Message from the Chairman
Over the past years AVer has aggressively repositioned our products and organization to master the
trends in global electronic education and video conferencing. "AVer Education Solutions", "Cloud Video
Conferencing" and other new products received praise from our customers and further drove both our
revenue and profit growth. We greatly appreciate all our employees at HQ and abroad for their efforts
and our suppliers and customers for their support in pushing AVer one step forward.
To maintain sustainable development, AVer has applied our business philosophy of "Be down to earth,
Create value, Devote one’s self, and Serve the community" and our mission to "Innovate the way people
communicate and enhance their learning, and be an enterprise that contributes to the society’’. We focus
on our business in order to stabilize our management, create value, serve people, protect the earth, and
fulfill our corporate social responsibilities. We periodically review and improve our corporate
procedures in a transparent and open way as to increase the public’s understanding of our efforts in
corporate social responsibility. We respond to our investors, employees, customers, suppliers,
communities, government agencies, stakeholders, etc. on important issues as well as to identify areas we
will strengthen.
AVer is committed to improving our corporate governance and internal control systems. We continue to
improve the quality of our information disclosures and were listed as one of the top 21-35% of companies
in the Corporate Governance Evaluation by the Taiwan Stock Exchange. AVer is people-oriented. We uphold
respect for human rights and recruit the right people. We care for our employees training and endeavor
to promote harmonious labor relations in pursuit of maximum profit for the company. Environmental
friendliness is done by setting up a comprehensive environmental management system which begins at
product development. We design low-energy consuming products and promote green factories, green supply
chains, and green products. Our manufacturing processes comply with international environmental safety
and health standards. AVer also engages in energy saving and carbon reduction measures within the
company.
Rooted in Taiwan but aimed at the global market, AVer products are sold in over 100 countries worldwide.
Taiwan, as the operational headquarters, is responsible for R&D, manufacturing, and marketing.
Subsidiaries, regional offices and business representatives promote products in their local markets.
AVer is dedicated to integrating technological education products into teaching to improve learning and
narrow the educational gap between urban and rural areas. In caring for education and environmental
protection issues, we strongly promote an hourly volunteer system and encourage our employees to allot
at least half a day every year to engage in public service activities.
We will keep our integrity, self-reflection, and self-devoted spirit as we continue to innovate and
create corporate value that best uses our corporate resources. As such, we will never forget to pursue
the best interests of all stakeholders and to fulfill our corporate social responsibilities.
Chairman
Corporate Social Responsibility & Organizational Commitment
AVer’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) guidelines comply with the laws and norms of each country
and internationally. They reflect our corporate value which is "to be people-oriented, maintain
integrity, reflect on oneself, and exceed oneself" and our business philosophy which is "to be down to
earth, create value, devote oneself, and serve people". Based on our company’s sustainable management
and development, we communicate with stakeholders openly and maintain a good relationship with them,
which makes us become a trustworthy enterprise.
Our managers and employees must abide by our corporate social responsibility guidelines, as follows:
- Consumer protection: We respect the rights and interests of consumers. We develop
products and services according to consumer demand based on our principle to be customer-oriented.
We are also committed to protecting their personal information and comply with each country’s
Personal Data Protection Act.
- Employee rights and relations: We respect our employees and protect their rights
and benefits. We strengthen labor-employer relations. We create a working environment that is secure
and healthy, without sexual harassment and discrimination – a workplace where employees all have
fair treatment.
- Business partners and fair trade: We carefully choose suitable business partners
(such as suppliers and distributors). We value our business partners and base our long-term
relationship on mutual trust and benefit. At the same time, AVer respects free market competition
and complies with the Fair Trade Act of each country.
- Innovation and intellectual property protection: We encourage innovation and
endeavor to protect the company's intellectual property rights. We comply with the intellectual
property laws in each country and internationally.
- Taxation, shareholders' equity and corporate governance: We fulfill the obligation
to pay tax and actively create corporate value and stable growth to maintain long-term interests for
our shareholders. AVer emphasizes corporate governance by offering our shareholders and investors
real-time, transparent, open, and reliable information, which fully disclose relevant information
(such as company structure, financial status, social responsibility and corporate governance, etc.).
