Taiwan: Discharge from stationary pollution sources

Environmental Policy and Management System

ACC has established comprehensive environmental policies to effectively manage environmental issues, reduce environmental impact, and protect ecosystems and natural resources. These policies apply to all operational sites of ACC. ACC’s operations involve mainly the following environmental impacts: Air pollution, landscape disturbances, and energy consumption. Additionally, ACC is committed to addressing environmental sustainability issues, including sustainable resource use, alternative materials for circular economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity, and ecosystem protection. Scope of application includes: Production and operations, products and services, distribution and logistics, waste resource management, suppliers, and contractors. Environmental due diligence was conducted when merging or acquiring business units.

ACC continues to implement an environmental management system to ensure compliance with laws and regulations. Following the principles of the management system “Plan-Do-Check-Act”; systematic internal and external audits are conducted annually to continuously improve environmental performance. Established an effective supervisory mechanism. In 2023, the ISO 14001 environmental management system coverage rate of ACC and its subsidiaries' production plants reached 86%, and the system will gradually expand the coverage rate in the future. To ensure that our environmental commitments will be realized and continuous improvements achieved.

Executive compensation linked to environmental management performance

Asia Cement links toxic emissions and waste management performance to executives' variable compensation. If environmental performance declines, there will be a 6% reduction in executives' individual bonuses to ensure the comprehensive implementation and execution of toxic emissions and waste management.

Air Pollution Emissions

In the manufacturing process, cement inevitably generates air pollutants. The main air pollutants include particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur oxides (SOx). ACC has introduced high-efficiency dust collection equipment in its cement manufacturing to implement emission control. Quality raw materials (such as high-quality limestone and low-sulfur coal) were selected to reduce air pollution from the source. To continuously monitor air pollutant emissions, ACC conducts regular monitoring of various pollutants each year. The data was submitted to government regulatory authorities for review. Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS) were installed to control emission concentration of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in real time. Over the years, the emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, particulate matter, and other pollutants from ACC have remained below regulatory standards.

Air Pollution Emission Management

ACC has a pollution control team under the “Corporate Sustainability Implementation Committee” responsible for monitoring pollution emissions and waste issues. The team reviews emission compliance, including particulate matter (PM), sulfur oxides (SOx), and nitrogen oxides (NOx). This team tracks environmental improvement plans quarterly, sets reduction targets, and reports to the Corporate Sustainability Committee every six months. Pollutants such as PM, NOx, and SOx have intensity targets based on emissions per unit of cementing material. Mercury emissions were measured based on the total annual emission quantity. In accordance with current air pollution regulations and equipment efficiency, ACC plans air pollution improvement measures. Feasible reduction targets were set to maintain air pollution emissions at low level and minimize environmental impact. In 2023, all air pollution reduction targets were achieved by 100%.

Air Pollution Concentration and Regulation Differences of ACC in 2023

Air Pollution Emission Management Measures

ACC has actively managed air pollution emissions and completed three projects in 2023 as part of the air pollution emission reduction plan. The total investment cost was NTD204 million. Improvement projects included: Monitoring particulate removal data, reducing NOx emissions concentration, and reducing PM emissions concentration. 

The Emission of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS)

Most of the Freon use are R-134a and environmentally friendly Freon R-410a. Currently, only Hualien Plant and Chiahui Power use a small volume of ODS R-22 (Ozone Depletion Potential 0.055) in water cooler and building’s air conditioners. Environmentally friendly Freon has been successively used for replacement during machine repairs. In 2023, the emission of R-22 was calculated to be equivalent to 0.001 tons of CFC-11 (based on the Freon leakage emission factor 8.5% listed in GHG emission coefficients management table).