Video Interview｜Wen Huang, Director of Renewable Team NIRAS

Sustainability Consultants as Guides
Steadily Moving Towards a Net-Zero Future

｜Interview with Wen Huang, Director of Renewable Team NIRAS

In the global wave of energy transition, Taiwan, being export-oriented, has become a critical battleground for achieving international net-zero goals. NIRAS Taiwan Limited, a subsidiary of the historic Danish engineering and environmental consultancy NIRAS, initially set up its office in Taiwan to respond to the booming offshore wind power market and subsequently expanded its range of services.

"NIRAS came to Taiwan primarily because of the wind power industry, especially offshore wind development, which led us to establish our office here. NIRAS is a Danish multi-discipline consulting company with a long history. Over time, we expanded our operations from Denmark, Europe, to global business, covering a wide range of sectors, including both engineering and environmental consultancy," said Wen Huang, Director of Renewables and Sustainability Advisory Team at NIRAS Taiwan.

Although NIRAS is best known in Taiwan for its services related to offshore wind and renewable energy engineering consultancy, as well as environmental impact assessments, such as owner engineering, foundation design, design review, environmental impact assessment and advisory, NIRAS possesses a broader spectrum of expertise worldwide, spanning from infrastructure to sustainable development consulting.

"In Taiwan, we also offer environmental consultancy services, such as environmental impact assessments, bird surveys, and marine ecological studies. Therefore, we have many ecologists and avian experts on our team. In the Asian region, particularly Southeast Asia, NIRAS also provides numerous sustainability consultancy services. These sustainability services might differ from the corporate sustainability initiatives commonly known in Taiwan, as NIRAS focuses more on supporting developing countries in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) sustainable transition, including community empowerment, climate adaptation, forestry, and water resource management," Wen explained.

In recent years, Taiwan has made significant progress in corporate sustainability. Wen also observed an interesting phenomenon: the number of consultants and lecturers in the market far exceeds the number of professionals within companies who are actually responsible for sustainability work. This reflects a level of uncertainty among companies when facing sustainability issues, leading to more conservative investment in the sustainability sector.