Energy and Resource Conservation
Operational Headquarters
The main sources of carbon emissions from ECOVE's operational headquarters are office electricity consumption and fuel consumption of official vehicles. The headquarters office building is a Diamond-class intelligent building. Carbon reduction is carried out through energy-saving promotion, adjusting the air-conditioning temperature of the computer room, reducing the amount of lighting in ineffective lighting areas, and adjusting the intelligent energy-saving time slots. With 2022 as the base year for carbon emissions from the operating headquarters, the plan is to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from the headquarters by 2030, with a short-term target of a 20% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions by 2024, and a mid-term target of a 40% reduction by 2026. The total electricity consumption of the headquarters in 2023 is 250,000 kWh, with an EUI of 102.58 kWh/sq.m. and an emission intensity of 1.06 metric tons of CO2e/capita. The increase in electricity consumption compared to 2022 is due to the growth in the number of people in the office, while carbon emissions per capita decrease by 12.4% compared to 2022. Currently, all ECOVE's public vehicles are hybrid vehicles and will be replaced by electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions and pollution. By 2024, ECOVE plans to purchase 55,000 kWh of green electricity (accounting for 20% of its total electricity consumption), and by 2026, it will increase the amount of green electricity to 40% of its total electricity consumption, and by 2030, all of its operational headquarters will be powered by green electricity. In addition, ECOVE also responds to the government's green office initiatives by implementing five major indicators and 35 measures, including energy resource conservation, waste reduction at the source, green procurement, environmental greening, and advocacy and promotion. ECOVE has adopted 30 of these measures, demonstrating its commitment to making a positive impact on the environment.
Waste collection and transportation
The average fuel consumption of ECOVE Waste Management Corp. Waste Transportation in 2023 was 162.4 kiloliters per 500,000 kilometers, a decrease of approximately 3% compared to the base year of 2022, and the intensity of CO2 emissions (total CO2 emissions in Scope 1 and Scope 2) was 435.006 metric tons of CO2e, a decrease of approximately 4.37%. To address fuel consumption and carbon emissions from waste transportation vehicles, ECOVE Waste Management Corp. has developed short, medium, and long-term plans based on the reference year of 2022. The organization aims to reduce emission intensity by 10% by 2026, 30% by 2030, and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. In the short term, ECOVE Waste Management Corp. plans to actively update its waste transportation vehicles to the latest environmentally friendly models. Garbage compression vehicles will be gradually replaced with hybrid or electric-powered vehicles, which can reduce fuel consumption by over 20% per vehicle. By planning optimal delivery routes and building a paperless dispatching system, it reduces pollution and resource consumption. From 2022 onwards, planning has been based on Stage 6 vehicles. By the end of 2023, environmentally friendly vehicles complying with Stage 5 or above accounted for more than 84.6% of the total vehicle fleet, and this is expected to be raised to 88% by 2024.
Waste incineration
ECOVE actively introduces the green technologies of the Group to continuously improve energy efficiency and resource conservation in its operational incineration plants. In 2023, a total of 18 energy/resource-saving initiatives were implemented, including the replacement of energy-saving lamps for the plant's interior lighting, the installation of inverters for large-scale wind turbines, the replacement of air condenser fans with FRP material, the renewal of chilled-water machines and improvement of furnace beds, the application of heat pumps, and the conversion of sootblowers to vibration wave ash cleaning, among other things. As a result of these energy-saving measures, a total of 4,670 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent were reduced in 2023.
Recycling
In 2023, ECOVE SRC implemented the replacement of air compressors with inverter type, which resulted in an overall reduction of 0.6 tons of carbon emissions per year; the renewal of cooling water towers, which resulted in an overall reduction of 4.1 tons of carbon emissions per year; and the addition of inverters to equipment, which resulted in an overall reduction of 3.9 tons of carbon emissions per year in terms of energy consumption savings. 2024, it is in the process of replacing the electrically-heated boiler with an in-line boiler, which is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year. Using 2022 as the base year, ECOVE SRC's carbon emission intensity per unit of revenue in the reuse segment is 12.07 kg CO2e/$1,000, with a projected decrease in emission intensity of 24% by 2026, 30% by 2030, and net zero by 2050. With a green power utilization rate of 7.4% by 2023, it will continue to reduce the intensity of CO2 emissions in the short term through process improvements, while at the same time achieving the goal of saving energy resources.
Water Consumption
Operational Headquarters
ECOVE's headquarters building relies 100% on tap water as its water source and does not draw water from any other bodies of water. All wastewater is discharged into the sewage system. In addition to extensively using automatic sensor faucets to reduce water consumption, ECOVE also controls the water flow and timing to conserve water. They have also created various water-saving slogans to remind employees to save water at all times. Rainwater harvesting systems have been installed on the rooftop of the building and at construction sites to collect rainwater for irrigation of plants or for use during construction activities. The total water consumption in 2023 was 1,768 cubic meters. The water intensity, or water consumption per person, in 2023 was 15.1 cubic meters. The increase in water consumption was mainly due to an increase in the number of employees and the encouragement of the use of environmentally friendly tableware.
