Introduction: The Necessity of Twin Transformation for the Future
(Promoting digital transformation and sustainability in parallel helps companies find new sources of value and enhance competitiveness and sustainability capabilities. Image: Royal Schiphol Group and PA Consulting)
"Twin Transition/Transformation" is a concept first proposed by the EU in its 2020 industrial strategy, aiming to promote digital transformation and sustainability in parallel, tightly integrating and complementing each other.
In the decisive decade of climate change, digitalization plays a key role in supporting sustainable growth. According to World Economic Forum estimates, digital solutions can reduce 20% of global emissions; it is also crucial for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with approximately 70% of targets benefiting positively from digital technology applications. By integrating digitalization and sustainability, companies can unlock tremendous efficiency and productivity. Accenture research indicates that companies driving twin transformation are 2.5 times more likely to have strong future performance than other companies. In today's rapidly changing business environment, the twin transformation concept of "Digital Transformation" × "Sustainability ESG" is highly valued, providing a new strategic thinking approach to help companies find new sources of value and enhance competitiveness and sustainability capabilities.
(Accenture research shows that companies driving twin transformation are 2.5 times more likely to have strong future performance than other companies. Image: Accenture Research)
The Driving Force of Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is one of the indispensable strategies for companies today. With the rapid development of technology, from cloud computing to big data, from artificial intelligence to the Internet of Things, the application of these technologies not only helps companies improve operational efficiency and innovate products and service models but also maintains competitiveness in the market. Using these technologies enables continuous data collection and analysis, insights into market trends and customer needs, thereby formulating more precise business strategies.
The Role of Corporate Sustainability in Twin Transformation
Corporate sustainability is an essential part of twin transformation. Given the environmental issues and social challenges facing the world today, corporate sustainability capabilities are increasingly attracting the attention of investors, consumers, and regulators. Through twin transformation, companies can not only use digital technology to optimize their environmental management, reduce resource consumption and carbon emissions, but also make progress in supply chain management, employee welfare, and social responsibility, thereby gaining momentum for sustained growth in the long term.
Corporate Case Studies
Through specific examples from Far EasTone Telecommunications, ASUS, and Systex, understand the actual benefits that twin transformation brings to companies.
1. FET Partners with Sustaihub to Connect Energy Management and Carbon Inventory Systems:
(Image: FET Startup Accelerator)
FET partnered with "Sustaihub" to launch the [SME Sustainability Transformation Package], helping SMEs quickly adopt environmental sustainability solutions by combining FET's "Energy Management System" with Sustaihub's "DCarbon GHG Inventory System (SaaS)," enabling companies to understand their energy consumption and carbon emissions and generate preliminary reports through AI, helping SMEs take their first step toward sustainability management more easily.
>> Report link: FET Partners with Sustaihub to Launch SME Sustainability Transformation Package Connecting Energy Management and Carbon Inventory Systems
2. ASUS Drives Decisions with Data, Building Supply Chain Platform to Optimize Value Chain Management:
(Image: ASUS Sustainability Report 2022)
Since 2021, ASUS has built a sustainable supply chain platform to analyze supplier ESG performance data, identify potential risk factors, and focus on auditing and improving high-risk suppliers. They plan to establish a GHG management platform to consolidate carbon emission data from all stages of the value chain as the foundation for carbon reduction target management, moving toward the 2050 net-zero emission vision. These digital transformation measures help ASUS refine risk management, track carbon reduction progress, create an environmentally friendly and risk-controllable sustainable supply chain, and enhance value chain management efficiency and corporate competitiveness.
>>ESG Focus Case: ASUS Sustainability Report 2022
3. Systex Uses Digital Tools to Improve Sustainability Report Preparation Efficiency:
(Image: Provided by Sustaihub)
Systex uses Sustaihub's SMS Sustainability Management System to not only archive regularly disclosed data, saving time on repeated email confirmations and proofreading, but also uses the ESG big data database keyword search function to quickly find reference materials from CSR/ESG reports from the same industry or previous years, significantly reducing operational costs. This allows companies to produce sustainability reports more efficiently and set more effective sustainability management goals based on integrated data from each year.
>> Press release link: Saving 50% Time and 30% Cost for Companies, Both Wistron and Systex Use His AI to Produce ESG Reports
Challenges and Opportunities of Twin Transformation
Implementing twin transformation is full of opportunities but also faces many challenges. How to balance digitalization investment and sustainability costs, how to drive cultural and structural change within the organization, and how to handle relationships with stakeholders are all issues that companies need to carefully consider during the transformation process.
How to Plan and Implement Twin Transformation?
Accenture clearly identifies in its research report five specific, targeted actions companies can take to drive this transformation:
- Set Direction: Drive business models driven by sustainability and enabled by technology. Focus on ecosystem business models that enable faster, more sustainable scaling through technology. Most twin transformation companies already have more than 10% of their revenue from such models and expect nearly 80% of revenue to come from this in the next three years.
- Start the Journey: Combine resources to expand the application of technology to drive sustainable practices. Twin transformation companies invest a higher proportion in innovation, with 45% investing more than 10% of annual revenue before the pandemic, and an estimated 57% during recovery. They view sustainability and technology as inseparable priorities.
- Deepen Impact: Establish relevant authority within the organization. Corporate transformation cannot be achieved without changing corporate culture. This requires awareness of sustainability initiatives across the entire organization, including setting non-financial key performance indicators to increase employee support, such as emission reduction progress, green product proportion, and sustainable procurement proportion.
- Achieve Scale: Scalability is crucial for the successful combination of digital and sustainable. Focus on the entire product lifecycle and involve all partners in the value chain, incorporate relevant standards into the screening process, and provide training to improve overall supply chain sustainability and traceability. Work with stakeholders to achieve sustainability goals.
- Sustain Transformation: Lead, empower, and nurture talent. To sustain environmental, social, and digital transformation, ensure employees have the right knowledge and enthusiasm to keep moving forward. This includes continuing education on the latest technologies and cultivating personal beliefs throughout the organization.
Conclusion: Twin Tracks Together, Winning in a Sustainable Future
The real key to corporate success lies in the ability to unlock business value from sustainability and technology efforts. By accelerating digitalization and intelligence processes and striving to achieve sustainable solutions through technological innovation, companies can enjoy the tremendous value from the interaction of digital technology and sustainability, preparing for future growth.
About Sustaihub
In 2019, Sustaihub created Taiwan's first AI sustainability report system. In 2022, it developed a carbon inventory system for the carbon market to help companies improve sustainability execution efficiency. The products are favored by more than 30 listed companies in Taiwan, and the company has been selected for Silicon Valley VC accelerators 500 Global, SparkLabs, and FET Startup Accelerator, receiving multiple domestic government project resources and awards. Main service items include "CSR/ESG/USR Sustainability Report Management System," "DCarbon Carbon Inventory System," "CSR/ESG Sustainability Data Search Engine," "Sustainability Data Analysis and Strategy Planning Services," and "Corporate CSR/ESG Consulting and Guidance."
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