WNC's Vietnam Site Obtains UL 2799 Platinum Rating and LEED Gold Certification

Hsinchu, January 13, 2025 - WNC's Vietnam site has obtained a platinum rating in UL 2799's Zero Waste to Landfill validation program, with a landfill waste diversion rate of 100%. In addition, the buildings built during phase two construction at the site (VN II) received LEED v4 BD+C: New Construction gold certification, a testament to their outstanding performance in energy management. WNC aims to replicate the success of its Vietnam site at its other production sites around the world to help meet the company's sustainability commitments.

To help prevent environmental damage caused by waste incineration or burial, increase waste diversion rates, and reduce resource waste and waste disposal costs, WNC is accelerating its low-carbon transition as well as optimizing production processes and waste reduction methods. On top of managing waste in accordance with ISO 14001 standards, WNC uses an environmental data platform to track and analyze the composition ratio of waste from each process or production source, which helps the company identify opportunities for improvement in waste resource recycling within the organization. In 2023, WNC's waste recycling rate reached 87%, and recycling revenue exceeded NT$53 million, showing that its efforts in waste recycling have paid off. To make its green products more circular, WNC adopted the UL 2799 Zero Waste to Landfill program to analyze the waste produced at its Vietnam site. Interviews with personnel were conducted to identify the flow of waste at the site and look for areas that can be improved upon. Employees also underwent training to enhance their knowledge regarding waste classification, reduction, and reuse.

WNC has incorporated concepts relating to environmental protection, energy conservation, waste reduction, and green production into construction plans for its production sites. Factors such as ecological greenification, water retention, carbon dioxide reduction, and waste reduction are taken into account, with the goal of creating buildings with minimal consumption of the Earth's resources, minimal waste generation, and ecological, energy conservation and health-promoting features. WNC's S3 site in the Southern Taiwan Science Park was the company's first green building, and now VN II has been awarded LEED Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. The LEED rating system evaluates and rates companies in categories such as location and transportation, sustainable sites, water efficiency, and energy and atmosphere. WNC has installed water-efficient equipment, smart water meters, and water reuse systems at the Vietnam site. The company has also expanded the scope of its self-generated solar power for self-use project and installed additional solar panels at the site, bringing the site's solar power generation capacity to 5,445 kWp, which amounts to approximately 5 million kWh of power generated annually and brings the ratio of renewable energy use to total electricity consumption at the site to 8%. In addition, measures such as upgrades to HVAC systems and building exteriors have improved energy usage efficiency, enabling the site to receive nearly perfect marks in the water efficiency and energy and atmosphere categories in the LEED certification report.

WNC is committed to becoming a net-zero enterprise, and it plans to implement the environmental initiatives and action plans used at the Vietnam site at all of its production sites around the world to facilitate energy conservation and green product development, reduce the impact of its operations on the environment, and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. WNC will also require its suppliers to use recycled packaging materials to reduce waste; this will facilitate the creation of a sustainable supply chain to meet customer expectations, enhance the company's capabilities in sustainable management, and attract more global partners to work with WNC.