Taiwan University Sustainability Awards

 

● Origin of the Awards

The Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE) has, for the past 19 years, organised the TCSA Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Awards to encourage Taiwan’s business community to fulfil corporate social responsibility and advance toward sustainable development. In parallel, TAISE has hosted corporate sustainability seminars and executive training programmes, providing domestic enterprises with platforms for information exchange and benchmarking on sustainability reporting and performance. These initiatives have received strong engagement from across society.

 

To date, a total of 1075 organisations have participated in the Awards. The combined revenue of participating entities across all editions amounts to 152% of Taiwan’s GDP in 2024. This clearly demonstrates that, through the collective efforts of government, civil society, industry, and academia—and alongside the growing momentum of green finance and ESG investment—sustainability has become not only a prevailing trend, but also a central discipline in contemporary management and governance.

Amid rising global awareness of sustainability, the United Nations introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. The 17 core goals serve as a shared global blueprint for sustainable transformation toward 2030, calling upon all nations to take action through global partnerships to achieve an inclusive and sustainable future.

To further advance campus sustainability and strengthen alignment with the SDGs, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education launched the University Social Responsibility (USR) Initiative in 2018 and has since promoted the Sustainable and Circular Campus Exploration and Demonstration Programme. Beginning in 2020, particular emphasis has been placed on integrating the SDGs into educational institutions’ physical infrastructure, digital systems, and curricula through campus self-assessment and environmental exploration. These efforts mark an important milestone in aligning Taiwan’s education system with the global framework of Education for Sustainable Development.

Building upon its extensive experience in administering the TCSA Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Awards, TAISE is organising the Third Taiwan Sustainable University Awards in 2026. The Awards comprise four major categories: the Sustainability Comprehensive Performance Award and the Sustainability Single-Item Performance Award, recognising overall and thematic sustainability performance by higher education institutions (hereafter collectively referred to as “universities”); the Sustainability Report Award, honouring excellence in transparency and information disclosure; and the Sustainability Outstanding Individual Award, recognising individuals whose exemplary contributions have significantly advanced universities’ progress toward sustainable development.

The Awards Ceremony will be held in conjunction with the Global Corporate Sustainability Forum. Universities across Taiwan are cordially invited to compete for the nation’s highest honour in sustainable development and to showcase Taiwan’s higher education sustainability achievements on the international stage.

 

● Purpose of the Awards

1. To advocate the principles of University Social Responsibility (USR) and promote the implementation of sustainability practices across higher education institutions.

2. To recognize universities that fulfil their social responsibilities and actively advance institutional development toward globally aligned sustainable development.

3. To mobilize academic expertise and resources in support of broader societal sustainability efforts.

4. To enhance the overall standards of social responsibility in Taiwan and strengthen the practical implementation of sustainability-related initiatives across sectors.

5. To encourage comprehensive and sustained engagement with university social responsibility and sustainability issues throughout Taiwan through a structured, award-based competitive mechanism.

 

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