Overview

The "National Enterprise Environmental Protection Award" is the biggest award established by the Environmental Protection Administration, Executive Yuan for honoring enterprises in fulfilling their corporate social responsibilities and promoting environmental protection related work. UMC has won this Award for 18 consecutive years [Note 1]; the company’s Fab 12A in the Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) has participated in the competition and won the Award for the past two years. UMC participated in the 1st National Enterprise Environmental Protection Award in 2019 (after the award was re-organized) and won the Gold Award. In 2020, UMC received the greatest honor by winning both the "Best Award" and the "Green Action Award."

UMC Vice President TS Wu attended the ceremony to receive the Award on behalf of Fab 12A

Vice President of UMC, TS Wu, was invited to the Office of the President to receive recognition and the Award from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen

Note 1: The "National Enterprise Environmental Protection Award" was formerly known as the "Republic of China Enterprise Environmental Protection Award." The award has been held for 29 years and was reorganized and renamed in 2019. The National Enterprise Environmental Award includes the Best Award, Gold Award, Silver Award, Bronze Award and Nomination Award.

Fab 12A has been committed to the continuous improvement of water, electricity, and waste reduction efficiencies. It has reached the environmental protection goals of the "Green 2020 for reducing electricity consumption, water consumption, and waste production by 10% in 5 years" ahead of schedule. In recent years, it took the initiative to introduce innovative solutions such as Industry 4.0 and artificial intelligence (AI), making good use of technologies and applying AI to the daily operation and management of environmental protection. In terms of social welfare, UMC has established the "STSP Energy-Saving and Safety Service Team" in 2019 to assist disadvantaged social welfare organizations in the southern Taiwan to carry out energy-saving and fire protection as well as fire safety measures. Moreover, the team also promotes environmental protection education and delivers hazard prevention concepts to students in remote areas. With such a solid and outstanding environmental sustainability performance, UMC has been favored and recognized by the reviewers.

The following lists a few outstanding performances and fab characteristics for illustration:

1. UMC achieved and exceeded its environmental protection goals of the “Green 2020” plan ahead of schedule

2. Increased the installation of solar roof panels and obtained renewable energy certificates
UMC’s Fab 12A is equipped with solar power generation system to promote green energy, obtaining relevant renewable energy certificates. In addition to lowering fuel consumption, the installation of solar roof panels also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, helping Taiwan to achieve its carbon reduction goals.

• A solar power generation system with a total installed capacity of 856.85 kWp was set up on the roof of Fab 12A, which is grid-connected to Taipower's system; the power generation of the system is 1.038 million kWh/year, which can reduce 553 tons of CO₂/year.
• Renewable energy certificates were used in carbon disclosure as proofs for the use of green electricity. As of 2019, a total of 163 certificates have been acquired.

Moreover, to comply with the government’s renewable energy policy in promoting the “Project to Maximize Solar Power in the Factory Area,” it is estimated that a power generation system with a capacity of about 1,455 kWp can be further installed by the end of 2023, which will increase the roof coverage rate to nearly 100%. After the expansion, the power generation of the entire fab can reach 2.85 million kWh/year.

3. Created a smart factory--Industry 4.0 was implemented to improve energy efficiency

• Developed smart and optimized energy-saving control systems to digitize and visualize the overall energy utilization in the fab, allowing operators to monitor the energy use of each piece of equipment in real time, and finding the most effective way to improve the energy efficiency of each fab tool.
• A paperless smart inspection system was implemented. After personnel arrive at the desired location to check the required readings, the readings can be uploaded to the cloud instantly, eliminating the process of printing reports, and the issues involved in report storage and searching, forming an environmental-friendly web-based inspection management platform.
• Prognostic and health management (PHM) was implemented to enable equipment in the fab to have health indicators (HI) and remaining useful life (RUL) predictions, avoiding unexpected equipment crashes and greatly improving the stability of the system.

4. Constructed LoRa wireless transmission system to instantly monitor the emission of pollutants
The monitoring values are instantly transmitted to the central control room via LoRa [Note 2]. For instance, the monitoring of pollutants is set up in accordance with the emission standards. If the monitored values are deviated from the standards, warnings will be provided in advance to enable early response.

Note 2: LoRa (Long Range) system is the low-power wide area network (LPWAN) transmission technology applied to the Internet of Things (IoT). It has the characteristics of long-distance transmission, low-power consumption, and easy deployment. The technology has been widely used in the outdoor environment of IoT.

5. Established the STSP Energy-Saving and Safety Service Team to assist disadvantaged social welfare organizations in carrying out energy-saving and carbon reduction measures
In March 2019, SC Chien, the president of UMC, was assigned to organize the "STSP Energy-Saving and Safety Service Team," aiming to serve disadvantaged social welfare organizations. The team was also invited to join the Energy-Saving Alliance of the Tainan City Government, helping large electricity users to carry out energy-saving and carbon reduction measures and jointly promoting the goal of a low-carbon city. The team was awarded for its effort by the Mayor of Tainan City, Wei-che Huang, on December 18, 2019. In 2019, the team offered assistance to 4 organizations (Deguang Catholic Senior High School, Nan Jeon University of Science and Technology, Tainan Municipal An-Nan Hospital, St. Theresa Opportunity Center), achieving a carbon reduction of 1,291 tons.

STSP Energy-Saving and Safety Service Team

The team was awarded by the Mayor of Tainan City, Wei-che Huang

St. Theresa Opportunity Center showed appreciation for the assistance offered by the team

6. Environmental protection activities were organized to promote colleagues’ awareness in environmental protection
UMC organized a series of environmental protection activities during the environmental protection season. Through participating in the activities, colleagues’ environmental protection awareness was raised, allowing them to integrate the ideas of sustainable development and environmental protection into their workplace and life. The activities include engagement in private or international environmental protection activities, coffee cup waste reduction, environmental protection seminars, purchasing of water bamboo from organic farming, ecological tours, etc. In the past three years, the ecological tour has been associated with the winning list of the UMC Eco Echo Award, allowing colleagues to understand and jointly protect the ecological environment of Taiwan.

Ecological tour of the Butterfly Conservation Society of Taiwan, "Going on a Journey with Butterflies, Spreading the Seeds of Ecological Conservation"

7. UMC’s STSP Fire Brigade performed emergency response training and disaster rescue drills for the factory site in STSP
In March 2019, UMC’s STSP Fire Brigade was invited to sign an MOU with the Tainan City Government Fire Bureau for sharing resources with the city government, providing regional joint defense and mutual support to increase fire-fighting as well as rescue capabilities and disaster and minimize losses from hazards. The events of collaboration in 2019 include: joint training between the Tainan City Government Fire Bureau and UMC’s STSP Fire Brigade in UMC’s factory site, assisting STSP Environmental Protection Foundation in carrying out toxic chemical hazard related trainings, and the demonstration of fire-fighting equipment and its operation for teachers and students of Chia Nan University of Pharmacy ＆ Science visiting the fab site.