Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, chairman of the country’s most admired conglomerate, said it is about time for companies to convert their sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance commitments from “big words to bigger actions.”
To concretize its commitment to ESG, Zobel said, the Ayala Group uses robust materiality assessments and sustainability reporting. Annually, Ayala conducts a materiality assessment process to check that they are addressing sustainability issues that are sufficiently important to their stakeholders. The groups also takes guidance from several international institutions and research by its in-house Sustainability and Risk Management teams to guarantee the relevance of the ESG issues identified. Ayala enjoys active partnership with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Second is resource efficiency and waste management, where the group continues to implement existing protocols, and even explore new ways to properly transport, treat, store, and dispose of waste. “Once again, holding ourselves accountable to ESG metrics through a robust materiality assessment and reporting process is crucial in the sustainability agenda,” he said.
“We have embraced these goals and have tried to capture our commitments to these through the Ayala Sustainability Blueprint. The Blueprint features Ayala’s concrete pledges to 11 SDGs that are naturally aligned to each of their businesses. Next is Productivity and Competitiveness where Ayala hopes to provide the necessary infrastructure, technology, products, and services that will aid Filipinos to be competitive in a globally connected economy.