- Maintenance of environmental sustainability: We pursue sustainable growth and we
are committed to harmonious co-existance with the environment. Apart from following relevant
environmental laws, we also put our focus on technological innovation. We design and manufacture
green products with low pollution and low energy consumption. AVer encourages our employees to
contribute themselves in environmental protection activities and cooperates with other organizations
and individuals to jointly safeguard the Earth and our living environment.
- Establishment of harmonious and healthy community relations: AVer respects the
local culture, customs and historical heritage. Participating in community activities, giving back
to the society and caring for the disadvantaged groups allow us to fulfill our corporate social
responsibility. We should aslo maintain an open, honorable and fair relation with our business
partners, government agencies or public authority.
- Social care and participation: AVer actively promotes social welfare activities
with a heart to serve perople. We care about the development of education, humanities and science
and technology so as to achieve our mission of being an enterprise that contributes to the society.
We continue to pay close attention to the external environment and the development of new issues.
Periodically, we try to reflect on ourselves and review the current situation. We openly communicate
about our efforts on corporate social responsibility. We also respond to our shareholders, employees,
customers, suppliers, and communities about relevant issues they are concerned of. Overall, we create
greater value for our stakeholders.
AVer CSR guidelines provide a basis for our managers and employees to follow. The PR office, HR
department, Health and Safety Management department, Procurement department, Technical Services, and
relevant departments put them into practice on their respective issues. They will need to report
regularly to the upper management and the Board of Directors.
Stakeholder Communication
AVer has already established effective communication channels with employees, customers, investors,
suppliers, communities, non-profit organizations and stakeholders, etc. in pursuit of corporate
sustainability.
With a corporate culture of honesty and integrity, we have established well a corporate governance and
risk control mechanism. Any major purchases and renovation projects need to be processed through the
supplier evaluation system and purchasing procedure so that we can carefully select good vendors to
cooperate with. The Audit Committee, Remuneration Committee, and the Internal Control Systems were
established under the Board of Directors. Internal auditors regularly check the audit plans to avoid
having incomplete systems or the occurrence of fraud or embezzlement. The company’s website also has a
mailbox that is reserved for shareholders, investors, or employees to email their expectations related
to the company’s operation or improvement suggestions. All the emails will be forwarded directly to the
corresponding processing unit.
Contact information for reporting fraud and breach of practitioners’ ethics:
E-mail: whistleblower@aver.com
Your email will be automatically forwarded to the highest manager in HR division and in Intellectual
Property legal division.
1. Interactions and engagements with stakeholders
| Stakeholders |
Issues of concern |
Communication channels |
| Employees |
- Labour/Management relations
- Occupational health and safety
- Economic Performance
- Training and education
- Occupational health and safety
- Non-discrimination
|
- Multi-channel communication
- Intranet & newsletters
- Employee questionnaire survey
- Regular/irregular meeting
- The Employee Welfare Committee
- The Health and Safety Committee Meeting
|
| Customers |
- Procurement Practices
- Environmental compliance
- Customer Health and Safety
- Marketing and Labelling
- Energy
|
- Business meetings
- Regular/irregular client visits
- Customer service hotline and webmail
- Customer satisfaction survey
- Dealer meetings
|
| Shareholders |
- Economic Performance
- Labour/Management relations
- Customer Health and Safety
- Anti-corruption
- Socio economic Compliance
- Environmental compliance
- Occupational health and safety
|
- Periodic announcement of operation performance
- Regular shareholders meeting
- Corporate announcement on website
- Corporate seminar/forum
- Set up a system for assigning investor contact window and spokesperson
- Reply to investors or analysts by phone/email
- Corporate governance evaluation
|
|
Suppliers
|
- Supplier Environmental Assessment
- Supplier social assessment
- Procurement Practices
- Energy
|
- Platform to interact and bargain with suppliers
- Supplier evaluation system
- Procurement meetings
- Regular/irregular visits
|
| Government/ Association |
- Environmental compliance
- Socio economic Compliance
- Occupational health and safety
- Marketing and Labelling
- Customer Health and Safety
- Anti-corruption
- Anti-competitor behaviour
|
- Comply with relevant regulations and terms
