In response to water shortages resulting from climate change, businesses must make every effort to incorporate reclaimed water as one of their water sources. Today, CHIMEI signed a water use contract with the Water Resources Bureau of the Tainan City Government to require the Rende Reclaimed Water Plant, a water reclamation facility which is scheduled to begin supplying water in 2024, to supply 8,000 metric tons of reclaimed water for CHIMEI per day. To date, CHIMEI boasts Taiwan’s largest EDR water reclamation system, which when combined with the reclaimed water to be supplied externally will allow reclaimed water to cover 80% of CHIMEI’s industrial water needs, considerably reducing the amount of tap water used by CHIMEI and demonstrating the company’s commitment to the circular economy. Additionally, the use of reclaimed water, which is a stable water supply source, will reduce the risk business operations being compromised by water shortages.

Faced with the challenge of water shortages, CHIMEI decided to adopt environmentally friendly, water-saving measures to reduce tap water consumption and take steps to participate in the circular economy via the use of reclaimed water to elevate its water use efficiency. Accordingly, in 2017, CHIMEI built the EDR Water Resource Center. The center, which uses wastewater discharged from CHIMEI’s industrial operations to produce a stable supply of reclaimed water, can generate 3,000 metric tons of reclaimed water daily for use in CHIMEI’s manufacturing processes. The Rende Reclaimed Water Plant, on the other hand, generates reclaimed water from domestic wastewater. The plant is only three kilometers away from CHIMEI’s Rende Plant, which will save both time and money when laying the connecting water pipelines as well as a great deal of energy when the water is carried through them. Once the Rende Reclaimed Water Plant begins supplying water to CHIMEI, the company will be able to increase its use of reclaimed water by 8,000 metric tons per day. By using reclaimed water generated from both internal and external sources, CHIMEI will reduce its tap water consumption by approximately 3.63 million tons annually, which is equivalent to the amount of water contained in 2,000 standard swimming pools or the annual water consumption of 9,000 households.

This effort by CHIMEI shows that the company is taking action to comply with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) introduced by the United Nations. CHIMEI upholds the Clean & Green vision, leads by example in implementing innovative green technologies, and has become a benchmark for clean energy investment and reclaimed water use. As a part of its investment in clean energy, the company inaugurated the CHIMEI Green Energy Park (a solar power plant) in 2020, and will open a gas turbine cogeneration plant that generates clean electricity in 2022, achieving a power self-sufficiency rate of 80% and carbon reduction rate of 36%. In terms of reclaimed water management, the combination of the reclaimed water from the EDR plant with that to be provided by the Rende Reclaimed Water Plant means that by 2024, 80% of CHIMEI’s industrial water will come from reclaimed water, decreasing its annual tap water use by 3.63 million tons and fulfilling the company’s responsibility to ensure the environmental sustainability.