A survey on 19 sustainability issues with 611 questionnaires returned and valid
In 2022, WT conducted a questionnaire survey to investigate its important stakeholders’ concerns and expectations with regard to WT’s sustainable management, with 611 valid questionnaires returned. In 2023, the Sustainable Development Team reviewed the overall changes in the operating environment and added three topics to the investigation. In 2024, the standards of IFRS sustainability disclosure standards and EU ESRS sustainability reporting standards will be adopted, and the principle of double materiality will be included as a method of sustainable impact assessment to consider both impact materiality and financial materiality.
Relevant GRI material topics of the top three issues
The survey results were analyzed to find out the top three sustainability issues of concern for each stakeholder group. WT matched the issues to GRI material topics, and disclosed relevant implementation strategies, managing policies and plans accordingly.

Assessment of actual and potential impacts
The sustainability impacts were assessed for severity and probability by the 22 Sustainable Development Team members. The severity is evaluated by the levels of positive and negative impacts. An issue involving an actual or potential human rights risk is assigned the highest severity level. With the stakeholders’ degrees of concern for the issues also taken into account, a three-dimensional analysis matrix was created as an impact level assessment tool to continuously track the impacts of the sustainability issues.

12 material issues disclosed in 2023 Sustainability Report
The 2023 Sustainability Report discloses on 12 material topics, including the nine that were covered in the 2022 Report and three newly added by the Sustainability Team after a comprehensive analysis on the severity and probability of economic/environmental/social impacts on WT’s operations. They are energy management; diversity, inclusion and equality; and social impact. Climate strategies and energy management are newly selected because development in the fields of green energy, energy storage and energy conservation as climate strategies has received greater attention than the material subjects having been disclosed in 2022. Diversity, inclusion and equality are included in view of WT’s expanded multinational operations after the merger and the resulting more diversified employee composition. Social impact is added as WT Education Foundation continues to deepen its public welfare initiative and involve more employees to experience the meaning of “influencing lives with lives” through the volunteer programs, while echoing with WT’s core value of “Teamwork with respect for the individual.”
 

Description of material disclosure topics
15 GRI material topics plus 3 self-defined topics
We matched the selected disclosures with the 33 economical, environmental or social topics of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, and identified 15 relevant material topics and the disclosure indicators related to these topics.
 
Organizational boundary definition for the Sustainability Report
The key disclosure issues were individually reviewed for their respective impacts on WT and throughout the value chain at an Sustainable Development Team meeting, where the Team members also determined that WT would be the organizational boundary of the Report and the definition of impact scope would vary slightly with issue.


Management guidelines for material issues
Economic impact
Impact identification

Positive｜ Faced with the uncertainty of global economic recovery in the post-pandemic era and the increased emphasis on carbon reduction around the world, WT aims to further increase its market share and profitability by constantly adapting its operating strategies to the overall economic situation and market conditions.

Negative｜ The lack of access to new technologies and products developed with clean technologies will result in being unable to meet customers’ needs, or causing delay in the customers’ new product development progress.

Policies/commitment

Clean technologies is a focus of WT’s future operations and development. In order to respond to future industrial development trends and strengthen growth momentum, WT will increase the contribution to operating income from Taiwan Sustainable Taxonomy activities specified by the Reference Guidelines for the Identification of Sustainable Economic Activities promulgated by the Financial Supervisory Commission.

Information security
Impact identification

Positive｜ Generative AI can be used to assist employees in handling routine and highly repetitive tasks, such as translation, copywriting, data collection, etc., to improve work efficiency.

AI can be used to analyze a large number of logs, establish benchmarks and perform predictive analysis based on users’ past behaviors, and convert them into quantified employee behavior data. The dataset can serve as a basis for the judgment of information security incidents, effectively improving the determination of unknown events and accelerating the processing time, so as to improve the effectiveness of information security incident handling.

Negative｜ The latest Global Risks Report 2024 released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranks the increase in cyberattacks and cyber insecurity among the top ten risks over the next decade, and the threat of AI-generated misinformation and disinformation and cyber insecurity as the first and fourth over the next two years.
 
Employee’s failure to effectively detect, identify, and report AI-powered deepfake or their insufficient information security awareness could lead to financial loss, leak of confidential information, and severe consequences such as damage claims by customers, termination of purchase order, damage to goodwill, or worse, further injuries caused by suspended operations, disruption in normal transactions with upstream and downstream partners, and ransomware attacks triggered by a hooked employee’s phishing click-through.

Policies/commitment

WT protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its information assets to support continuous delivery of products and services and fulfillment of the sustainability mission and vision.See “Information Security Risk Management Framework” for details.

Ethical corporate management
Impact identification

Negative｜ With the Group’s revenue reaching NT$594.5 billion, whether WT senior executives and employees uphold the principle of integrity during the transactions could have an impact on its partnership with customers and vendors. After a number of acquisitions and mergers, WT has now employees in more than 10 countries around the world. An unintentional violation of relevant regulations by an innocent employee due to insufficient awareness of integrity-related policies and measures could harm the rights and interests of shareholders, employees and partners.

Policies/commitment

Integrity is WT’s most important core values and business philosophy. We establish a corporate culture of honest management to align with global corporate governance and anti-corruption frameworks. At present, a code of Ethical Corporate Management Best Practice Principles and Major Policies have been established.

