FPH CSO Agnes de Jesus standing left guides the workshop participants from First Gen and EDC

First Gen Corporation and Energy Development Corporation (EDC), with observers from First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH) and Lopez Holdings Corporation, gathered in a workshop in February to discuss the next steps in their sustainability journey.

As stressed by Agnes de Jesus, chief sustainability officer of FPH, 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.”

First Gen and EDC came together in the corporate sustainability policy statement crafting workshop to unify the organizational structure, processes and procedures in the Global Reporting Initiative, 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.

Groups of First Gen and EDC representatives were tasked to create a corporate sustainability policy statement reflective of the First Gen identity and where the use of the Lopez Values was captured or mentioned. The consolidated statement will not only act as a guide for the power companies of FPH, but also encourage other companies within the Lopez Group to begin their formal commitments to sustainability. (Story/ photos by Agnes de Jesus and Alexa Cancio)