Protecting the Environment Through Green Innovation

Saving energy, cutting carbon

It is two o’clock in the afternoon on a scorching midsummer day in Taoyuan’s Longtan District, and the street feels as hot as a New Year’s cake fresh from the oven. Leaving the sidewalk, we slog up 20-some exterior steps to the entrance to Hair O’right International Corporation’s lobby, where we find a cool breeze dissipating some of the ferocious heat.

On entering the building, a green wall of live plants provides cooling relief to our eyes as well. Watered with rainwater and recycled water from the factory, the living wall greatly reduces interior temperatures, which helps the company save energy and reduce its carbon emissions.

A breeze passing through the work area on the right side of the lobby cools us down even though the building’s air conditioning is currently off. The structure’s open floor plan, 3.8-meter-high ceilings, and 1000 square meters of space allow air to flow freely around the roof supports. The building is also outfitted with floor-to-ceiling windows along three exterior walls that can be opened to draw in refreshing natural breezes, and with silently turning industrial ceiling fans to help circulate that air. This energy efficient design earned O’right’s headquarters an Outstanding Green Building Award from the Ministry of the Interior in 2013.

Stephan Ko’s casually curly hair and the thick black frames of his glasses are classically hip.

Green energy

The building, which cost more than NT$200 million and took two years to build, opened on World Environment Day (June 5) in 2012 and was Asia’s first GMP-compliant cosmetics factory to meet the standards for green buildings. O’right has invested heavily in the idea of creating a sustainable symbiosis between people, buildings, and the environment. For the company, “environmental protection” isn’t just a slogan; it is a way of life.

Company chairman Stephen Ko’s commitment began with choosing to site the headquarters on a hillside to take advantage of difference in the elevation, which makes the facility’s grounds average two degrees cooler than flatter land nearby. To further moderate the building’s temperature, the company designed it with 40-centimeter-thick walls, and surrounded it with large trees, including sweetgum, camphor and bald cypress. These measures help keep interior temperatures constant, warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

The numerous barriers to the muggy heat make the air conditioning system little more than a decoration. In fact, it only turns on if the temperature inside the building exceeds 26ºC. “We average about 300 days a year without air conditioning.” The company is particularly proud of its energy savings in 2016, a year in which it used its air conditioning system for only 216 hours.

Solar panels cover the entire roof of the building like parasols, making efficient use of the abundant sunlight. When the autumnal monsoon rolls in, the local terrain guides the wind to a wind turbine that generates electricity. Between the two systems, the building produces more than enough power in a year to meet its own needs, and the company sells the surplus. 

When the northeasterly monsoon blows, the local topography directs the winds to the company’s rooftop wind turbine, which generates green energy.

On the right path

Born in Kao­hsiung’s Feng­shan District, Ko remembers the many challenges he has faced since early childhood. His father was a veteran, and his family was in debt. Their living room was always filled with a variety of products awaiting finishing. The whole family used to pitch in to complete them for extra income. Ko was the second-eldest child, and began working with his mother to stitch sequins onto qipaos while still in elementary school. Those difficult times forged tight bonds within the family.

“My father gave me the money he’d set aside for funeral expenses to start my company.” Ko says that clutching his parents’ life savings in his hands was an emotional experience. “We started out as agents for foreign haircare products.” Young and inexperienced when they set up their firm, Ko and his partners frequently stumbled and were nearly trampled in the very competitive market.

Ko lost his parents within six months of one another while in the midst of these business difficulties. He was devastated. And then his business partners departed the company over matters related to the company’s direction, leaving it on the brink of bankruptcy. “If not for my wife’s encouragement and support, I’d still be stuck in that mess.” In 2006, he resolved to take the company out of the market’s mainstream and develop it in a greener, more organic direction by helping people eliminate heavy metals and other toxic chemicals from their lives.

When O’right broke ground on its new headquarters, Jerry Wang, a former director of the Taiwan Excellent Brand Association, was the only VIP to attend the ceremony. Wang offered Ko suggestions on how to establish a brand, realize his vision, and hold fast to core company values. “I am very grateful to him for his thoughtful advice,” says Ko.

O’right’s headquarters uses LED lighting. In the stairwells, motion sensors save still more energy by turning on the lights only when needed.

All-around green innovations

“We are a product of our time, our location, and our relationships.” With environmentalism becoming a global trend, O’right’s commitment to “natural, pure, and environmentally friendly” products has put it at the forefront of the green movement. “We know what kind of shampoo our customers demand, but what kind of shampoo do our rivers expect?” asks Ko, explaining that when ingredients containing toxins are used to make shampoos, the wastewater from those production processes pollutes our rivers. O’right seeks to make environmentally friendly shampoos with broad appeal by using only natural, biodegradable ingredients with no detectable toxins.

After winning several Taiwan Excellence awards for its products, O’right moved on to making sure its ­packaging also met green labeling standards. The company’s bottles, bamboo caps, and even dispenser caps are all made from non-toxic, environmentally friendly materials that break down over time. Its cardboard boxes are made from 100% recycled material, and it uses environmentally friendly paper-based packing tape and super-thin re­cycl­able bubble wrap. It pays attention to even the pallets on which it stacks its products, using ones made from recycled plastics to further reduce its carbon emissions. These fully integrated green processes earned the company a carbon footprint certification in 2016.

These parasol-like solar panels generate enough green power to meet the facility’s needs.

Treasuring water resources

To avoid depleting underground aquifers, the company meets its water needs with municipal water, which it turns into ultrapure water via an eight-step filtration and disinfection process. Rather than discard the mineral­-rich wastewater produced as a byproduct of this process, the company collects it and uses it for cleaning, flushing toilets, and watering plants.

O’right also reuses the wastewater from the com­pany’s manufacturing processes, purifying it and then collecting it in an eco-pond that helps regulate temperatures.

Believing that being conscientious about little things can lead to big results, the company has even installed pedal-controlled faucets that save water and electricity.

The company has earned a carbon footprint certification for the energy saving and carbon reduction measures it applies to its production, packaging and distribution processes.

Testing the waters

Ko’s personal motto is: “The will and motivation to succeed, the passion to persevere.” Over the last six years, more than 26,000 visitors have come to see his company’s headquarters, which holds gold-level EEWH green building certification. “Our most important mission right now is spreading the idea of caring for the planet.” With that in mind, O’right has organized an Earth Hour event in Taiwan in each of the last eight years. More than 500 companies participated in this year’s festivities, which promoted energy savings and carbon reductions.

Ko notes that O’right has also planted 2,660 trees over the last eight years. The company’s much-lauded “Tree in the Bottle” product line is yet another example of its commitment to taking action to protect natural resources. “We hope each person using one of these bottles will be a seed, and that together we will make a forest.”         

The company helps protect the environment by using biodegradable bottles and packaging, and has earned several awards for its “Tree in the Bottle” concept.

Hair O’right products are made from only natural ingredients to protect its customers’ health and keep pollutants out of Taiwan’s rivers.

The company has organized Earth Hour events in Taiwan for the last eight years to promote saving energy and reducing carbon emissions. More than 500 companies participated in this year’s festivities. (courtesy of O’right)

O’right won the award for Best New Natural Product at the 2018 Pure Beauty Global Awards in May. (courtesy of O’right)