Since our founding, Winkler Partners has striven to have a positive impact on the environment, as well as an ongoing commitment to the professional development of our staff. In 2006, we established a Green Office Department, to undertake the greening of the office, implement methods to reduce our use of energy, promote the use of environmentally friendly products and services, design rainwater collection and conservation systems, reduce our carbon emissions and advocate for green office initiatives throughout our community by way of open visits to our office and roof garden. As part of that commitment, we will be publishing annual reports on how we are performing. At a glance, in 2018 we managed to:

• Cut our total emissions by 1.4% over 2017’s total. Our total emissions for 2018 were 43 tons CO2e.
• Generated 13,892 kilowatt hours of electricity via our solar panels. We saved a total of NT$48,604 (approx. US$1,574) from our energy bills. We were also able to sell 15% of the energy generated back to the grid for use by other customers, which earned us NT$16,011 (approx. US$ 518). Generating our own electricity reduced our carbon footprint by 7.7 tons.
• Reduce overall electricity usage by 6%. Since 2004 we have reduced electricity usage by 61%. Anyone can make the same reductions by using air-conditioning sparingly, installing energy efficient lighting and setting computers to sleep.
• Offset 50 tons of air travel emissions through UK-based B Corporation ClimateCare.
• Reduce single-use cup and lunchbox container waste by 5%. Total waste however increased by 15%, mainly due to an increase in staff numbers.
• Encourage people to go paperless. We reduced the amount of printing by 11%.

Goals for 2019

Planting trees is the best way we can reduce our negative impact on the environment. Working with Taiwan’s Forestry Bureau, we have committed to adopting an area of approximately 2.37 hectares in Xindian, New Taipei City, which will be reforested with 3,555 trees. The carbon storage potential (42.7 tons) of this reforestation project is roughly equivalent to our current carbon footprint. Below are some photos of WP colleagues planting trees.

We also plan to continue our energy saving initiatives to further reduce our carbon footprint by 3%. We will increase monitoring of air-conditioning/heating loss from open windows and doors. Staff training will also be increased in an effort to increase recycling and reduce waste. The full report is available in English here and in Chinese here. For inquiries regarding our energy saving initiatives or B Corporation certification, please contact James Hill at jhill@winkerpartners.com.

As part of our mission to contribute to the wider community, the general public is welcome to visit our roof garden to learn about urban farming and our green office program. To arrange a visit, please contact City Shen at +886 (0)2 2311-2345 ext. 346 or cshen@winkerpartners.com.