Taiwan's decentralised sustainability alliance dESG.tw launches an initiative to drive ESG digital transformation

The Taiwan Blockchain Enthusiasts Association has launched the Decentralized-ESG alliance (dESG.tw). Against the global push for sustainability and net zero, it calls on all sectors to use blockchain's 3T qualities — trust, transparency, and traceability — to support corporate ESG measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV), and will work with Web3 innovation and NFT project communities on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. At the founding ceremony, convener Chan Ting-yi and the assembled guests each held one of the twelve mnemonic words that make up a Web3 crypto wallet, so that the alliance's collective work and contribution can be recorded on chain and kept there. Image: dESG.tw The launch was held at N24 Taipei ARK, the blockchain innovation incubation base. Guests attending in person, online, or by recorded message included Chien Yu-hsin, chairman of the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy and ambassador-at-large; Lin Tze-luen, deputy executive director of the Executive Yuan's Office of Energy and Carbon Reduction; Tsai Chi-chang, president of the Legislative Yuan's UN Sustainable Development Association and deputy speaker of the Legislative Yuan; legislator Tsai Pi-ju; Chu Yu-cheng, director of the Wyoming Asia Pacific Trade Office; Liao Shih-wei, member of the Taiwan Blockchain Alliance steering committee; Peng Chi-ming, secretary-general of the Taiwan Climate Partnership; and Chan Fang-kuan, director-general of the Industrial Development Department at the National Development Council. Convener Chan Ting-yi noted that in 2015 the United Nations published "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" as a guide to action. The agenda draws together people, the planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership to spur a global effort, and sets out the Sustainable Development Goals — seventeen goals and 169 targets, with hundreds of indicators established since to measure progress. Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission has likewise set out a blueprint with the financial and capital markets that includes building an ESG ecosystem. At the same time, alongside the EU, which was already ahead, Taiwan's National Development Council announced its 2050 net-zero pathway in March. Environmental, social, and governance practice has become a sustainability question every company at home and abroad must face. The decentralised nature of blockchain is well suited to a moment when standards are still unsettled: it lets many minds add to and refine a consensus, forming standards from the bottom up. The alliance hopes this launch will start that process and build an equal, mutually beneficial platform. Ambassador Chien Yu-hsin said in his address: "Sustainable action is not only a matter of personal will. When net zero becomes a global goal and cutting carbon becomes a new form of commercial value, high-emission countries may lose their competitiveness and be cast aside by the global market. The UN's SDGs were the starting gun — this is a trend we have to follow. I am glad the Taiwan Blockchain Enthusiasts Association and dESG.tw have brought so many innovative technologies together to offer new solutions for the planet." Tsai Chi-chang and co-convener Chen Mei-ling also sent video messages in support of technology that serves sustainable innovation. The Taiwan Blockchain Enthusiasts Association is the alliance's first node. Its honorary chair and former NCC chair Chan Ting-yi serves as convener; the co-conveners are Chen Mei-ling, convener of the Taiwan Blockchain Alliance and former minister of the National Development Council; Lo Wei-ming, chief executive of Good Deeds Exchange; Chang Jung-chang, co-founder of NFTBoard; and Kao Chi-chun, chair of the Taiwan Blockchain Enthusiasts Association. During the ceremony the conveners and guests held the private key made up of the twelve auspicious mnemonic words — "pilot, enable, ability, truth, action, project, proof, trust, machine, develop, digital, economy" — so that the alliance's collective work would be recorded on chain. Through dESG.tw the association hopes to focus attention on the SDGs and invite Web3 teams to use blockchain in support of sustainability groups and industry. Convener Chan Ting-yi calls on all sectors to use blockchain's 3T qualities to assist ESG digital transformation. Image: dESG.tw On the day of the launch, dESG.tw also hosted a decentralised sustainable development forum. Speakers included Tsai Hui-ling, chair of the Yunus Foundation; Lo Wei-ming, chief executive of Good Deeds Exchange; Chang Jung-chang, co-founder of NFTBoard; Chen Chou-jen, chief executive of International Trust Machines; Sun Shao-tsu, deputy general manager of WI Harper Group; Wang Sheng-chieh, planner in the blockchain technology division of Cathay Financial Holdings' Data and Digital Development Center; Chao Chun-pu, chairman of Frontier Textile Technology; Noah Yeh, co-organiser of da0; Lin Han-ting, chief executive of Newave Capital; Yang Yao-yang, chairman of Red House Capital; Alec Liu, chief executive of MingZhou Technology; and Kao Chi-chun, chair of the Taiwan Blockchain Enthusiasts Association. They spoke about how innovative technology and operating models apply to certification, credit trading, timestamped archiving, and NFTs, including applications already built in fields such as digital textiles and climate change, and their plans ahead.