History and medical records show that no global disease outbreak since the Spanish Flu of 1918 has affected the world’s populace like the novel Coronavirus Disease (CoViD-19).
For seven months now, societies are coping with the ongoing pandemic, with countries around the world still struggling to flatten their case numbers while keeping their economies afloat—a volatile balancing act between humanity and economy.
It’s a good thing corporate sustainability is alive and kicking in the midst of the pandemic. Leading the way in advancing business and communities amid Covid-19 in the Philippines is the Aboitiz Group, an organization which for a hundred years has been giving back to the community.
As of August, Aboitiz has reported to have contributed over P2.2 billion to help the government, frontliners, and communities deal with the COVID-19 crisis. The Group’s corporate social responsibility arm, Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., facilitated nationwide donations together with Aboitiz business units and utilized its online crowdfunding platform ‘Kinder’ to raise more funds and expand the coverage of its COVID-19 efforts.
Aboitiz Group president and Chief Executive Officer Sabin M. Aboitiz affirmed the company’s commitment to keep its businesses running smoothly to help the country’s economy weather the challenges posed by the health crisis.
“Aboitiz is committed to providing unhampered delivery of products and services across critical sectors that will help keep our economy moving. We will continue to provide reliable and ample power supply to the country; ensure food security along with our partners; continue to create better ways to live; and ensure sufficient and domestically-produced cement of good quality to support the country’s infrastructure initiatives,” he said.
“Aboitiz is committed to providing unhampered delivery of products and services across critical sectors that will help keep our economy moving,” Aboitiz added as he underscored that the most important thing is ensuring that Aboitiz team members especially those in the frontlines are well taken care of.
Aboitiz assures continued business operations
Various Aboitiz business facilities are continuously operating and implementing health and safety protocols in the midst of the Coronavirus-19 (Covid-19) pandemic.
A series of site inspections has been going on with Aboitiz himself leading.
In August 14, the Aboitiz Group chief visited Republic Cement and Building Materials, Inc.’s (Republic Cement) Batangas Plant, which boasts of its consistent high standard in environmental and safety practices. He also toured AboitizLand, Inc.’s Seafront Residences in San Juan, Batangas, its first residential project in Luzon.
Team members on site felt empowered with the strong leadership support at this challenging time.
A few weeks prior, the Aboitiz chief and a team of AboitizPower senior officials, inspected the geothermal power plant facilities of AboitizPower Renewables, Inc. (APRI) in Makiling-Banahaw (MakBan) in Laguna and Tiwi, Albay. Aboitiz also went around the Pagbilao Thermal Power Plant in Quezon province to inspect the 420-megawatt Pagbilao 3 unit operated by Pagbilao Energy Corporation, a joint venture between AboitizPower and TeaM Energy.
In all these visits, Aboitiz noted that these facilities are conscientiously following strict pre-entry safety requirements, health screening, and other safety protocols.
Aboitiz noted that while the health crisis has undoubtedly created challenges, it is also paving the way for opportunities such as harnessing the full potential of innovation and applying it in the company’s business operations.
“We were able to showcase the performance of the Batangas plant, the safety of the plant as well as our preparations on the new normal and how we implement it,” shared Republic Cement Batangas Plant manager Erwin Cruz.
The Republic Cement Batangas Plant, located in Taysan, Batangas, has been in operation since 1967. It produces Type 1, Type 1P, and Type 1 OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement) Bulk Cement.
Meantime at the Seafront Residences which was launched in 2017, Aboitiz inspected completed houses and amenities, and future areas for development. “It was good to be able to highlight our successes and initiatives towards meeting our construction goals despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic,” AboitizLand assistant vice president for Customer Management Monica Trajano said.
Sustainability going strong within the private sector
According to GreenBiz Group, a media and events company that views global environmental challenges as existential threats and significant opportunities to business and society, there are five reasons for this:
Corporate sustainability is a long-term evolution. Today’s companies are making commitments into 2025, 2030 and beyond. That means they have set the wheels in motion for long-term structural change.
Companies understand that sustainability engenders resilience by making supply chains more transparent, operations more efficient and, increasingly, improving the ability of operations to withstand or recover from calamities of all types.
Investors see sustainability as material. Institutional shareholders see sustainability performance as a proxy for a well-managed company that is taking a risked-based approach to strategy and investing.
There’s a growing call for a business-led “green recovery” to revive economies around the world and help them prepare for the next likely pandemic: climate change.
Companies understand that the world is watching. They want to be able to attract and retain customers and talent — to be seen as part of the solution or at least not part of the problem.
Indeed, the lockdown could be the craziest thing for many Filipinos—and definitely for the rest of the human race—for disrupting our normal activities. But there’s always a silver lining behind this crisis: we all learn together to make do with what we have, live simply and love and look for the well-being of every member of the family.
Still for many it was also the best time to assess ourselves and find out the things that really matter to us. It was also the time for learning new things, finding avenues of our talents ang grabbing opportunies that come our way.
Thanks to companies like Aboitiz and their heightened corporate social responsibility programs and to many enterprising individuals among us to make our lives a lot better in this time of crisis.