First Gen unit EDC wins gold, two silver sustainability awards

FIRST GEN-OWNED Energy Development Corp. (EDC) has bagged a gold and two silver awards at the 8th Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards, the most prestigious awards for sustainability and integrated reports.

EDC received the three awards for its exemplary 2021 Integrated Report, with one gold for the Asia’s Best Sustainability Report (CEO Letter category), a silver for the Asia’s Best Sustainability Report (Private Company category), and another silver for the Asia’s Best Integrated Report (Value Creation category). The recognitions are a testament to EDC’s commitment towards sustainability and its efforts to address material sustainability issues.

EDC is First Gen’s 100-percent renewable energy subsidiary that has over 1,480-MW total installed capacity and accounts for 20 percent of the country’s total installed RE capacity.

Its 1,185.40-MW geothermal portfolio accounts for 62 percent of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity, making the Philippines the third largest geothermal producer in the world.

The awards were handed down in a recently held virtual awarding ceremony by Tom Moody, Regional Director, South East Asia for Climate and Energy and Charis Yeap, Regional Lead for Green Finance at the British High Commission in Singapore, and Elaine Cohen, a well-respected sustainability reporting expert and a member of the ASRA judging panel. The event was attended by senior business leaders and sustainability practitioners from 16 countries.

Rajesh Chhabara, founder of ASRA and Managing Director of CSWorks, said “EDC’s integrated report demonstrates its commitment to high-quality disclosure about how it manages material environmental, social and governance issues, risks and opportunities to create sustainable value for its stakeholders.”

The CEO Letter category considers messages from top executives that were published in sustainability and integrated reports that were considered from hundreds of companies in Asia. Value creation, on the other hand, evaluates short, medium and long term value resulting from the positive outcomes of the companies’ business activities. The Asia’s Best Sustainability Report for Private Companies looks at environment, social and governance (ESG) reports that were voluntarily released by companies.

“We are grateful to CSRWorks for recognizing our 2021 integrated report, which mirrors our over 1,400 employees’ hard work in providing a reliable source of 24/7 clean, renewable energy to our fellow Filipinos in a way that nurtures the environment and our communities,” said Allan V. Barcena, assistant vice president and head of Corporate Relations & Communications at EDC. “These awards inspire us to not only keep on improving our reports but more importantly, to work towards having a regenerative ESG performance.”