Fubon Financial

Commitment to green finance with four major green-themed sporting events, municipal partnerships to plant 100,000 trees in five years to achieve carbon-neutrality goal

Launch of Taiwan’s first electric bloodmobile—“Fubon Bus”—with 48% carbon reduction per blood drive

In response to the global commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050, Fubon Financial Holdings, on October 28, held a press conference for its campaign titled “Run For Green: Leading Taiwan towards net zero”. The company is committed to the green pledge and maximizing the business impact on financials and non-financial sectors in order to minimize environmental damage. It strives to be a leader in green finance and sustainable financial services. Its green efforts also extend to other areas; it promotes four major marathons with a focus on eco-friendly events, calling on participants to run for the earth and plant 100,000 trees in five years. It has also teamed up with local governments to achieve carbon neutrality. Lastly, Fubon Financial Holdings has donated its Fubon Bus electric bloodmobile to the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation. The bus can reduce carbon emissions by 48% for each blood drive while providing a quiet and hazard-free environment for blood donation. The company hopes to inspire others to join it in blood donation and reach the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

At the press conference, Jerry Harn (president of Fubon Financial Holdings), Eugene Chien (chairman of Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE), Chou Kuei-tien (Director of the National Taiwan University’s Risk Society and Policy Research Center), and representatives from Taiwan’s four major marathons and a tree planting supervisory organization showed up during the announcement of the Run For Green plans. Through live-streamed pre-recorded videos, high-ranking officers from the cities of New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung and the counties of Changhua and Hualien urged more public engagement to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Also in attendance were Sheng-Tang Wei (CEO of the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation) and Min-chang Lin (director of the Taipei Blood Donation Center), who received the donation from Fubon on behalf of their organizations while urging the public to donate blood and reduce their carbon footprint as part of their commitment to a greener earth.

Jerry Harn noted that global climate change is intensifying extreme weather phenomena and serving as a wakeup call that crisis of sustainability is upon us. Human-environment interactions shouldn’t be a zero-sum game, and thus we must act to protect the environment and the land to sustain our livelihoods. He also said that it’s time for Fubon Financial Holdings as a leading enterprise to take the initiative to do good! In 2021, the company celebrated its 60th anniversary by proposing Run For Green, through which it will team up with municipal and county administrations in a carbon footprint mitigation push towards carbon neutrality by 2050.

He added that the company as a financial services provider intends to play to its strengths by financial supporting businesses that embark on low-carbon transformation as part of its CSR efforts, in addition to providing assistance to clean energy developments. The company is looking to boost the resilience of insurance products by spearheading impact investment by businesses. Elsewhere, its intends to optimize the influence of its 13-year sponsorship of marathons in Taiwan, namely the “Taipei Marathon”, “Kaohsiung Fubon Marathon”, “New Taipei City Wan Jin Shi Marathon”, and “Taiwan's Rice Heaven Tianzhong Marathon”, in a push for eco-friendly sporting events. The company has already partnered with municipal and county administrations to plant 10,000 trees island-wide within five years for participants in these races. Any participant who runs more than 40 kilometers will have a tree planted in their name in a location of their choice. This means that runners are running not only for their own health, but also the health of Taiwan.

Eugene Chien, TAISE chairman, said that carbon emissions remain the most important issue globally. As consistently rising emissions pose challenges for Taiwan to achieve its 2050 goal of carbon neutrality, both the public and private sector will need to boost their carbon footprint mitigation efforts, Chien added. It pleased him to see big-caps like Fubon setting up long-term carbon-neutral mandates, with the company planning to expand its influence from the financial sector to other spaces by investing more resources to phase out carbon emissions. On October 28, Fubon announced that it was teaming up with municipal and county administrations to plant 10,000 trees within five years, in addition to its donation of Taiwan’s first electric bloodmobile. Chien said that he hoped that more companies and people would pay attention to carbon emissions and Taiwan’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

The company’s Run For Green plan consists of four marathons combined with its tree planting project and partnerships with municipal and county administrations in New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, Changhua, and Hualien. High-ranking officers from these cities and counties have expressed their appreciation for the plan, as well as called for more public engagement to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. Fubon Financial Holdings is grateful for the support of organizations such as Dongshih Forest District Office, Taijiang National Park, Hualien Forest District Office, and the agricultural departments of municipal and county governments in tree planting, as their continued support will maximize the benefits of the program.

Fubon is also committed to other carbon mitigation programs. On October 28 it donated the Fubon Bus, Taiwan’s first electric bloodmobile, to the Taiwan Blood Services Foundation and Taipei Blood Donation Center. As most local bloodmobiles are powered by diesel, each blood drive undertaken by the Fubon Bus can reduce carbon emissions by 48% over a diesel-powered one. Both organizations thanked Fubon for the donation, as it will not only save lives, but also reduce carbon emissions.

The Fubon Bus marked its first day of service on the same day by participating in a charity event at the headquarters of Fubon Insurance. Members of the public as well as Fubon employees rushed to donate blood after they found out. The Taipei Blood Donation Center noted that local COVID-19 outbreaks began in May and posed major challenges to blood donation, while cold weather in recent weeks has worsened the impact of cardiovascular diseases. The center urged people to donate blood to bolster blood inventory levels as part of their support of the local medical system.

Please visit the link https://www.fubon.com/r4g/ .