Deeply Rooting the Seeds of Sustainable Hope – Asia Cement Eco-Environment Education Project
深耕永續希望種子-亞洲水泥生態環境教育專案
Asia Cement Corporation
INTRODUCTION
Asia Cement believes that economic growth and environmental protection can coexist without sacrificing one or the other. The Company not only deployed eco-friendly equipment, but also made re-vegetation in the quarry as their first priority. Asia Cement Hualien Plant has built an Ecological Park with the goal of “Park-like factory” since 2004. After 2013, the Ecological Park was upgraded and established eco-environment education sites to provide sustainable environmental education and provide free public visits to implement the mission of “Building a Sustainable Green Homeland” for sustainable development. In coordination with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Asia Cement expects to deeply root down seeds of sustainable hope through eco-environment awareness education in order to bring positive transformation of sustainable development to industries and societies in Taiwan.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
In order to establish a sustainable model quarry for its peers, Asia Cement is leveraging its core ability on restoration and re-vegetation of the quarry, and investigation of indigenous plant species to construct a platform for comprehensive environmental education for the public. Asia Cement combines open-type butterfly park, mimicking natural park and leisure garden into the Ecological Park, with total area of 3 hectares, and creates one of the best location in Taiwan for environmental education to attract visitors to learn the knowledge of sustainable environment.The Project is not limited to visiting the Ecological Park in person. The eco-environmental education could also be learned from the Ecological Park’s website (https://accpark.org) to understand the complete ecology and habits of butterflies, bamboo worms and native plants in different periods. These have become the cornerstone for the sustainable development of the environment. In addition to the environmental education visit of the Eco-Park, Asia Cement also provides the public to make an appointment to visit the Xinchengshan Mine to understand the mining situation of its own industry, the use of cement, and how the waste generated by life and business can be recycled into cement raw materials.
Asia Cement combines eco-parks, sustainable mine planting and greening with surrounding communities and national parks, implements lifelong learning through environmental education, promotes industrial development of local employment opportunities, cares for disadvantages, creates healthy communities, and implements mine safety and sustainable living environment. The Company carries out community building in the five major areas of “people, culture, land, scenery, and production”. Driven by the mission of “Building a Preferred Partner for Sustainable Green Homes”, it will establish a sustainable development strategy for “Building a Happy Workplace, Supporting Vulnerable Groups, Spreading Culture and Paying for a Harmonious Society”.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
In 2018, a total of 11,743 people received the service of environmental education. There was a total of 47,652 visitors since 2013. Asia Cement adopts the SROI (Social Return on Investment) method in 2017 to analyse its environmental education project to discover the power of making positive change. The Company calculated the monetary value of NT$16,875 million from the investment of NT$1.584 million through expert and scholar analysis, field interviews and questionnaires. The value of SROI reaches 10.65 times. The promotion of environmental education does not only cover Ecological Park, but also the needs for the cement industry, the technique and safety of the quarry, the feedback to nearby communities, and the preservation of environment. Hence, the local community can better understand the effort of Asia Cement in promoting sustainability, through complete connections and comprehensive communications.FUTURE DIRECTION
In addition to the restoration of quarry, Asia Cement had lifted the awareness of environmental protection to educational level. With the intention to contribute to eco-environmental education, Asia Cement will keep working with the experts and scholars to learn professional knowledge including plant taxonomy, environmental ecology, environmental education, preservation of natural resources, education of sustainable development, breeding of butterflies.In the future, Asia Cement will continue to strengthen the Ecological Park’s software and hardware equipment and plan marketing promotion programs. Besides, it will also extend the environment education from the Ecological Park into campus to spread the seeds of sustainable hope. Asia Cement will also organise concerts and cultural events in conjunction with local aboriginal communities during the summer vacation to encourage sustainable development.
Asia Cement adopts the philosophy of “high quality, high efficiency, high environmental protection and low cost” as the foundation of the operation. In addition to producing product with high quality, Asia Cement is dedicated to maintaining the highest environmental protection specification and manufacturing process with high efficiency.
