Decision-makers from Taiwan’s and Germany’s public and private sectors gather to discuss how to utilize digitalization technologies to Do More with Less in order to achieve Resource Efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The challenges in realizing digital and net-zero transformations will serve as dual growth engines to transform and shape a sustainable future for Taiwan.
The 2024 Taiwan Sustainability Summit was held in Taipei today. “Digitalization” and “climate change” were the two key themes of this year’s summit. Besides once again highlighting the importance of AI and digital transformation, this year’s summit also echoed President Lai’s emphasis on digital and net-zero transformations that will underpin the broad national development strategy emphasized in his May 20th inauguration address. Speakers from Taiwan and Germany attending this year’s event included, from the Taiwan side, Consultant to National Climate Change Committee, Taiwan R.O.C. and Chairman of Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy Dr. Eugene Chien, Chief Secretary of Economic Affairs Ming-Chih Chuang, and Pegatron Chairman T.H. Tung; and from the German side, Saxon State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics, Labor, and Transportation Thomas Kralinski, and Siemens Taiwan President and CEO Frank Grunert. Siemens, which co-hosted the event, is actively encouraging cooperation among the public and private sectors, a mindset change, and accelerated actions, helping to build a sustainable future for Taiwan through the dual engines of digital and net-zero transformations.
Siemens founded the Taiwan Sustainability Summit in 2013 in cooperation with the German Institute Taipei, the German Trade Office Taipei, and the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy. The summit was suspended for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making this year the 10th edition of the event. The summit continues to focus on issues associated with Taiwan’s sustainable development, with key topics including strengthening the competitiveness of Taiwan and its major cities, industries, and enterprises. To date, important topics discussed included Industrie 4.0, energy transition, digital transformation, industrial AI, and City 4.0. In light of the enormous impact that digitalization and climate change continue to have on global sustainable development, the 2024 summit is specially focusing on the use of digital technologies to achieve more with less, namely achieving greater output with fewer resources, and realizing the ideal utilization of resources such as water, electricity, land, labor, and talents. This will reduce the volume of emissions by better managing the source of emissions.
During the Summit, Siemens showcased how digitalization technologies have been effectively implemented to create impactful “Do-More-with-Less” solutions across various sectors, including manufacturing, buildings, rail transportation, agriculture, and energy grids. For example, Siemens' Adaptive Control & Monitoring (ACM) employs AI-driven smart learning capabilities that have helped machine tool companies like HOTA and GOODWAY address challenges related to land, energy, labor, and talent. This innovation has resulted in an average productivity increase of 20%.
Furthermore, Siemens has helped the Taipei Da-an Post Office and the Xizhi Branch of the Development Center for Biotechnology achieve energy savings of over 60% and 50% respectively, for their HVAC systems through advanced AI algorithms and digitalization technologies. LOGA, a company focused on vertical farming, has also reaped the benefits of Siemens' automation and digitalization technologies, achieving better water utilization, over 20% energy savings, and more than 50% reductions in labor costs. Lastly, through Siemens' Spectrum Series Energy Control Systems, the Central Dispatch Control System (CDCS) which acts as the brain for TPC's dispatching and network control, effectively manages Taiwan's dynamic energy landscape.
Siemens Taiwan President and CEO Frank Grunert said, “As a trusted technology partner to Taiwan, Siemens will continue to use digital technology to help public and private sectors to do more with less, achieve higher resource efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and reach sustainability goals.”
German Institute Taipei Director General Dr. Jörg Polster highlighted, “Only days after the groundbreaking ceremony of TSMC and its European partners in Dresden, we meet here in Taipei to discuss the deepening of our cooperation, with the goal of furthering sustainability through digitalization technologies.”
German Trade Office (GTO) Taipei Chief Representative & Executive Director Dr. Eva Langerbeck pointed out, “Sustainable development cannot be achieved alone; GTO will continue to actively collaborate with various German business partners to expand the impact of achieving net-zero emissions.
TAISE Chairman Dr. Eugene Chien said both domestic and foreign enterprises need to adopt a more sustainable energy approach. He emphasized the importance of considering economic, environmental, and social factors in their business practices, highlighting that corporate energy transitions can serve as a driving force for Taiwan’s journey toward net-zero emissions.
To further facilitate digital and net zero transformations in Taiwan, the four co-organizers of the Summit have jointly summarized the following Core Statements:
- Cultivating a mindset change to embrace carbon neutrality as opportunities,
- Accelerating actions with proven technologies and less debate,
- Harnessing the power of digitalization technologies such as digital twin and industrial AI to achieve more with less,
- Prioritizing manufacturing, buildings and transportation as focused areas in Taiwan,
- Adopting a holistic approach to data management throughout the entire value chain to drive sustainability,
- Scaling up the impact through demand-pull from government and enterprise project procurement,
- Strengthening partnerships and ecosystems to address climate challenges collectively.
Learn more about Siemens Taiwan on their official website: https://www.siemens.com/tw/en.html