014, Walmart, the largest retail chain store in the United States, will demand that all products on shelves carry green labels.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) said that from 2012, EU member countries will monitor and control carbon dioxide emissions from all aircraft departing from and landing in airports in the European Union, adding that Taiwanese airline carriers should keep that in mind and make preparations in a timely manner.

Meanwhile, TSMC and several other Taiwanese companies in other industrial and business sectors, including China Airlines, Kuo-Kuang Motor Transport and the Taipei 101 building, have engaged in supply-chain carbon inventory on an experimental basis as part of the efforts to accelerate the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the EPA.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/09/2009 page2)