Overview

Now celebrating its tenth year, the UMC Eco Echo Award continues to be a powerful catalyst for sustainable innovation. Over the past decade, the Award has helped countless promising ideas grow from concept to reality. In 2025, it is embracing a new transformation to become an enduring partner and collaborator for even more changemakers driving sustainability forward.

The UMC Eco Echo Award has announced three key shifts:

1. Repositioning its role — evolving from a mere rewarder to an active enabler, accompanying innovators to bring their ideas to life and tackle real-world environmental challenges.

2. Broadening eligibility — welcoming a wider range of applicants, including non-profit organizations, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), universities, and research institutions.

3. Deepening collaboration — investing more resources into high-potential projects to build long-term partnerships. Through these changes, the Eco Echo Award aims to become a launchpad and accelerator for sustainability initiatives in Taiwan.

In its 9th year, the UMC Eco Echo Award not only provided funding but also actively supported the growth journey of the winning teams.

One of the 9th Eco Echo Award winners, raingo (FunCrowd Inc.), harnessed technology to launch a shared umbrella service, tackling the hassle of forgotten or broken umbrellas while boosting circular use. In just over a year, raingo has established 600 stations across Taipei, New Taipei, and Taoyuan, serving more than 200,000 users. Chief Operating Officer (COO) Yu-Shu Lee encourages future Eco Echo Award applicants to clearly break down budgets and show both quantitative and qualitative impacts. He highlights the importance of aligning a project’s core idea with the sweet spot of what you love, what you’re good at, and what soeciety need. He also expressed special thanks to the Eco Echo Award for providing not only funding but also the flexibility meeded, which allowed the team to adapt their strategy as their project evolved.

Another winner, addLEss, addressed the fast turnover of children’s clothing due to over-production/over-consumption by creating a premium secondhand clothing circulation platform. They also built a complete zero-waste loop that recycles unsold garments into new household products or reuses them in creative ways. In 2024 alone, the platform engaged 12,000 participants in its recycling program, with a remarkable 75% success rate for secondhand clothing transactions. Founder Jin-Ru Huang stressed that successful proposals must clearly define the problem, present concrete results from market validation, and ensure that the project is closely aligned with the team’s core capabilities.

To date, the UMC Eco Echo Award has deeply supported 81 real-world projects. Now in its 10th year, the program is expanding its impact even further. Applications for the 10th Eco Echo Award are open from April 22 to August 31, with the aim of connecting with even more changemakers ready to spark everyday sustainability through fresh, innovative ideas. Let’s build a greener tomorrow together!

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► For application details, please visit the official Eco Echo Award website: https://ecoechoaward.com/