The 2025 GCSA & TCSA Joint Award Ceremony and Sustainability Summit was grandly held
Over 1,700 leaders gathered at Taipei's Grand Hotel on Nov 26 for global trends, resilient governance, and top awards honoring Taiwan's ESG frontrunners. Taiwan is showcasing its sustainability strength and working with the world to shape a better future, with 19 chairpersons, 2 vice chairpersons, 53 presidents, 56 vice presidents, and more than 1,700 high-profile guests joining the celebration in person. ▲
The 2025 GCSA/TCSA Joint Award Ceremony and Sustainability Summit was grandly held
“By leveraging sustainability as soft power to face global volatility, Taiwan is now stepping into a pivotal role on the international stage,” said Ambassador Eugene Chien
2025Held on November 26 at the Grand Hotel Taipei as a highlight of the “2025 8th Global Corporate Sustainability Forum”, the 2025 TCSA presentation and summit brought together over a hundred participants from the enterprises, public sector, hospitals, academia, and research institutions. Now in its 18th year, TCSA has attracted a cumulative 1,075 participating companies whose combined business scale equals 152% of Taiwan’s GDP, underscoring how sustainability has become a core driver of corporate competitiveness nationwide. To uphold fairness and credibility, this year’s judging process relied on a large jury of 1,395 volunteer reviewers and 449 experts, forming the most extensive and trusted evaluation mechanism of its kind among Taiwan’s sustainability awards.
The Sustainability Summit shed light on emerging patterns in international regulation and resilient governance.
In the morning, representatives from the Big Four accounting firms jointly shared global sustainability trends, focusing on four key themes: governance, disclosure, nature-related risks, and resilience-driven competitiveness. Deloitte emphasized that sustainability transformation has moved far beyond preparing reports and is now part of the core of corporate governance. Only by strengthening organizational alignment, data foundations, digital capabilities, and internal controls can sustainability reports genuinely drive meaningful reforms and enhance decision quality. EY, examining the post-COP30 context, noted that as the world gradually transitions toward a “nature positive” governance framework, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is set to become a mainstream requirement in financial markets. Yet, only about one quarter of companies globally currently meet TNFD expectations, revealing a significant gap in the maturity of nature-related disclosures.
PwC, presenting insights from its “2025 Global CEO Survey”, observed that in an environment of geopolitical tensions, supply chain realignment, and rapid technological disruption, the primary short-term shocks facing businesses are shifting from environmental risks to social and political ones, even as climate change remains the predominant systemic risk over the long term. As a result, companies must diversify their supply chains faster, pursue deeper cross-sector collaboration and M&A strategies, and build both AI governance and low-carbon investment capabilities to secure resilient strategic positions. KPMG added that global sustainability is evolving from a focus on “short-term price” to competition around “long-term value”. Investors increasingly expect companies to demonstrate robust sustainability management, from human rights governance and nature-related disclosure to the low-carbon transition of private equity portfolios. KPMG stressed that sustainability is not just a passing market trend but a structural force that shapes the resilience of companies, nations, and entire industries.
Ambassador Chien: Sustainability as soft power is Taiwan’s door-opener to the world
In his opening address, Ambassador Eugene Chien, Chairman of the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE), stated that the world is undergoing profound change and that sustainability now serves as a shared source of resilience for both corporations and countries. Citing the government’s 2030 emissions reduction target of 28±2%, he highlighted that Taiwan is implementing concrete reduction programs across six sectors, energy, manufacturing, transportation, buildings, agriculture, and the environment, signaling a shift from visionary commitments to real-world action. He also pointed out that Taiwanese firms have continued to move up in global sustainability benchmarks, with 69 companies included in the 2025 S&P Sustainability Yearbook and 34 companies in the DJSI World Index, placing Taiwan near the top in Asia and demonstrating a high level of maturity in sustainability governance.
Chien distilled the strengths of Taiwanese corporate sustainability into four pillars: compliance, innovation, value creation, and resilience. In the past, he noted, companies focused mainly on meeting regulatory requirements, but as sustainability practices deepen, they are now using innovative solutions to create new value while remaining resilient in a risk-laden environment. He proposed the idea of “old ESG plus new ESG”, where the traditional focus on Environment, Social, and Governance is upgraded into a new framework centering on Energy, Security, and Geopolitics. Without a clear understanding of this new ESG risk structure, he warned, companies will struggle to hold their ground amid dramatic shifts in global supply chains. He emphasized that sustainability has grown beyond competition among individual firms to become a form of national soft power, and this is precisely what enables Taiwan to open doors on the international stage.
Chien also shared TAISE’s progress in driving sustainability across broader social systems. TAISE has signed MOUs with 70 universities and 150 hospitals nationwide, covering roughly 70% of Taiwan’s students and 65% of hospital beds, a sign that sustainability efforts are extending from enterprises and value chains into education, healthcare, and society at large. He stressed that such cross-sector partnerships will build collective momentum for Taiwan’s sustainability transition.
