Progress at Timely Manner, Grow Together in Friendly Minds

Among the many songs written by the famous musician Antonin Dvorak in the 19th century, The No. 4 Op “Songs my mother taught me” from Dvorak Gypsy Songs has the most beautiful melody and is the most widely spread, which makes people moved. Listening to this song in the glorious May full of maternal love will always bring ripples of mothers.

In May, in addition to mother's day, there are labor day and nurse's day; The objects of these three festivals -- women, employees and front-line medical staff -- are the most important stakeholders in the fight against the pandemic in the past two years. The department store is precisely a labor place and shopping area with women in majority; Most of our colleagues are women, and most of our customers are women. Therefore, "taking care of colleagues", "caring for customers" and "protecting the earth" in response to the carbon reduction trend in recent years are the three major aspects for FE SOGO to pursue sustainability.

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Taking Care of Employees: Fight the Pandemic with One Heart With Vaccination Reward
 

During the pandemic period, FE SOGO is committed to giving employees a "peace of mind". The first thing is not to reduce wages and benefits. It is hoped that all employees would overcome the pandemic period safely in their jobs. From May to August 2021, the department store industry fought hard, and we were also affected by the pandemic. The cumulative annual performance was NT$4.2 billion (IFRS), a decrease of 1.53% compared with 2020. However, the primary estimated profit increased slightly, and the year-end bonus was paid in full as usual. From January 2022, the entire staff salary was raised by about 4% to boost the morale of employees.

        At the same time, department stores is an industry with a busy flow of people. Since 2020, FE SOGO has formulated special pandemic prevention guidelines for the department store industry in accordance with the specifications of the CDC. A total of 12 pandemic prevention guidelines were formulated in 2020, and 13 in 2021; With the rapid change of the pandemic situation, it is necessary to adopt new pandemic prevention guidelines in response to the new norms every month, and quickly announce to all colleagues and stores in Taiwan to follow. In order to increase the pandemic protections of employees, a vaccination reward policy has been put forward since July 2021. Each dose of vaccination can be rewarded, and three doses of complete vaccination can be rewarded with NT $2500, so as to encourage colleagues to protect themselves, their families and customers. By the end of 2021, the rate of two doses of vaccine had exceeded 90%.

Care for Customers: Hold Pandemic Prevention Meal Competition and Promote Healthy Diet at Home

Since 2007, FE SOGO has held the "FEG Catering Talent Competition" for 12 years. It has assisted Taiwan to develop nearly 2000 catering elite soldiers, and has won the "GVM Corporate Social Responsibility Award - Model Award". The COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the past two years, threatening the health of the whole people, and the eating habits of Chinese people have changed from "eating outside" to "cooking at home"; In order to promote "healthy diet" to the public, FE SOGO has changed the competition system originally aimed at the catering industry into the "FE SOGO pandemic prevention meal competition" for the general public. Through the competition, health management by self cooking is promoted to enhance the immunity of everyone!

All ages are welcomed to sign up for the competition, and nutritionists, gourmets and the National Health Foundation are invited to jointly promote "healthy diet" during the pandemic. In addition to holding the event, it also expanded the influence of the event results, transformed the recipes of the superior cuisine into the main cuisine of the popular restaurant of FE SOGO, and shared the pandemic prevention results with stakeholders. The works of the award-winning amateur chef in 2020 were exclusively sold in the popular restaurants of Taipei Zhongxiao store, Fuxing store and Dunhua store in FE SOGO from April to September 2021, setting a precedent for department stores.

This activity is also an attempt to eliminate hunger. FE SOGO held a public year end welfare banquet and invited the vulnerable taking care by Taiwan Fund for Children and Families to enjoy healthy dishes made with the concept of superior cuisine. In order to support sustainable agricultural development, the contestants during the final competition had to choose food materials from the B2 fresh Mart supermarket of Zhongxiao store to help the minority farmers. In addition, the competition highlights the value of catering. Catering practitioners affected by the pandemic regain their enthusiasm for catering through participating in the competition, give positive energy to the depressed catering industry and accompany them through difficult times.

Not only that, FE SOGO also held an essay competition for pandemic prevention meals. Between the lines, this seemingly icing on the cake event in the eyes of others actually brought warmth and healing to many consumers and contestants.

A contestant attached a small card with the reply of the award-winning receipt wrote with delicate handwriting: "if your company (SOGO) had not held such warm, healing, rich and diverse activities, I would not have been able to do it (submit the godmother's signature cuisine)! Thank you for holding meaningful activities to comfort me with the warmth of food during the period of worrying about the pandemic."

      

Protecting the Earth: Carbon Reduction of Old Buildings was Affirmed by EPA (Environmental Protection Administration) with "Honorary Environmental Protection Enterprise Award"

 

As urgent as the pandemic, but we can't see the end of the fight is the protection of the earth, and this war to deal with the global warming may last to our next generation and the next generation, never ending.