Waste incineration
All 8 large-scale waste incineration plants operated by ECOVE Environment Service Corp., a subsidiary of ECOVE, source 100% of their water from the municipal water supply. This water is primarily used for the production of boiler feedwater or the generation of soft water for process purposes. Various types of wastewaters, including process wastewater, vehicle washing wastewater, and employee domestic wastewater, are collected and treated in the on-site wastewater treatment system to meet design standards. After treatment, the water is introduced into an internal recycling system, such as for waste gas cooling, to achieve a goal of "zero wastewater discharge" through 100% recycling and reuse⁸. By switching to a dry acid removal system at the Taoyuan and Gangshan plants after the renovation and improvement, it is expected to contribute 0.04 metric tons of water per ton of waste, thus achieving the goal of water conservation.
Recycling
ECOVE Solvent Recycling Corp.'s operational water is primarily used for cooling systems, and the water source is 100% from the public water supply. Therefore, there are no significant impacts on water sources.
Waste
Operational Headquarters
The general waste treatment at the headquarters building is incineration, which generated 3.47 metric tons in 2023. Paper, metals, plastics, and food waste are recycled. In response to the significant increase in lunchtime meal waste, a separate recycling management system is implemented for paper and plastic food containers during the lunchtime period. The increase in waste volume in 2023 was primarily due to an increase in the number of employees and a decrease in waste production per capita.
Waste incineration
In 2023, the 8 large-scale waste incineration plants operated and managed by ECOVE ESC generated 262,623 metric tons of bottom slag, or an average of 137.38 kilograms of bottom slag per ton of waste treated; and 57,264 metric tons of fly ash, or an average of 29.96 kilograms of fly ash per ton of waste treated. The bottom slag is sampled and tested in accordance with the regulations to confirm compliance with the bottom slag reuse management method, and then transported to the bottom slag reuse site or temporary plant, with an average reuse rate of 93.54% in 2023; the fly ash is stabilized and then packaged in bags, or sent to the melting and reuse and washing for reuse, and the stabilized material is sampled and tested before being sent to qualified landfill sites for sanitary landfill, so that no methane fugitive emissions will occur during the landfill process. A total of 9,528.65 metric tons of fly ash was sent for reuse in 2023, increasing the reuse rate from 5.65% in 2022 to 16.64%. The Gangshan Plant has installed a bottom slag sorting system to recover and reuse the metals in the bottom slag to further reduce the amount of bottom slag, and the Southern Taoyuan and Gangshan Plants have begun to adopt a new type of dry acid removal system, so that fly ash production can be further reduced. Taiwan's current large-scale waste incineration plants⁹ do not receive hazardous waste, and the bottom slag and fly ash stabilizers are considered to be general utility waste according to the hazardous waste identification standards. Each plant is required by law and contract to test the frequency of compliance with the standards before final landfill disposal, and legal landfills must be equipped with an impermeable layer to isolate the natural body of water and an independent wastewater collection and treatment system, and there has not been any need to assist in the improvement of the landfill for substances released.
[9] A waste incineration plant that has a designed daily processing capacity of over 300 metric tons and is owned, managed, or supervised by the municipal or county (city) competent authority or executing agency.
Recycling
The main source of waste from the wastewater treatment plant is sludge, and the amount of waste in the last four years is shown in the table below.
Solar Power
In the solar panel section, it mainly consists of modules, brackets, inverters, boxes, cables and other electrical equipment. According to the "Regulations on the Installation and Management of Renewable Energy Power Generation Equipment," Article 17 states that solar panel installers are required to pay a certain amount as module recycling fees. These fees are collected by the Ministry of the Environment to establish a module recycling mechanism for proper management of retired photovoltaic modules. ECOVE Solar Energy Corporation also complies with the relevant regulations regarding the disposal of retired photovoltaic modules. The current disposal method involves centralized storage of retired solar panels and registering their serial numbers for module material tracking. When the recycling quantity specified by the Ministry of the Environment is reached, authorized waste solar panel transportation companies are commissioned to handle the disposal according to Ministry of the Environment requirements.
Pollution Control
Waste incineration
In order to effectively control the emission of air pollutants, ECOVE Environment Service Corp. has set up a continuous emission monitoring system to monitor seven items, including exhaust gas flow rate, oxygen content, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, and opacity, which are continuously monitored 24 hours a day and uploaded to the website of the Ministry of the Environment¹⁰, and can be queried online by the eight large-scale incineration plants that are currently in operation. In addition, regular on-site inspections are conducted on a monthly or quarterly basis to assess various parameters including sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, heavy metals, and dioxins. The Ministry of the Environment imposes air pollution charges on stationary sources specifically for SOx, NOx, VOCs, particulate pollutants, heavy metals, and dioxin. Since the emissions of particulate pollutants, heavy metals, and dioxin are relatively small, the report focuses on the air pollution charges for SOx, NOx, VOCs, dioxin, particulate pollutants, and the heavy metals lead, cadmium, and mercury. Among the pollutants, only NOx is emitted at a higher level and is therefore included in the KPI listing, with a NOx emission intensity of 0.93 kg/metric tons of waste in 2022, and further reduced to 0.92 kg/metric tons of waste in 2023.
Recycling
ECOVE SRC has also introduced an environmental management system (ISO 14001) to regularly monitor the emission pipeline, and changed the fuel used for the original boiler from heavy oil to natural gas to reduce the emission of air pollutants; however, due to the increase in the amount of recycling volume year by year, the amount of natural gas used has also increased.