Cross-sector sustainability achievements on display, with multiple awards recognizing holistic corporate strengths.
This year’s TCSA honors span Corporate Comprehensive Sustainability Performance Awards, Sustainability Single Performance Awards, Sustainability Report Awards, and Outstanding Sustainability Practitioner Awards, fully reflecting the depth of Taiwanese enterprises’ efforts across governance, environmental, and social dimensions. The “Top 10 Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Role Models” include Delta Electronics, TSMC, Wistron, ASE Holdings, MediaTek, UMC, and CSC, among others, while the “Top 10 Sustainable Role Model Foreign Enterprises” include Kao (Taiwan), UNIQLO, DBS Bank, Panasonic, Micron, and Watsons, highlighting not only Taiwan’s domestic progress on sustainability but also its alignment with world-class enterprises.
The Sustainable Practice Awards spotlight excellence across a spectrum of themes, talent development, transparency and integrity, creative communication, information security, innovative growth, social inclusion, workplace well-being, human rights, sustainable supply chains, and gender equality, demonstrating how Taiwan’s sustainability governance is advancing toward broader, deeper, and more fully integrated value-chain practices. The Sustainability Report Awards show how the quality of sustainability disclosures has improved among Taiwanese companies and institutions, with TSMC, AUO, ASE Holdings, Taiwan Water Corporation, and the Industrial Technology Research Institute among those achieving Platinum-level or higher recognition.
On the individual side, E.SUN Financial Holding founder Yong-Ren Huang received the “Corporate Sustainability Lifetime Achievement Award”. In addition, Macronix Chairman and CEO Miin Wu, HOTAI Motor Chairman Antonio Su , Yunlin County Magistrate Li-shan Chang, and Grape King Bio Chairman and President Andrew Tseng were named “Outstanding Sustainability Practitioners”, reflecting the long-term commitment of leaders from both the private and public sectors to sustainability.
Joining forces to co-create sustainability, Taiwan presses forward amid global competition
As the ceremony concluded, Ambassador Chien renewed his call for stronger cross-industry, cross-ministerial, and cross-generational collaboration to build an integrated force for sustainability, especially as global supply chains are restructured, net-zero policies accelerate, competition over energy intensifies, and geopolitical risks rise. “Sustainability is the foundation of national resilience and marks a decisive moment for Taiwan to stand on the global stage,” he said. “Only by joining forces can we co-create a sustainable future.”
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien delivering remarks at the 2025 TCSA awards ceremony on November 26.
▲Examination Yuan Vice President Shu-Hsiang Hsu delivering remarks at the 2025 TCSA awards ceremony on November 26.
▲Deputy Minister of Labor Ling-Na Huang delivering remarks at the 2025 TCSA awards ceremony on November 26.
▲Deputy Minister of Environment Jiunn-Horng Yeh delivering remarks at the 2025 TCSA awards ceremony on November 26.
▲Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Ching-yi Lin delivering remarks at the 2025 TCSA awards ceremony on November 26.)
▲Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Chun-Chang Chu delivering remarks at the 2025 TCSA awards ceremony on November 26.)
▲E.SUN Financial Holding founder Yong-Ren Huang, winner of the Corporate Sustainability Lifetime Achievement Award, delivering his acceptance speech at the 2025 TCSA awards ceremony on November 26.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (second from right) with representatives of outstanding corporate sustainability practitioners.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (seventh from right) with representatives of the first group of corporate award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (seventh from left) with representatives of the second group of corporate award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (front row, seventh from left) and Deputy Minister of Labor Ling-Na Huang (front row, seventh from right) with representatives of the third group of corporate award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (front row, sixth from left) and Deputy Minister of Labor Ling-Na Huang (front row, seventh from right) with representatives of the fourth group of corporate award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (front row, seventh from left) and Deputy Minister of Environment Jiunn-Horng Yeh (front row, seventh from right) with representatives of the fifth group of corporate award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (front row, sixth from left) and Deputy Minister of Environment Jiunn-Horng Yeh (front row, seventh from right) with representatives of the sixth group of corporate award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (front row, sixth from left) with representatives of the seventh group of corporate award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (fourth from left) and Examination Yuan Vice President Shu-Hsiang Hsu (fourth from right) with representatives of outstanding award recipients from hospitals and universities.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (front row, fifth from left) and Examination Yuan Vice President Shu-Hsiang Hsu (front row, seventh from right) with representatives of government and NGO award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (front row, fifth from left) and Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Ching-Yi Lin (front row, seventh from right) with representatives of hospital award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (front row, fifth from left) and Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Ching-Yi Lin (front row, seventh from right) with representatives of hospital award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (sixth from left) and Permanent Deputy Minister of Education Chun-Chang Chu (sixth from right) with representatives of university award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (sixth from left) and Permanent Deputy Minister of Education Chun-Chang Chu (sixth from right) with representatives of university award recipients.
▲TAISE Chairman Ambassador Eugene Chien (seventh from left) with representatives of corporate award recipients.