From Policy to Practice: TAISE Launches Sustainability Awards Across the Retail; Agriculture; Tourism Sectors

As climate change, the net-zero transition, and sustainable governance become defining issues for industrial development, a shared challenge across sectors is how to translate sustainability principles into actionable and replicable implementation models.

The Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE) announced that it is concurrently advancing the Taiwan Sustainable Retail Management Awards, Taiwan Sustainable Agriculture Awards, and Taiwan Sustainable Tourism Awards. Through institutionalised evaluation mechanism, these awards are designed to guide different industries in deepening sustainability practices in line with their respective characteristics. Submissions for all three awards are open until 13 February.

TAISE has long promoted sustainable development through award-based mechanisms. Since launching the Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Awards (TCSA) in 2008, TAISE has consistently aligned its evaluation criteria with international sustainability standards, supporting enterprises and organisations in embedding ESG considerations into governance and operational decision-making. As sustainability initiatives increasingly take root in industry practice, TAISE has further developed sector-specific awards tailored to the distinct roles and impacts of different industries, responding to practical needs arising from the transition process.

Among these, the Taiwan Sustainable Retail Management Awards focus on the retail sector's role as a critical nexus between production and consumption. By strengthening operational management, supply-chain governance, and customer engagement, the awards aim to amplify the sector's influence on carbon reduction, waste reduction, and responsible consumption. In addition to assessing corporate-level governance frameworks and management outcomes, the Sustainable Retail Management Awards features both a Headquarters Category and a Store Category, highlighting how sustainability strategies are translated from executive decision-making into tangible results at the frontline of retail operations.

The Taiwan Sustainable Agriculture Awards highlight agriculture's pivotal role in food security, ecological stewardship, and the net-zero transition. In response to rising climate risks and mounting pressure on natural resources, the evaluation framework encompasses low-carbon production, resource circularity, biodiversity conservation, and rural development. The awards aim to identify agricultural practices that balance productivity, environmental resilience, and social responsibility, while fostering cross-sector collaboration and systemic transformation.

The Taiwan Sustainable Tourism Awards address the tourism industry's challenge of balancing local development, cultural preservation, and environmental carrying capacity. The awards encourage operators to embed sustainability principles into travel experiences, site management, and community engagement, enhancing overall industry quality and resilience, and steering tourism development toward long-term shared value.

All three awards are open to eligible organisations across their respective sectors and feature a Partner Collaboration Award, designed to promote cross-sector cooperation among enterprises, government agencies, academic and research institutions, and civil society organisations. Through these award programmes, TAISE aims to guide industries from isolated initiatives toward systematic implementation, building demonstrative and scalable sustainability outcomes that support Taiwan's long-term industrial transformation.

Submissions are open until 13 February. For application details and guidelines, please visit the TCSA official website or contact +886-2-2769-8968 ext. 204 / 206 / 208 / 209.