The EPA is organizing the third Green Chemistry Application and Innovation Awards with registration open until 14 October 2022. In this year’s competition, for the first time ESG (environmental, social, and governance) criteria have been included in award scoring to reflect the international trend toward sustainability. The EPA will soon hold five briefings to give more information on the competition. For more details, please refer to the Green Chemistry Application and Innovation Awards Website (https://topic.epa.gov.tw/gcai). All industries are invited to enter the competition.  

In order to encourage all industries to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, implement hazard prevention management, strengthen emergency response capabilities, promote education in green chemistry, while continuing toward innovative research and development of low-polluting and low-toxicity alternative products through green chemistry, the EPA is organizing the third annual Green Chemistry Application and Innovation Awards.   

The EPA stated that to encourage sustainable development of industries and to align with the internationally popular concept of sustainability and ESG-related issues, ESG-related actions have been specifically included as an item to be evaluated when judging the group category in this year’s event. By participating, not only will industries be able to examine and display their relevant performance from different green chemistry perspectives, they will also be encouraged to advance towards sustainability and improve their international competitiveness.  

In this year’s event, maximums of 15 and 10 winners will be selected for the group and individual categories, respectively. The group category is further divided into the five sub-categories of “green chemistry education,” “green and safe alternatives,” “chemical substance management”, “disaster prevention and rescue”, and “other.” The individual category also has a “lifetime achievement” sub-category to recognize individuals who have been committed to the field of green chemistry throughout their lives. The winners will be awarded a trophy and be publicly recognized. For the individual category, winners will also be granted NT$50,000 or merchandise of equal value. Moreover, the award-winning deeds of all winners will be recorded in the "Deeds of Outstanding Achievement", a booklet that records the actions of enterprises and individuals in the field of green chemistry, to serve as examples for all industries to learn from.

Excerpt from Major Environmental Policies, August 2022