Taiwan’s Social Enterprises

In the remote Ugandan village of Lulaque, residents plant bananas, cassavas and other starchy crops for their own consumption. Because they are far from roads accessible to buyers, they largely eschew cash crops such as coffee. As a consequence, little currency circulates locally, and most of the money that villagers do have is used for tuition or medical fees. Thus the village has little in the way of a cash economy.

Yet in this village that the world had seemingly forgotten, change has begun to come—thanks in part to Taiwan’s Love Binti International (LBI).

Taiwan’s social enterprises are intent on expanding their impact overseas, such as by bolstering the Ugandan rural economy. (courtesy of Hu Jer-san)

Sustainable development goals

LBI has long shown concern for women in remote areas of Africa, promoting micro-economies that help local families to overcome poverty. In that spirit, they approached Hu Jer-san, a professor in the Department of Business Administration and the graduate program in social enterprise at Fu Jen Catholic University, to help them look at the potential for developing social enterprises in Lulaque.

Hu says that social enterprises, as “organizations that emphasize both social values and profitability,” must first understand local problems and needs before they can find workable solutions. Through field surveys, LBI discovered that the humble stone slab stoves used in the Ugandan village were inefficient, so they looked for local materials to make better stoves. They settled on clay and sticky ant hill soil, and then taught relevant stove-building skills to local residents, enabling them to sell their services to earn income. 

Hu explains that because there is little cash in the ­local economy, he encourages local people to barter, exchanging their services for corn, which LBI then turns into feed for them to raise chickens. LBI also teaches them how to plant high-value vegetables and other agricultural skills. As residents exchange goods and services with each other, they lay the foundations for a local trading economy. LBI is also working with Cornerstone Social Enterprise to provide “in-kind microloans” to local women in the form of modern beehives and beekeeping training. The women repay the loans with some of the honey they produce, which Cornerstone sells in Taiwan. The proceeds are then used to support LBI’s operations. Hu explains that the model has substantially increased local employment opportunities and the cultivation of technical skills.

Whether at farms, factories, or campgrounds, Sunnyfounder helps households and small businesses turn rooftops into citizen power plants, leveraging the power of the people to hasten Taiwan’s energy transition.

Phoebe Chen, cofounder of Sunnyfounder, believes that sustainable development goals aren’t rarified theory but rather attainable aims that require everyone to work together to realize them.

Sunnyfounder: Turning roofs into solar farms

Taiwan’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have long attracted international attention for their spirit of innovation and entrepreneurialism, and Hu believes that this is also one of the factors behind the flourishing of social enterprises in Taiwan. Young people, moreover, show a strong determination to brainstorm and find appropriate business models to solve society’s problems. For instance, Phoebe Chen, cofounder of the green energy crowdfunding platform Sunnyfounder, has lever­aged insights into the bottlenecks plaguing Taiwan’s energy transition to launch social enterprises. 

As a doctoral student in sociology, Chen discovered that although Taiwan had outstanding solar energy technology, solar panel installations here were almost entirely expensive systems for large businesses rather than consumer applications fostering widespread parti­ci­pa­tion. The general public’s lack of engagement with energy production pushed her to become a problem solver. 

Chen’s background was in sociology and the humanities, so she sought out partners with expertise in fields such as mechanical engineering and information engineering. Together they set up Sunnyfounder in 2016. Recruiting people with roofs to lease out, the platform then pools money for the purchase of photovoltaic panels, helping small solar farms gain a foothold in Taiwan. To date, it has facilitated installations for more than 450 of these mini solar farms, which produce more than 16 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year. 

Allen Ye (center) and the PackAge+ team are promoting the use of reusable packaging systems to help achieve carbon-neutral e-commerce.

Green energy benefits all

Government policy has advanced in step with greater awareness of sustainability among Taiwan’s public. Amendments to the Electricity Act, for instance, have liberalized the green energy market. Or take the announced public policy goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions, which has defined a clear direction for energy transition in Taiwan. Sunnyfounder’s expanding business bears witness to this transformation. It was the first private firm in Taiwan to be licensed to sell green energy, helping Taiwanese SMEs to meet emissions ­reduction requirements.

Last year, Sunnyfounder launched its Green Well 100+ campaign, which solicits funds from businesses and citizens to help social welfare organizations put solar panels on their roofs. The revenue generated can be used to support those or other organizations’ operations. Businesses realize environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives, and the environment benefits. It’s a win-win.

