On the 5^th, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), Executive Yuan announced that Hualien County received the “silver-level certificate”, known as the highest city/county-level honor of “Low Carbon Sustainable Homeland” Certification Program. Aiming to promote a low-carbon garden city, the County has integrated action items of low-carbon city, culture, transportation and tourism to construct a perfect low-carbon network and schedule, which were highly recognized by the committee members.
To reduce influence brought by climate change, EPA has, with the objective of building a low-carbon sustainable homeland, exerted its greatest efforts to promote the certification system in recent years. That is, to transform energy-saving and carbon-reduction concepts into daily life practice (i.e. related to food, clothing, living, transportation, education and entertainment) for continuous promotions. On October 28, EPA led six committee members to Hualian County to conduct site surveys with respect to the silver-level certification and the Deputy Director of Hualien County Environmental Protection Bureau Jao Jui-Ling reported on the County’s energy-saving and carbon reduction results in recent years together with the County’s Fire Department,  Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tourism Department, Department of Education, Bureau of Agriculture, Hualien Forest District Office, Jian Township Office, private associations, local village, and community development associations. The committee members surveyed a number of sites, including Chinghsiou Temple (previously known as "Shingon Yoshino Dojo"), known as the preserved and reutilized cultural assets; Da Nong Da Fu Forest Park that devotes to botanical conservation and restoration; Fenglin Culture and History Association that promotes Cittalow International’s certification of  folklore activities; and Guoxing Village, one of disaster resilience communities. Not only travelled committee members between these sites on an electric bus, but also the County’s sightseeing and environmental education ambassadors accompanied them to narrate the background story of the County.
Hualien County Environmental Protection Bureau has been promoting low-carbon sustainable homeland for many years and assisted 145 villages in applying for the certification. This time, the city/county-level certification is conducted based on a comprehensive report of the County’s 32 action items oriented to the concepts of “ecology go green”, “green transportation”, “resource circulation”, “low-carbon life”, “green energy and energy saving” and “sustainable operations”; and on the highlights of the County’s future policy and strategy.
Director of Hualien County Environmental Protection Bureau Jao Chong stated that, over the years, the County emphasized on an adaptive, multivariate and abundant development of low-carbon homeland. Together with regional environmental characteristics, the County succeeded in demonstrating the highlights  of different regions and creating Hualien County a low-carbon tourist city. Director Jao expressed that it was a great honor to receive the silver-level certification as it definitely recognized the efforts of the County. He further stated that the County would continue to promote all types of action plans for building a low-carbon sustainable homeland; promote cooperation and collaboration between public and private sectors; and lead citizens to continuously participating in energy-saving and carbon-emission works, building Hualien into a low-carbon sustainable homeland that is ideal for living.