FE SOGO launched “SOGO sustain. Good things, good selection”. Through the monthly magazines, FE SOGO recommend sustainable commodities that take into account the common good of society and friendly environment to customers, and educate consumers to meet immediate needs without sacrificing the rights of the next generation; And customers can also decide what kind of future we will have through consumption.

After FE SOGO obtained the first "carbon label" of department store retail service industry in 2015, the future department store and retail industry can use our PCR to calculate carbon emissions. Based on the three aspects of "energy resource integration", "green marketing" and "environmental education", we actively create a green operation culture and practice the goal of sustainability. The brilliant achievements made FE SOGO win the silver award or above of the "National Enterprise Environmental Protection Award" for three consecutive years. In 2021, it was awarded the "Honorary Environmental Protection Enterprise Award". It was praised at president’s office and delivered a speech on behalf of the winning enterprises, setting a precedent for department stores!

When the National Enterprise Environmental Protection Award entered the second stage of the selection in 2021, the judge from EPA commented that the outstanding achievement of FE SOGO is to continuously save energy and reduce carbon without the restriction of old buildings, which brings inspiration to Taiwan enterprises. The judges believe that the outstanding environmental performance of FE SOGO is to promote green supply chain and green marketing, join hands with catering counters to promote "green restaurants", and set up solar case panels on the roofs of Tianmu store and Hsinchu store.

 

Join hands with catering counters to promote the "New Era of Tableware": EPA has banned that PVC materials in food containers nationwide since November 2022. However, FE SOGO led Taiwan in banning disposable and melamine tableware as early as 2017 to help restaurant transformations. Not only the consumers feels comfortable with dinning, but also because of this vision, restaurant operators can adjust to carbon reduction issues as soon as possible. In 2021, FE SOGO also actively joined hands with catering counters to practice sustainability, leading all department stores and promoting green restaurants. By the end of January 2022, of the 85 restaurants in FE SOGO, 81 have passed the green restaurant certification, that is, 95% of the restaurants are green restaurants, and the others who fail are new comers, which remains to be tutored or further checked by the government.

Promoting digital gift certificates, the paper saved is taller than two Mt. Jade: in order to reduce resource consumption, in addition to continuously promoting non cash payment, FE SOGO is also committed to digitize gift certificates, vouchers and coupons which were printed on paper in the past. After the comprehensive update and upgrading of FE SOGO APP, the most frequently used coupons and coupons were digitized in 2020, It eliminates the time and labor cost of queuing up for customers in the past, and saves a lot of paper. Over the past seven years, we have issued more than worth NT$ 2 billion digital gift certificates, and the paper gift certificates replaced can be piled up to produce more than the height of two Mt. Jade.

FE SOGO Promotes Sustainability with Bottom Up Spirit

Although FE SOGO is not a listed company, it independently published the Sustainability Report for 8 consecutive years. So far, it has won 108 CSR related awards at home and abroad. We have set many domestic first records, whether it is the first department store in Asia to obtain carbon label and carbon reduction label; the first department store in China to pass the ISO 45001 occupational safety and health management system certification, etc. The affirmation of many awards has become the driving force for FE SOGO to make unremitting efforts on the ESG Road, and it is also the indicators by which we ask all departments to examine for ESG DNA.

The early promotion of CSR by FE SOGO was carried out in top-down manner. However, with the promotion of corporate social responsibility and corporate sustainability, colleagues are more and more grounded and often have innovative proposals. In 2021, FE SOGO held a workshop on ESG sustainability strategy above the section chief level, and incorporated some proposals into the sustainability blueprint of the company, which is the demonstration of bottom up.

This year, FE SOGO will set up "ESG Innovation Proposal Award" to encourage colleagues to make proposals; At the same time, the "reverse tutor" course was developed and named "cheers!", indicating the meaning of bottom-up culture given by bottom-up cheering in English, it also symbolizes easy and harmonious communication between generations.

If You Are on the Right Path, You are Not Afraid to Go Far

Recalling the loneliness that FE SOGO felt at the beginning of promoting CSR and ESG concepts, I often reminded myself and my colleagues in the hardest communication period: " If you are on the right path, you are not afraid to go far"; "If you know this is a right and good faith, please stick to it, because these two parallel lines always meet, and you must prove that you are right."

Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest political and spiritual leader of the 20th century, once said, "the future depends on what we do in the present". In 2021, FE SOGO has launched an inventory of TCFD (Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures, (TCFD)). It is expected that relevant disclosures will be made in the 2021 Sustainability Report published this year, and the disclosure scope will be increased year by year. In the future, it is planned to join the international initiative before 2025 and form a retail net zero alliance with suppliers and counters to gradually move towards net zero.

FE SOGO pursues environmental sustainability, social engagement and corporate governance. When we develop the company's vision in 2020 to meet future challenges, we already know that "sustainability" is the road that SOGO will take at age 35 or even 70! Because our vision is "to be the socially responsible retail benchmark that keeps pace with times to deliver an all-around lifestyle experience for the public".

       

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