People First X Mutually Beneficial Relationships, LITEON's Two Core Factors of Sustainability

Looking back on 2021, the pandemic and climate change still occupy most pages of the discussion. As global climate action is in the ascendant, the pandemic has also accelerated people's reflections on life, work, and even social relations. Faced with the impact of extreme climate, people clearly recognized that every decision made now is key to affecting the survival of the species of the earth, and every effort invested will become an important cornerstone for the development of future generations. Living in a critical era in the current of human history, at such a critical turning point, all walks of life have high expectations for the role and commitment a corporation should play.

Before the pandemic, 200 CEOs, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos, gathered at the Business Roundtable in August 2019 to jointly express the "Purpose of a Corporation", emphasizing that the interests of shareholders are no longer the most important goals pursued by corporations; rather, the significance of the corporation is to create long-term sustainable value for its stakeholders. Half a year after the statement was issued, the global economy and public health encountered the impact of the novel coronavirus. The issue of sustainability and resilience of a corporation breaking through and going against the trend in the infinite game, as well as the building of trust between a corporation and its stakeholders, have become core capabilities.

Building cooperation and trust between people has always been one of LITEON's strengths. For 40 years, we believe that corporations are one of the most important actors in sustainable engineering; with LITEON's nine stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, investors, governments, nonprofit organizations, research institutions, communities, and media, are all important communication partners. As LITEON promotes transformation and establishes a people-first corporate culture, we are also creating a platform that starts from LITEON and can connect and realize prosperity for all stakeholders."

Supply Chain Carbon Management

When LITEON promotes energy innovation and energy conservation, the approach adopted is to work closely with customers and supplier partners to create resilience of the entire supply chain through mutually beneficial solutions. In 2021, LITEON combined external resources to assist suppliers and partners in conducting carbon reduction inspections, and proposed a total of 77 specific improvement solutions, with a total power saving potential of 10.93 million kWh (equivalent to the electricity consumption of 1,000 Taiwanese households over 32 years). Also, it launched the Supply Chain Green Transformation Project, to which it invited members of the supply chain to engage in conduct organizational GHG emissions and product carbon footprint inventories. Not only do we focus on achieving the sustainable goals, but we also care about how to bring our partners in the value chain to understand and to drive mutual improvement together. Taking cooperation, trust, and mutual benefit as the core is an important reason why LITEON can quickly diversify its layout and flexibly allocate production management when faced with the global shortage and uncertainty of prices of raw materials. In 2021, LITE-ON won the highest rating in the CDP Supplier Engagement Leadership for two consecutive years. This recognition also encourages us to continue our efforts in promoting a sustainable value chain.

Building an Advocacy Network to Promote a Circular Economy for Marine Waste

In the aspect of circular economy, LITEON is more active in leveraging its core influential advantages, combining social participation, environmental protection, ecological education, and technological innovation to jointly promote mutually beneficial blue solutions. Since 2018, we have traveled all over the coasts of Taiwan. We saw marine debris covering a large area of the original landform and ecology― thus, we decided to act. Over the past three years, LITEON volunteers have spent countless amounts of manpower and material resources to organize beach cleaning and education courses, in which it connected more than 100 communities, schools, government agencies, suppliers and customers and trained nearly 5,000 volunteers to engage in marine work.

Because we know that environmental problems come from people, corporations must exert their influence and lead all LITEON stakeholders to learn from the sea together. We must gather the will of everyone, find the problem behind the problem, and de-construct it to find a model for sustainable operations.

After three years of hard work, LITEON's "SEA HOPE" project has successfully established a complete recycling mechanism for marine waste polystyrene. The on-site volume reduction in outlying islands and along the coast first, then the marine waste Styrofoam was reconstructed into low carbon recycled materials with modification technology and introduced into electronic products. In 2021, LITEON's self-developed marine waste recycled plastic LGS-7505 obtained UL ECVP 2809 traceability validation and UL 746D recycled plastic performance certification yellow card, making it the first company in the world to obtain dual validation of both Ocean Plastic (OP) traceability and performance.

An Inclusive Corporate Culture that Puts People First

Encouraging stakeholders to move forward together is not an easy task; it takes a lot of time to build consensus and trust. Thus, we need to dig to the essence of the problem, the bottom of the problem where there are no eyes nor applause, and to communicate repeatedly at the most subtle key points. Because we believe that only fundamental change and belief can shape unshakable strength. Just like an iceberg only showing a tip above the surface of the sea, but because of its deeply hidden mass, it achieved an immovable center in the storm. In difficult and changing times, we also need deeply shared values as a firm foundation for mutual trust. When the pandemic hit and the situation changed, because of close cooperation, our stakeholders immediately trusted LITEON to devote itself to come up with the best mutually beneficial solutions.

People are the foundation of all our efforts, and talent is also LITEON's most important asset. This is an era full of challenges, but also one full of opportunities. LITEON hopes to become the soil that will nurture the growth of dreams in young people.

our stakeholders hope earned from all walks of continue to work hard along

In 2021, LITEON aims to be open, diverse, and inclusive, promote organizational transformation, and create a free and open development space for its young employees. At the same time, it also invites all employees to become shareholders, participate in the "Employee Stock Ownership Trust" program, and share in the company's operating results. We believe that work is one of the important realizations of the meaning of life, and life should be colorful and rich. Therefore, LITEON has held several internal LITEON Talks. We invited Xing-he Chen from the Cirque du Soleil to talk about "Dream Big"; we also invited Xin-ru He, number one in Asia at the IPC Para Dance Sport (Wheelchair Dance Sport), to talk about never giving up. We held a three-day NBA (New Brave Adventurers) CAMP to help new employees in the workplace grasp LITEON’s core values. A pirate team has also been established to conduct long-term training for potential managers and build a core team belonging to LITEON.

The Spirit of the Times for Cooperation and Mutual Benefit

As we move towards sustainability, we will have a lot to learn. LITEON joined the Taiwan Climate Partnership as a founding member in 2021 and has systematically introduced new ideas by cooperating with industry partners with similar thinking. At the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), eight technology peers jointly spoke out, hoping to become an important force behind Taiwan moving forward towards net- zero carbon emissions.

We believe that the spirit of cooperation and mutual benefit is the spirit of the times, and that it is the best demonstration of LITEON's beliefs. Over the past 40 years, LITEON has undergone rapid iterative replacements and paradigm shifts in the technology industry, all while maintaining a certain level of profitability. Even in the face of the pandemic and the high challenges of global supply links, all employees have overcome difficulties and transformed various challenges into opportunities for self-improvement; combining with internal and external partners, it develops new perspectives and capabilities, thereby bringing more resilience and competitiveness to the operations of LITEON and creating record highs in profitability and net income per share for the year.

LITEON has always been an expert in light and electronics. We are familiar with the various characteristics and wavelengths of light. The light spectrum is rich, fluctuating, vital, and more inclusive and diverse. We hope that LITEON's employees are also full of colors, like the spectrum of light. All people can find their own expression and belonging in LITEON's spectrum, free and unconstrained. We hope that the "light" of LITEON is a "light" with heat, one that radiates and gathers energy. This energy comes from the ideals and values that all our stakeholders hope to convey, and comes from the trust LITEON has earned from all walks of life. We expect as much from ourselves and continue to work hard along with all our employees.

LITEON Sustainability ▸