Chen notes, “There will always be social problems, but we can be more innovative in our approaches to solving those problems.” For instance, Sunnyfounder recently has acted as a carbon credits matchmaker while helping a social welfare organization replace their lighting fixtures. Apart from offering illumination, the lights will provide savings of NT$1.3 million over ten years. Sunnyfounder has used internationally recognized methodologies to apply for carbon credits on the organization’s behalf, which can then be sold to businesses interested in attaining carbon neutrality. 

Chen describes the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) as a compass guiding the world toward a better future. Sunnyfounder, which was started with a focus on green energy, would seem at first glance to have only an interest in realizing the seventh SDG: ensuring “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.” But in fact the platform has to date helped with achieving nearly ten SDGs. “By 2030 we want to have completed 100 clean energy projects and to be checking off all of the SDGs.”

PackAge+ is continually improving the design of its packaging, making it easier to fold up and store and thus more convenient to return for reuse. 

PackAge+’s push for zero waste

The global growth of e-commerce has created mountains of packaging waste. Allen Ye, the CEO and cofounder of PackAge+, used to run an e-commerce firm. On one occasion some Bluetooth earphones he was selling made of recycled materials unexpectedly received a bad review, which noted that a supposedly environmental product was being shipped with a lot of plastic packaging. It made him think about sustainability and the potential for using circular economy approaches to reduce e-commerce packaging waste.

PackAge+ turns recycled materials into packaging, which it provides to e-commerce firms. Those firms then ship using existing logistics methods. After receiving the goods, consumers can take the packaging to partner locations to be picked up by PackAge+ for reuse. And to expand the firm’s positive impact, it has turned over the sanitizing and sorting of packaging to social welfare organizations and workshops for the disabled, thus creating employment opportunities for disadvantaged groups.

After being sorted, the materials are returned to the e-commerce cycle. Each time PackAge+ packaging is reused, it saves an average of 1.2 kilograms of carbon and 300 grams of packaging materials. 

Consumers need only scan a QR code and turn over packaging to shop staff to complete their return. The packaging will later be sanitized and reused. (courtesy of PackAge+)

ESG goals spur social enterprise development

Similar services exist in Europe, America, and ­Korea. Ye observes that because Europe and America are vast in area, providers there typically work with postal ­services. “Taiwan is especially suited to implementing reusable packaging,” he explains. Its high densities both of population and of convenience-store locations make it easier for consumers to develop the habit of returning packaging. In contrast, consumers in Europe typically have to go a long way to reach a postal service dropbox. After coming to an agreement with the FamilyMart convenience-­store chain, PackAge+ has added almost 3,800 drop-off locations this year. 

As more and more companies have been adopting corporate ESG goals connected to sustainability into their organizational DNA, the government has introduced guidelines for reducing e-commerce packaging, pushing e-commerce firms to work harder at reducing packaging volumes and reusing and recycling packaging materials. PackAge+ has partnered not only with major e-commerce platforms but also with clothing retailers like Uniqlo, which uses PackAge+’s reusable packaging. Many sustainability-aware Taiwanese brands, such as Chef Clean and Agooday, also give consumers the option of deliveries with reusable packaging. If getting to net zero is a marathon, Ye says with a shy laugh, “PackAge+ is only at the starting line. All we’ve done so far is warm up and tell everyone that we’re about to start running.”

PackAge+ partners with social welfare organizations to sanitize its packaging, thus extending its social impact. (courtesy of PackAge+) 

Connecting with the world

Sustainability is a global issue, and social enterprises that operate successfully in Taiwan can set an example to the world. For instance, European firms working on reusable packaging systems have reached out to PackAge+, asking them to produce their packaging, as well as discussing with them the possibilities of creating cross-border standards for reusable packaging. The Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo is trialing the use of re­usable packaging in its Taiwan operations and is assessing its potential for other foreign markets.

Similarly, Phoebe Chen attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021, sharing Sunnyfounder’s commercial innovations in the green energy market and its green energy advocacy initiatives with the international community. She compiled a booklet of examples of green energy applications and invited people who identify with its ethos to sign it. Guatemala’s environment minister not only added his signature but also shared news about it on the ministry’s Facebook page.

The booklet and its many signatures bear witness to expectations about a sustainable future. “Leveraging ‘SDG diplomacy’ to show Taiwan’s wonderful accomplishments to the world fulfills the ‘Taiwan can help’ approach to foreign relations,” says Chen happily. She and many others are eagerly awaiting more international sparks to be ignited by Taiwan’s social ­enterprises.

At the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Phoebe Chen shared a booklet she had compiled about the benefits of green energy. Here the Guatemalan environment minister adds his signature in support of its ideals. (courtesy of Sunnyfounder)