ASE Sustainable Exploration Camp Moves to Kaohsiung, Letting Children Plant a Tree by Hand

The 'ASE Sustainable Exploration Camp,' hosted by the Chang Yao-Hung Charitable & Cultural Foundation, has entered its third year. This year marks the first time the event has moved to Kaohsiung, with activities based at the 'Chang Yao-Hung Founder Memorial Hall' within ASE’s Kaohsiung facility. Over five days, the camp connects Nanzih Elementary School, Dongguang Elementary School, Houjing Elementary School, and Nan Child Welfare Center, while integrating resources from Taipei First Girls High School and Kaohsiung Sanmin Senior High School. Through ecological tree planting, circular art creation, and on-site visits to water resource facilities, students experience sustainability within an industrial environment.

Taking Learning Beyond the Classroom: Industry as a Classroom

Since its launch in 2024, the camp has targeted elementary school students, integrating environmental education, hands-on practice, and social care into a single curriculum. The inaugural edition focused on four pillars: low-carbon missions, circular regeneration, social inclusion, and co-creation of value. In 2025, the program incorporated redesigned recycled tennis balls and beach cleanups. This year, the focus has shifted toward local community engagement.

During the program, participants visited ASE’s industrial wastewater recycling facility to understand how industrial water is treated, recovered, and reused—transforming classroom concepts about water resources into visible industrial practices. The camp also included a visit to ASE’s Green Energy and Environmental Education Center to learn about sustainability practices in the technology industry.

Fiona Tseng, the program director, noted that moving to Kaohsiung allowed them to reach a new group of students. The curriculum was adjusted to the new location, incorporating more hands-on experiences so students could directly observe the process of water recycling and reuse.

More Than Planting Trees: Understanding the 'Why'

The camp featured a 'one person, one tree' initiative, allowing each participant to personally prepare the soil and plant a local sapling in Kaohsiung. Students wrote messages like 'I hope this sapling grows strong and healthy' on tree tags, looking forward to returning in the future to witness their trees' growth.

To ensure tree planting went beyond mere physical labor, the camp invited the Executive Director of the Taiwan Forest Restoration Association to guide students through lectures, interactive games, and actual planting activities, helping them understand the importance of reforestation for biodiversity, climate adaptation, and carbon sequestration.

Fiona Tseng emphasized the importance of students truly understanding 'why we plant trees.' From building awareness to taking action, the goal is to make environmental protection not just a one-time event, but a lasting attitude that influences their future lives.

Since its launch in 2024, the camp has focused on elementary school students, integrating environmental education, hands-on practice, and social care into a single curriculum. Photo courtesy of ASE Holding.

Giving Old Tennis Balls a New Life

In practicing circular economy principles, this year’s camp showcased cross-city and cross-school resource integration. Taipei First Girls High School and Sanmin Senior High School jointly donated used tennis balls and rackets, allowing idle sports equipment to re-enter cycles of use and creative reuse.

Students first experienced tennis firsthand, enjoying the fun of swinging rackets and running. Then, using creativity, they combined the used tennis balls with recycled sustainable cotton rope to create installation art. From using an item’s original function to thinking about how to extend its lifecycle, children fully experienced the process of 'use, think, redesign, regenerate.'

The course design is closely tied to Fiona Tseng’s personal background. She began playing tennis at age four and competed in tournaments from age eight—tennis has been a major part of her life. She explained to students that while tennis balls seem small, their cumulative volume in landfills is staggering, making it essential to explore recycling and reuse methods.

In addition to tennis and tree planting, the camp included art classes and integrated environmental education into English lessons, allowing students to learn about nature, ecology, and resource cycles through language. The English classes were taught personally by Fiona Tseng.

Co-Benefits: Extending from Corporate Sites to Schools and Communities

Another highlight of this year’s camp was its expanded collaboration with schools and nonprofit groups near ASE’s Kaohsiung facility, extending sustainability education from the corporate site into schools, families, and communities. At the same time, by collaborating with high schools in both northern and southern Taiwan to collect secondhand sports equipment, the camp formed an inter-school, cross-city, and intergenerational educational network.

Fiona Tseng stated that this year’s camp emphasized 'Community' as a core value. Through one-person-one-tree planting, team tennis activities, and collaborative courses, students learned that protecting the environment requires cooperation and collective participation.

Wang Tu-Tsun, Executive Director of the Chang Yao-Hung Charitable & Cultural Foundation, said the foundation has always upheld the founder’s spirit of 'taking from society, giving back to society,' with a long-term focus on children’s education and social welfare. Moving the camp to Kaohsiung and using the Chang Yao-Hung Founder Memorial Hall as the base reflects their desire to continue the founder’s care for the land and society, guiding children to understand the relationship between industrial development, environmental protection, and local prosperity from the community where the company operates.

Wang further noted that in the face of global climate change and environmental challenges, ASE continues to advance various environmental strategies, elevating environmental governance to the level of 'natural capital governance.' From energy and water resources to circular economy, biodiversity, and community co-benefits, the company is rethinking long-term coexistence between business and the natural environment. He emphasized that sustainability education must take root early, and talent development is an essential foundation for sustainable progress.

Sustaining Action Beyond the Camp

At the closing ceremony, Fiona Tseng mentioned that she hopes children take away more than just the knowledge gained over five days. Most importantly, she wants them to believe in their ability to make a difference for the environment, and she hopes this mindset will extend from the children to their families, schools, and communities.

The foundation stated that it will continue to promote long-term and diverse sustainability education initiatives, supporting children in bringing their experiences, learnings, and reflections from the camp back to their homes, schools, and communities.