Sustainable supply chain, innovation management, product responsibility
Impact identification

Positive｜ In response to the global sustainability trend, environmental regulations, and other requirements, customers are accelerating their development of clean technology-related products and services. Products with substances of high concern or low energy efficiency will be phased out and replaced with products with lower environmental impact. As a result, the demand for new products, new applications, and high energy efficiency has doubled.
 
Negative｜
• The number of our customers has been growing. Failure to timely provide them supporting documents required by regulations of relevant countries on substances of concern may delay the customers’ development progress. The resulting lack of information to determine whether a product meets regulatory requirements may also impact the end consumers’ health and safety. With the current control procedures for substances of concern, the increasing requests from the customers may lower our service efficiency and make swift response impossible.

• Regulatory requirements are becoming stricter. The use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) began to be banned or restricted for products in various industries by a number of countries, and some products may be terminated (end-of-life) due to the regulatory revisions. More customers than in previous years inquired about availability of solutions for affected products represented by WT. Failure to timely communicate with the vendors or find alternative materials may have an increasing impact on WT’s operations.

Policies/commitment

• WT currently has Supplier’s Commitment for Corporate Social Responsibilities、Hazardous Substances Management Policies and Conflict Minerals Policies as sustainable supply chain policies.

• WT negotiates with important vendors and deliver information on issues such as product development and chemical bans.

• WT strengthens the promotion of green high-efficiency semiconductor component products to reflect the low-loss, high-efficiency characteristics of green design thinking and enable customers to design and produce high-quality products that are environmentally friendly, low-consumption, and high-efficiency with both forward-looking and sustainable concepts.

Climate strategies, energy management
Impact identification

Positive｜
• In order to seize the transition opportunities of climate change, various industries continue to develop new technologies and adjust product portfolios to gain competitive edges of clean technologies and expand revenue and market share.

• As carbon neutrality is demanded in the supply chain of the electronics sector, higher energy efficiency and more renewable energy use will improve customer satisfaction by meeting their expectations and sustainability goals.

Negative｜
• Extreme weather events may cause disruptions to land, sea and air transportation, seriously affecting shipment logistics operations. WT operates in many countries, and the stability of transportation has a significant impact on the stable delivery of its upstream and downstream products.

• The trend of reducing fossil fuel consumption and increasing renewable energy use has a big impact on the transportation sector. In the future, Europe and the United States may introduce regulations requiring transport operators to increase the proportion of renewable energy use, which will have a significant impact on transportation costs.

• As a result of growing probability of extreme weather events and amount of claims, insurance costs is increasing year by year.
 
Policies/commitment

WT has made declaration of and is committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 through reducing its GHG emissions and supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Talent attraction and retention, human capital development, and diversity, inclusion and equity
Impact identification

Positive｜
• Employee well-being and development: To support the Group’s global presence, we offer competitive salary, training, welfare, and career development opportunities, and recruit international talents to diversify employee composition.

• WT’s internal innovations and exchanges are boosted by varied perspectives and experiences of employees from different regions due to the Group’s growth through merger and acquisition and the resulting diverse composition of employees.

• Faced with varied operational challenges, the management would improve work fulfillment and enhance work adaptability and effectiveness.

Negative｜
• The fierce competition for electronic and electrical talents in the semiconductor sector could result in a high turnover and an increase in recruitment and training costs.

• The declining birthrate has impacted the current labor force, and it takes longer time than ever to fill vacant positions, increasing potential operating costs.

• An insufficient development of multi-functional talents for global operation and management may result in a restrained management perspective.

• After the significant expansion, WT has now employees in more than 10 countries. However, its current training program is neither sufficiently digitized nor available in enough languages to effectively cultivate and develop professional knowledge of all employees.

• With relatively more laws and regulations to be reviewed in the countries where WT operates, failure to take appropriate inventory may lead to legal violation, discrimination, penalties from the competent authorities, lawsuits, damage to company reputation, or public concerns that lead to failure to attract job applicants.

Policies/commitment

WT formulated and published on the official website after the Chairman signed the Social Policy and Code of Conduct as standards for all employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders in compliance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and other international human rights conventions and initiatives. It also has policies and regulations relevant to talent recruitment, training, and inclusive workplace in place.

Social Impact
Impact identification

Positive｜
• WT determines to give back and serve public interests by acting as “a key promoter at important moments”. The collaboration with enterprises in other sectors, upstream suppliers, and downstream customers to sponsor schools through the execution of two voluntary initiatives of WT Foundation helps reinforce its supply chain partnerships.

• The long-term, regular one-on-one online reading companionship would inspire children to expand their horizons through reading and build their self-confidence. WT uses Internet technology to overcome geographical barriers and open up children’s horizons through reading.

• Accompanying children with photography brings benefits such as aesthetic education, self-confidence boost, and community knowledge building.
 
Negative｜
• The giving-back initiatives are currently solely funded by WT’s company profit, which may not be able to sustain the programs.

• The high turnover of volunteers in both programs may affect the quality of the courses.

• Various environmental and social trends may lead to changes in the Foundation’s donation plan.
 
Policies/commitment
For more information about the two programs of WT Education Foundation, visit their official websites at
Shining Hope: https://shininghope.wtmec.com/
One-on-one Online Reading: https://one-on-one-study.wtmec.com/