2023 Goals and Achievements- Scope 1 and Scope 2
★Continuous acquisition of greenhouse gas inventory assurance and establishment of the goal of saving 1% carbon emission every year. In 2023, we obtained greenhouse gas inventory certification.
★The result showed the carbon emissions reduced 17.63% compared to that in the previous year.
- Scope 3
★Obtained greenhouse gas inventory assurance report for the first time.
2024 Goals- Based on year 2023, the total carbon emissions shall reduce 3% from 2024 to 2025.
The Company also devotes to review operating activities and continues promoting measures of carbon reduction through technical assistance or management, including electronic procedures, energy-saving solutions, development of energy-saving equipment for green building, and verification of greenhouse gas emissions at all sites. We implemented the environmental management policy to protect sustainable environment in low-carbon operation. The Company has obtained the certificate of ISO 14001 Environmental Management System for 8 years in a row.
In 2023, greenhouse gas inventory at operating sites all over Taiwan showed a reduction of carbon emissions in 1,696 tons compared to the results in 2022 because of more measures for energy saving and carbon reduction established, including control the switch of air conditioner. It reduced around 17.32%.
The Company will continue pushing forwards various energy-saving measures to achieve the set goal of carbon reduction. The carbon emissions generated by business trip in HSR and airplane are included in Scope 3 verification.
Therefore, we expand the utilization of video equipment. Some meetings and educational training were done through remote connection to reduce the carbon emissions generated by business trip. In addition, superior to the legal regulations, we conducted voluntary verification on investment and financing in Scope for the first time and completed the third-party assurance.
To respond to international ESG trends, pursue corporate sustainable development, and support “Green Finance Action Plan 2.0” published by Financial Supervisory Commission which encouraged financial institutions to develop and innovate green finance products or services to satisfy the financial demands on the transition of carbon reduction and sustainable development pursued by enterprises and investors, Mercuries Life Insurance planned activities of electronic promotion to hugely enhance the utilization rate of electronic insurance policy.
In 2023, we launched a promotional activity, “getting together for 30 to move towards electronification”. During the activity, any qualified policy holder applying for new contract e-policy, e-form, mobile claim, new account/ password reissuance with multiple identity verification, and specific automatic services (policy loan, withdrawal, transfer, purchase) is entitle to collect points to convert to lucky draw. In addition, we established an electronic promotion team consisting of HQ and front-line service personnel to answer policy holders’ questions timely, assist the promotion of e-services, and integrate customers’ feedback and opinions from different channels. It ensures questions from customers can be answered and handled by service personnel timely, and customers’ opinions can be used as suggestions for the optimization of e-services to complete experience of policy holders. In 2023, the mobile insurance rate for new contracts was 98.33%. It was estimated to reduce the consumption of 4.95 million pieces of paper to actually reduce the consumption of natural resources and huge paper consumption. The ratio of new personal insurance and travel insurance (TA) for e-policy application is increasing every year. In 2023, a total of 180,465 new contracts were issued, of which 81,929 were issued in the form of e-policies, accounting for 45.4% of the total.
Power consumption at operating sites is the main source of carbon emissions in the life insurance industry. To lower the impact to the environment during the operating process and provide employees a healthier office environment, Mercuries Life Insurance reduces energy consumption and pollution to the environment through saving internal resources. Through replacing and washing equipment as well as using energy-saving devices, we reduce carbon emissions, including routine main air conditioner washing and replacement of old air-conditioning equipment to enhance air-conditioning efficiency. Meanwhile, we replace lamps to energyefficient lamps gradually at new workplace to develop different methods for energy saving by technology and management in parallel as well as to reduce excessive use of environmental resources. From 2022, the Company expanded the scope of greenhouse gas inventory to operating sites all over Taiwan and completed assurance. Because of more changes in workplace in 2023, we adopted 2023 as the base year instead. The goal of total carbon emission reduction in 2024-2025 is 3% to make the greatest effort to the development of environmental sustainability. (Please refer to 7.10 Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas inventory CPA’s limited assurance report.)
Our corporate HQ building in Neihu obtained “green building label” and has been completed the installation of energy-saving equipment of solar energy photovoltaic panel to show our active actions in participating in environmental greening and saving energy. 36 panels of 370W high-efficient power generation solar energy photovoltaic modules were installed. In 2023, they generated around 3,000 kWh of electricity. Wen-Hsin Building in Taichung used green construction materials, like adoption of double glazing and insulation film, to effectively block out heat sources and reduce energy costs. Besides, it adopted lower construction rate to increase greening space. Meanwhile, 82 solar panels were installed on the roof with installation capacity of 195W each panel. In 2023, the solar panels generated around 4,000 kWh of electricity.
From 2016 to 2023, we successfully reduced our total carbon emissions by 60.49%. Using 2023 as the baseline, we aim to reduce carbon emissions by 3% from 2024 to 2025. In 2023, our entire company continued to obtain the greenhouse gas inventory assurance report for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
Additionally, exceeding regulatory requirements, we voluntarily conducted our first inventory of Scope 3 emissions for investment and financing positions and completed third-party assurance.
The Company sets a goal of saving 1% of water consumption every year. Other than installing water-saving taps, we keep promoting water-saving measures to employees. In 2023, total water consumption was 134,100m3. Compared to that in 2022, it reduced 18,800m3.
Although waste generated during operations in the life insurance industry is relatively simple in only livelihood waste and general resource recycling and causes limited impact to the environment, the Company still tries the best to implement the policy of resource reutilization during the operations by sorting out garbage and recycling resources. We recycled paper products for reutilization, centrally recycled waste batteries, disposed decoration waste through qualified companies, reused potted plants at the workplace by either extending life cycle or entrusting manufacturers to collected back for disposal in order to ensure waste reaching the greatest benefits.