First Gen and EDC, with observers from FPH and Lopez Holdings, gathered in a workshop last February 2 to discuss the next steps in their sustainability journey. As stressed by Ms. Agnes de Jesus, the FPH Chief Sustainability Officer, in her opening remarks: In this “new normal of extreme weather events and rapidly changing environment, companies need to evolve and adopt new ways to survive. The environmental and social disturbances that were delegated to a few departments of the company before are becoming unavoidable and disrupting many aspects of business operations that need the attention of the whole company and the President and CEO themselves. These issues are major risks of companies in the Philippines and abroad. Now even investors want to know how companies will address these risks. According to the survey of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, capturing the intangible values in sustainability parameters (environmental, social, ethics and governance) used to be considered as 18% of the market value of the company. Today, they make up more than 80% of the valuation.”
The evolving threats tell us we need to restructure for synergy and business excellence. First Gen and EDC did exactly this when they came together in the Corporate Sustainability Policy Statement Crafting workshop to unify the organizational structure, processes and procedures in the Global Reporting Initiative, which is a framework of sustainability reporting that documents the wider organization's performance in terms of not only economic, but environmental and social aspects as well. With corporate sustainability viewed as integral to the operations of First Gen and EDC, the workshop served as another step for them to formalize their corporate sustainability commitment.
The integrated sustainability technical working group (TWG)--composed of representatives from the two companies--were given visioning exercises during the workshop that helped them link the company identity with its image and reputation. The insights from this activity were used during the breakout session wherein groups of First Gen and EDC representatives were formed and tasked to create a corporate sustainability policy statement reflective of the First Gen identity. Each group presented their crafted statements, to which the use of the Lopez values were noticeably captured or mentioned in each statement. The consolidated statement is currently being drafted and, upon approval, will not only act as a guide for the power companies of FPH, but will also encourage other companies within the Lopez Group to begin their formal commitments to sustainability.
Moving forward, First Gen and EDC also formalized the integration of their TWG for the GRI. With EDC bringing 5 years of experience to the table to guide sustainability reporting and First Gen congruently improving the reporting process, this integration will serve as an opportunity to share best practices that will be critical for sustained growth, innovation, and profitability from here on in their sustainability journey.
This event was organized by the FPH Corporate Sustainability Group with the guiding hand of the Asian Sustainability Initiative, a consulting firm with extensive experience in sustainability reporting.
