Letter from Chief Sustainability Officer
Since taking office two years ago, I have always believed that sustainability should not only be the responsibility of a few people in the company, but should be jointly participated by all HTC colleagues. We've been pushing this concept forward for two years and we're starting to see some exciting results. In the past year, we have been recognized by many domestic and foreign sustainability awards, including being selected as a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series for two consecutive years, being listed on CDP’s 2023 Supplier Engagement Leaderboard, and the national level recognition of National Sustainability Award . However, I am even more pleased to see colleagues in the office who congratulate each other on winning sustainability awards, and enthusiastically provide ESG-related advice. For me, being able to arouse the enthusiasm of colleagues to participate in ESG is the greatest affirmation of our past efforts.
In HTC's journey towards sustainability, I have witnessed the vision of many different industries for sustainable development with my colleagues and stakeholders. Therefore, when we reflect on how HTC constructs HTC's own sustainability vision, we find that the most important thing is to integrate ESG spirit into the core business in order to find a balance between the company's growth and sustainable development, and HTC's sustainability vision can go hand in hand with the VIVERSE vision.
In addition to continuing to pay attention to energy conservation and carbon reduction from environmental perspective, HTC has also been thinking about how to fulfill its social responsibility. In line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations, we will strive to eliminate the digital gap and practice the spirit of ESG through the advantages of HTC's products and content. For example, I can deeply understand that in remote areas or economically disadvantaged areas, it is difficult for many children to have the opportunity to travel abroad and experience the scenery of foreign countries. But with the advancement of HTC's core virtual reality technology, we can leverage the technology advantages to solve this problem, not only reducing our carbon footprint, but also helping governments promote digital equality, reduce the gap between urban and rural areas, and achieve the United Nations SDGs to reduce inequalities.
I believe that the sooner HTC acts, the more it can contribute to the sustainability of the planet. That's why we built an internal carbon management platform in 2023. Some people may ask, HTC’s carbon emissions are not high, so why should it build a carbon management platform? Because once a product enters mass production stage, it is difficult to reduce the carbon footprint. Therefore, during the development of the product, the possible carbon footprint is systematically modeled so that materials with a low environmental impact can be selected at an early stage of development. This is not only an advance deployment of future trends, but also the selection of low-carbon emission suppliers will reduce the cost of carbon reduction, thereby improving product competitiveness. We also expect to introduce internal carbon pricing (ICP) in 2024 to internalize carbon emission costs and keep up with global trends, thereby enhancing ESG competitiveness.
With the proactive efforts of the first two years, HTC has established a solid foundation for sustainable development. However, we know that this is just the beginning, and that the upcoming third year will be the time for us to look for more opportunities and do more. With the support of software and hardware, HTC has shown a differentiation advantage, not only for the competitiveness of our products, but also for achieving sustainable goals. We will continue to explore innovative technologies and solutions to meet sustainability challenges. Through continuous research, development, and collaboration, we are committed to developing more environmentally friendly and socially valuable products and services, promoting the realization of sustainable development goals, and injecting new vitality and hope into HTC's sustainable development. As a quietly pragmatic sustainability practitioner, HTC looks forward to take every step firmly and steadily on the road to net zero.
HTC Corporation
Chief Sustainability Officer
Madeline Chen