- Participation in seminars held by government agencies
- Official letters
- Communications
- Irregular visits/ face-to-face meetings
- Participation in the association’s operation
|
| Media |
- Economic Performance
- Labour/Management relations
- Customer Health and Safety
- Anti-corruption
- Environmental compliance
- Socio economic Compliance
- Occupational health and safety
|
- Press conferences
- Interview plans
- Press releases
- Phone interviews/Visits
|
| Communities/ Non-profit Organizations |
- Environmental compliance
- Non-discrimination
- Local Communities
|
- Community charity events sponsorship or hosting
- Long-term cooperation with some on-profit
|
2. Stakeholders contact window
If you have any questions or suggestions about AVer, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Green Environment
AVer takes action to protect the environment. From design, procurement, manufacture to deliver, our
products and processes are strictly controlled to meet the requirements of international environmental
protection regulations. Inside AVer’s office building and manufacturing plant, we implement energy
saving, carbon reduction, garbage classification schemes and promote them throughout the organization.
Moreover, the company encourages staff members, and their families and friends to join us in
participating in the annual “Clean up the World” campaign and ecology conservation activities. Believing
that every great achievement originates from small steps and individuals, we work from our hearts and
hope to arouse the general public’s attention to protect the environment.
Through establishing various management systems and making continuous improvement to ensure the
effectiveness of their implementation, AVer incorporates the “green” concept in the processes of product
design and manufacture to minimize environmental impact by our operation.
IECQ QC 080000 Hazardous Substance Process Management System
AVer selects ”green” components for product design and utilizes “green” materials for subsequent
manufacturing. Operational and management procedures fulfill the requirements of IECQ QC 080000, and the
content levels of hazardous substances in our products comply with the limits set forth in the EU’s RoHS
Directive (2011/65/EU) directive. In addition to meeting international standards, our green product (GP)
and clean production program has also passed the certification audits of major ODM customers.
ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
The successful achievement of clean production at AVer relies partly on the implementation of ISO 14001
Environmental Management System. Through the identification of environmental aspects associated with our
business activities, we monitor processes, including recycling, treatment, process changes, control
mechanisms, efficient use of resources and material substitution, to minimize the impact to the
environment. Not only do we comply with the existing environmental regulations over waste recycling and
treatment, we also track and respond to the development of the regulations in a timely manner to ensure
our daily environmental management stay aligned with the newest trends.
ISO 14064-1 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Verification
AVer’s first task in tackling global warming is to quantify and report its total greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions using the norms established by ISO 14064-1. Building these norms into our operations allows us
to identify risks relating to restrictions on greenhouse gases and emissions reduction opportunities,
passing this information on to the public and company stakeholders and participating in domestic
greenhouse gas reporting actions.
PAS 2050 Carbon Footprint Verification
AVer computes products’ total greenhouse gas emissions throughout the product life cycle, from raw
materials to production, distribution, use, and disposal after processing, in accordance with PAS 2050.
At the same time, AVer looks for opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the process of
product design, production and supply.
Eco-Design of Products (WEEE 2002/96/EC and ErP 2009/125/EC)
In addition to selecting components free of hazardous substances and adopting strict environmental
control in its manufacturing, AVer takes further steps to realize the Eco-Design concept. We optimize
our product design to meet the energy saving requirements stipulated in the ErP (Energy Related
Products) directive, and to fulfill the collection and 3R (Reuse, Recycling, Recovery) requirements in
the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive.
Future Work
AVer recognizes the industry’s trend of ever-broadening restriction on hazardous substances. A
halogen-free project has been ongoing to eliminate the use of BFRs (Brominated Flame Retardants) and PVC
(Polyvinyl Chloride). AVer also takes initiative in response to the global warming caused by the
emission of greenhouse gases. We are actively putting in place an ISO 50001 energy management system,
allowing us to improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
giving us a competitive advantage.
