“No matter how committed we are to the environment and social participation, there is always more we can do,” says Cindy Benschop-Hsiung, sustainability officer at Delta Electronics EMEA region. “It has been in Delta’s DNA since the start of its business 52 years ago, that as a responsible corporate citizen, we give back what we’ve earned from the society.”

And indeed, 52 years after the company was founded, Delta is still walking the walk. Together with its employees, Delta has been on an array of ESG initiatives. In September, around 30 employees joined the Plastic Whale tour, fishing litter out of Amsterdam’s canals, while in May, they did a beach clean-up at Zandvoort.

“The Dutch beaches are relatively clean, what we did find was mostly microplastics,” says Benschop-Hsiung. “But the most important thing is that it has started a new wave of movement among our colleagues to be involved in environmental awareness.”

The company, which aims to provide innovative, clean and energy-efficient solutions, has always had an environmental and sustainable focus, says Benschop-Hsiung. Its founder Bruce CH Cheng has established the Delta Electronics foundation and committed to climate mitigation and adaptation works since 1990.

Green energy

In 2021, the company joined the RE100 initiative, committing to 100% renewable electricity by 2030. “We are the first high-tech manufacturing company in Taiwan to target the RE100 goal by 2030. With 156 sales offices, 51 plants and 73 R&D centres around the world, this is not a small commitment.” says Benschop-Hsiung.

“With the implementation of renewable energy, energy storage and purchasing clean energy, we are on the right track and we’re confident that we’ll be able to reach this commitment as we’ve targeted -even a bit ahead. Our operations in Europe are expected to reach RE100 by 2025. This is how committed we are towards this.”

On a recent and local scale, the company plants trees together with the charitable organisation One Tree Planted. Employees across EMEA are encouraged to get involved, with a charity fitness challenge: they can record their activities in a designated app, and then the company counts up the miles they bike, run and walk and converts them into trees.

“This particular year the original plan was to donate trees in Spain,” says Benschop-Hsiung.” However, we changed the destination to Portugal because of the forest fires. We want to connect our CSR activity to the current emergencies.

“The Leiria Pine forest in Portugal will be closer to recovery thanks to collaborative efforts from the employees from Delta EMEA. Our staff are also becoming more aware of their own travel, and it is nice to think that your daily exercise dose or even grocery trips can be dedicated to planting more trees.”

Giving back

The obvious charitable activity in Amsterdam, near Delta’s Hoofddorp office, is of course related to water, which is why the Plastic Whale initiative was chosen.

“Canals are such a historical source of life for this country,” says Benschop-Hsiung. “And with so many tourists coming in, pollution is growing much faster than it can be cleaned up. So it’s great that we can contribute to doing something that is meaningful, visible and good for our employees at the same time.”

It’s all, says Benschop-Hsiung, about giving back to the local society in the most appropriate way – whether that is planting new trees in Europe, raising money for victims of earthquakes in the Middle East, or donating money for clean water in Africa.

“As a responsible corporate citizen, we are planning more ESG initiatives in the coming years,” says Benschop-Hsiung. “During this era of great environmental and societal change, we must put sustainability in action and never lose sight of our ESG responsibilities. I’m very excited about the opportunities that lie ahead to create a better world together.”