Origin & Vision

The White Paper for International Green University Initiative at NTTU

Approved by the NTTU Committee for International Green University Initiative (SEPT 29, 2017)
Approved by the NTTU Committee for International Green University Initiative (OCT 25, 2022)

The United Nations Environment Programme, in its 2014 Emissions Gap Report, argued that global carbon neutrality should be achieved some time between 2055 and 2070, otherwise the Earth will face climate change disasters. In 2015, the United Nations issued the “2030 Sustainable Development Policy“, announcing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and providing a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. Now in the 21st century, a commitment to maintaining lives on Earth has arisen, as well as to practicing healthy dietary and living habits, physical and mental exploration, and personal growth, or Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS).

Universities are the base for cultivating talent in higher education. Universities also have the crucial mission of cultivating future citizens of the Earth and the obligation of educating and realizing sustainable development. In 1990, 20 university presidents and principals signed the Talloires Declaration in the international conference titled “The Role of Universities in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development” and unveiled the following action plans: (1) Raise awareness of the urgent need for an environmentally sustainable future; (2) encourage university culture in pursuit of a sustainable future; (3) cultivate environmentally literate and responsible citizens; (4) develop environmental literacy among university faculty members; (5) establish environmentally responsible university ecosystems; (6) encourage government–industry collaborations in environmentally sustainable development; (7) develop cross-domain exchange programs; (8) establish partnerships with primary and secondary schools; (9) strengthen national and international collaborations and services; and (10) continue the momentum for exchanges and support for implementing this declaration. The Talloires Declaration led to the rise of today’s global Green University movement. Particularly, University of Indonesia (UI) has launched UI GreenMetric World University Rankings since 2010. The rankings are based on the performance of sustainability in higher education institutions and allow comparisons between them. By 2021, 956 universities around the world have participated in the comparisons.Our institution promotes ourselves as a green university that “creates and tolerates” to practice liberal democracy, enriching itself with "wisdom, health, sustainability, and aesthetics" as the connotation, and concretely implements SDGs. We aspire to elevate individuals, families, schools, societies, countries, and even the whole world from the inside out in their existence and lives through each university member’s sustainable development cultivation and actions, so as to promote the sustainable future, peace and prosperity of the world.

National Taitung University (NTTU) was transformed from a normal college to a comprehensive university with three colleges of humanities, science and engineering, and normal education in 2003. The Zhiben campus formally replaced the Taitung campus as the main campus in 2014. Zhiben campus is an all-new campus based on green architecture and natural ecology owning a unique environment surrounded by mountains and seas.

In 2109, NTTU’s Library and Information Center received the FIABCI World Prix d’Excellence Award in Public Infrastructures/Amenities for providing quality library and information services. Supported by Taitung’s rich natural resources and diverse cultures, the Library and Information Center exerts influence in the form of the green university’s knowledge collection and action learning.

Furthermore, to assist the transformation and upgrading of local industries, the pilot plant of NTTU’s East Taiwan Bio-Economic Center was launched at the end of 2019. In addition to local joint efforts to create sixth-industry efficacy in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and animal husbandry, the pilot plant plans to report the carbon footprints of its products in the future.

Since 2003, the University has established a steady and strong foundation for an outstanding green university through building upward and downward consensus, and will gradually develop into an international green university that supports the sustainable development of a green knowledge economy.

NTTU's blueprint (Fig. 1), enacted in 2016, highlights educational innovation as its core. To fulfill its social obligations, NTTU is dedicated to strengthening cooperative mechanisms with local governments and industries in adherence to the concepts of regional governance and provision of diverse and concrete services through academic expertise. With the cultivation of people with diverse skills, adaptive capability, and the capability of autonomous learning, as well as with servicing the community as the university mission, NTTU aims to promote national development through academic research, talent cultivation, cultural advancements, and social service as it progresses toward its vision of “educational excellence, social care, establishing research, and advancing toward the international.” Simultaneously, the blueprint defines the three stages of academic development and self-positioning as the “advancement towards becoming a green university by developing unique education and research in conjunction with local needs and resources, gradually developing into an outstanding and refined international green university” in the hope of becoming an international university that supports the sustainable development of a green knowledge economy (GKE).

In June 2017, NTTU declared its determination to become an international green university in its Directions for the Establishment of International Green University Initiative. These directions appoint the university president as the committee chair, and the committee members include the director of the Office of Academic Affairs and other first-level managers, as well as student and faculty representatives. The committee drafted the university's International Green University White Papers to establish objectives, strategies, and action plans for developing an international green university in adherence to the following basic policies:

1.	Forming strategies and principles for developing into an international green university that comply with NTTU's motto, vision, mission, and self-positioning;
2.	Devising an action plan from the four development strategies—talent cultivation, academic development, professional services, and innovations in institutional affairs—defined in the NTTU blueprint to drive the university's practical measures for becoming an international green university;
3.	Developing international green university teachings and research based on wisdom, health, sustainability, and aesthetics while reinforcing NTTU's cooperation and services with universities in and outside of Taiwan, exchanging resources and information to optimize collaborative efforts;
4.	Cultivating a campus culture founded in wisdom, health, sustainability, and aesthetics through the collaboration of students, faculty, and staff in administrative affairs, service, teaching, research, and daily life;
5.	Proposing GKE initiatives that combine government and local efforts and are implemented through cross-domain collaborations, and simultaneously establishing regional campus partnerships to continue exchanges and promotions;
6.	Assessing NTTU's performance in its administrative, service, teaching, and research development for becoming an international green university as its short-, mid-, and long-term goals, and developing a strategic smart system to establish long-term sustainable tracking and improvement mechanisms.

The NTTU Vision: Excellence in Education, Social Responsibility, In-Depth Research and Development, and Internationalization

NTTU is dedicated to becoming an international university founded on wisdom, health, sustainability, and aesthetics, with an outstanding campus and specialized education. We are committed to establishing teachings and scientific and technology development that support a GKE and cultivating a new generation that is disciplined, innovative, and able to apply knowledge for the benefit of all mankind. All faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to embody the campus culture in all aspects of university life, extending their influence into their communities, society, the country, overseas and to achieve global LOHAS in the future.