Health & Safety of the Workplace
Valuing Employees
AVer has established a people-oriented corporate culture, the realization of which relies upon the
availability of “suitable” people. AVer’s employees are asked to possess the characteristics of honesty
and integrity, self-reflection and self-transcendence. Our policy is to recruit and develop talents that
meet the human resource needs for business strategy deployment. We provide open, fair and equal
employment opportunities to all candidates, and offer adequate positions according to their
capabilities. Through the establishment of personnel competence databases and the implementation of
training systems, we ensure our employees have the needed skill sets to fully realize their potential at
AVer and create the largest corporate profits.
Health and Safety of the Workplace
AVer Information Inc. is OHSAS 18001 certified since 2007. Based on the framework established in the
system, we strive to comply with the strict requirements of occupational health and safety set forth by
government regulations and international standards, aiming at providing employees a safe and hygienic
workplace. With “zero accidents” as the objective, we standardize our management procedures for chemical
substances control and safety audit, formulate emergency reaction plans and incorporate them into our
daily operation and/or regular practice. We also conduct risk assessment regularly to identify potential
hazards and take preventative countermeasures to keep them from threatening life, damaging properties or
impacting the environment.
Customer Service & Supplier Management
Customer Service
AVer has set up customer service hotline, webmail and other quick service platform dedicated to handling
customer issues and conducting customer-satisfaction surveys on products, services, delivery,
maintenance, and technical support. We have also set improvement goals to gradually increase customer
satisfaction.
Supplier Management
AVer’s assessment on suppliers starts from contract terms and conditions, site evaluation to suppliers'
financial status, etc. We engage in purchases only with qualified vendors that passed our assessment.
Supply chain management policy requires suppliers to comply with "Environmental Protection Chemical
Substances Control Standards (IQ-S-RD012)" and to pass regularly the HSF (Hazardous Substance Free)
assessment. In addition, AVer had clear anti-bribery provisions, which prohibited exchange of benefits
in order to build a transparent trading environment.
Social Contribution
AVer is innovate the way people communicate and enhance their learning. We strive to be a corporation
dedicated to serving society, based on the concepts of being down-to-earth, creating value and devoting
ourselves. To every employee of AVer, integrity in running business, devotion to creating value,
protection of the earth, service to people and contribution to society are our important social
responsibilities. We practice these core concepts through activities, such as education involvement
programs, environmental protection, and various forms of charity works and donations. An internal
volunteer service hour system is also established to encourage staff to assist people in need of care.
Education Involvement Programs
Education is one of the best solutions to end poverty. AVer endeavors to develop classroom technology
solution that make learning more interesting and efficient. We host the Taiwan Innovative Teaching
Contest in elementary and junior high schools periodically to inspire the creativity for improving
teaching efficiency and fun. AVer visualizers (document cameras) are donated to elementary schools in
remote areas to bridge the equipment gap of digitized teaching/learning. The company also encourages
employees, as volunteers, to participate in after-school study programs for children from disadvantaged
families and storytelling programs for school kids in remote areas.
Environmental Protection
AVer takes action to protect the environment. From design, procurement, manufacture to deliver, our
products and processes are strictly controlled to meet the requirements of international environmental
protection regulations. Inside AVer’s office building and manufacturing plant, we implement energy
saving, carbon reduction and garbage classification schemes and promote them throughout the
organization. Moreover, the company encourages staff members, and their families and friends to join us
in participating in the annual “Clean up the World” campaign and ecology conservation activities.
Believing that every great achievement originates from small steps and individuals, we work from our
hearts and hope to arouse the general public’s attention to protect the environment.
Charity Works and Donations
AVer responds to the needs of general welfare and cares for the disadvantaged. The company organizes
blood, book and clothing donation drives on a regular basis, and responds timely to calls for emergency
relief and charity.
Management Policy, CSR Reports, Quality & ESH Certificates
Management Policy
CSR Reports
ESH Certificates