On December 1 (‘23), the NPUST Department of Forestry and Ching Jinglin Education Foundation held their annual tree-planting activity at the NPUST’s “Baoli Practice Farm”. The cooperative project, which began in 2019, has become a model for corporate social responsibility (CSR) and university social responsibility (USR). Over the past five years, 4,000 saplings have been successfully planted as a result of the activity, with a survival rate of over 90%. Taking account for biodiversity, the tree species planted this year include such native species as Philippine drypetes, Cinnamomum reticulatum, and persimmon.

Associate Professor Tang Chi of the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) Department of Soil and Water Conservation and his team were named among the top teams at this year’s (2023) Taiwan Presidential Hackathon. Their proposal, entitled the “Beauty of 4 per 1000”, was sponsored by a number of businesses and agencies including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Pingtung County Government Environmental Protection Bureau, Ministry of Environment Climate Change Administration, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute, Agricultural Experimental Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture, Eco-affinity Inc., and the Green Consumer Foundation.

In order to achieve the target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, Assistant Professor Tsu Che Lin of the NPUST Department of Plant Industry and his team joined up with researchers from the Taitung District Agricultural Research & Extension Station to promote the research and development of “Strategies to Optimize Rice Production Models in Tropical Environments under Climate Change”. The goal is to establish a strategy that is different from traditional, constant field flooding production method, which causes high greenhouse gas emissions. The old method is to be replaced by a water-saving model which alternates between dry and wet conditions and uses low-carbon rice varieties. Tests have found that this model can save water and reduce carbon emissions by more than 50%. President Chin-Lung Chang of NPUST and Director Hsin-Yen Chen of Taitung District Agricultural Research & Extension Station signed a strategic alliance agreement on behalf of both parties on October 17, 2023 in the Second Meeting Room of the NPUST Administration Building. College of Agriculture dean Jue-Liang Hsu and a number of colleagues from the university and Research & Extension Station were also present to witnessed the event.

The secretariat of the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings invited seven universities, including National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (Taiwan), Universitas Diponegoro (Indonesia), Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta (Indonesia), and Mahidol University (Thailand), Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University (Turkey), University of Pécs (Hungary), and October 6 University (Egypt) to jointly organize the “Sustainable Universities: Global Practices on Sustainable Development Goals” online course. The course officially started at 6 pm on September 13, 2023 in Lecture Hall 113 of the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) International College. Around 70 students from NPUST are enrolled in the course together with more than 80 international students who joined online. The presidents of the co-organizing universities addressed the students remotely via recorded video messages, and Dr. Junaidi, Vice Chairman of GreenMetric explained the purpose of the course. Vice-Dean Yuh Tzean of the NPUST Office of International Affairs gave a course overview, and provided a detailed explanation of the classroom approach and learning obligations for the 17-week course.

A team from NPUST, including Professor Hudson Hsu, Professor Chang-Hsien Tai, Researcher Yaoyu Tsai, and student Yukai Liu have successfully developed a “Green Energy Wind Powered Air Compression & Storage Heat Pump System”, which serves as an environmentally friendly sustainable solution to the question of how to convert and store of renewable energy. This and other related technology were presented at the 2023 MTE Malaysia International Invention Exhibition, which is ranked by the Ministry of Economic Affairs as one of the top ten invention exhibitions in the world. At the exhibition, their inventions won one silver and one bronze.