NUK Sustainability Report

1. Core concepts

NUK was committed to the development of a sustainable environment at the beginning of its founding. In 2004, the founding president signed the Talloires Declaration, the first university in Taiwan to sign the Declaration, to demonstrate NUK was resolved to build a green university.

In addition to adopting basic circular economy measures such as energy saving, water saving, carbon reduction, fuel saving, paper saving, and increasing environmental protection and recycling, green buildings are given priority in building expansion planning. In addition, the Sustainability Week is regularly held in May every year to actually practice SDGs, presenting the school's environmental protection achievements with different themes, and promoting the NUK sustainable concept to the faculty, staff, students and the public. In recent years, it has taken the lead among universities in Taiwan to incorporate SDGs as the core of school governance and integrate it into various teaching, research and administrative areas.

In 2009, NUK was awarded “Model Green University'' by the Ministry of Education for its dedication and endeavor.  In the 2024 THE Impact Rankings, NUK in items of The University is ranked within the top 400 in the categories of “SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable Clean Energy), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 15 (Conservation of Terrestrial Ecology) and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Good Governance).

2. Sustainable Governance Operations

Regarding the environment, society and governance, the Sustainable Development Committee, the NUK University Fund Management Committee, and the University Affairs Development Committee have been set up as the decision-making committees. In response to economic, environmental, and population impacts, the committees are set up in accordance with the organizational procedures of each committee, with the chairperson of each committee being at or above the rank of vice president, and the office designated as the committee's staff unit responsible for impact management, and depending on the nature of the committees and groups, the University's internal stakeholders or external professionals will be appointed as committee members or advisory members to conduct performance evaluations.

        The Committee for the Promotion of Sustainable Development consists of the president as the convener, the vice president as the vice convener, 16 ex-officio members from the first-level supervisors of the university, one student representative, and two advisory members, and meets at least once a year. The committee is divided into four groups: “School Governance”, “Curriculum, Teaching, and Social Responsibility”, “Campus Environment”, and “Research, Industry, and Academic Resources”. The committee is responsible for discussing and evaluating the school's sustainability policies and supervising the promotion of sustainability work in accordance with the University's four major development goals and in response to the major and moderate concerns of the University's stakeholders.

Visions of Sustainability

Based on the ten concepts of the Talloires Declaration and in cooperation with the government's promotion of energy transformation and net zero carbon emissions 2050, NUK has simultaneously planned 6 major directions in green university, campus carbon neutrality, low-carbon transportation, green buildings, zero-waste and low-carbon diet, citizens participation, actively linked industry and society, and implemented university values and social responsibilities.

Sustainability Strategy and Action

To develop strategies and action guidelines based on the NUK core beliefs and visions, in line with our short-, medium- and long-term school development plans, and to make rolling adjustments according to the implementation status.

I. Short-Term Plan

Based on the results of the University Affairs Development Plan, the Higher Education Sprout Project, and stakeholder surveys, and in conjunction with the promotion of the four major university objectives of sustainable development, and the establishment of a dedicated sustainable development office and system that focuses on campus sustainability issues, the NUK Sustainable Development Promotion Committee was established in March 2023 to deal with campus sustainability issues, to increase the campus sustainability database, and to conduct an inventory of indicators such as energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The campus sustainability database has been enhanced, and an inventory of energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and other indicators has been conducted. The committee conducts an inventory of the SDGs indicators for each department and faculty, incorporates the SDGs into the mid-range campus plan for performance tracking, promotes sustainable curriculum and faculty development with the SDGs as the core, and implements a carbon inventory and energy management system to enhance sustainable teaching, research, and working environments for all faculty members and students.

II. Medium-Term Plan

Taking SDGs-Inside as the core trend, the University comprehensively considers the changes in the current socio-economic environment, and based on the effectiveness of the implementation of related programs, such as the Ministry of Education's Higher Education Sprout Project, the Industry-University Cooperation Program, the SDGs Sustainable Campus Planning, and the University's Social Responsibility Practice Blueprint, analyzes the overall development potential of the University, and formulates specific and feasible action plans.

III. Long-term Plan

The University has set four major goals for its development: "Practical Learning and Interdisciplinary Teaching", "Specialized Research and Industrial Linking", "Sustainable University and Deepening Literacy", and "Social Responsibility, Internationalization, and Local Linking" to achieving the positioning of “a distinctive quality university that integrates teaching, research and industrial development, emphasizes humanistic qualities and technological innovation, and nurtures elite talents”, the University, from the university to the various units and departments, continues to collaborate with local and international organizations to contribute to its sustainability.

1. Sustainability Week is held on a regular basis every year to reflect the protection and diversity of the green campus ecosystem and demonstrate the school's efforts in ecological and environmental protection. Continuing to compile the results of the school's sustainability implementation through the Sustainability Report has led to an increase in the development of sustainability actions in the school year after year.

2. Introduce “Curriculum Framework for the Sustainable Development Goals” of Commonwealth of Nations into the school teaching system to assist teachers in reviewing the relevance of course content and SDGs, setting learning goals, and cultivating students' concepts of sustainability.

3. Encourage faculty members to exert of their expertise, cooperate cross-domain, form alliances with social enterprises, promote net-zero transformation in accordance with “SDGs + ESG Specific Action Plans", maximize the benefits of industry-academic cooperation, and promote cross-domain and off-campus SDGs literacy.

4. Introduce the concept of SDGs-Inside through Sprout Project, and establish an "international dialogue language" shared by NUK and the universities in Southeast Asia such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia, which is also valued by the universities in the United States and the European Union. Thus, by becoming a learning model for Southeast Asian universities to bridge European and American universities and create international connections, NUK is to develop a key carrier for a university with special characteristics. In the future, NUK will continue to use our green university as the basis and combine international efforts to promote SDGs universities (such as partner schools in Southeast Asia, e.g., Bicol University, the Philippines) to jointly promote cooperation on sustainable development topics.

5. Since 2018, the NUK sustainable implementation results have been compiled with the sustainability report, which has promoted the development of sustainable action in NUK year by year, and has been affirmed and awarded by the review committees every year.