URC unveils sustainable dev’t goals

The Gokongwei Group unveiled yesterday its commitment to long-term sustainability standards, bringing itself at par with global giants that have made sustainability practices a major part of their respective growth strategies.

Sustainability commitments will form part of the food and beverage giant’s core business strategy, said URC president and chief executive officer Lance Gokongwei.

“At URC, we reimagine snack foods and beverages as not only bringing delight to consumers, but also benefitting our key stakeholders and the environment. Each of us has a critical role to play in making sure that we take care of our world. Everyone, from our rank and file employees to our most senior directors, has a job to do, and we must all do it well,” Gokongwei said.

He said that as URC continues to grow, sustainability would play an even more critical role in its core business strategy and culture.

The company’s sustainability strategy called “Our Purposeful Transformation”

will define its sustainability commitments that focus on natural resources, people, and products for the initial period of five years.

It will later on be expanded to cover two additional commitments: supply chain and economic focus areas, both of which are targeted to be achieved by 2030.

URC, a multinational in the ASEAN and Oceania regions, joins the growing list of businesses across the globe that continues to adapt to best in class standards in sustainable development.

Many publicly companies around the world are beefing up their non-financial initiatives as post-Enron foreign fund managers and institutional investors are raising standards for choosing the companies to park their funds.

Similarly, global credit rating agencies have also incorporated so-called ESG – environmental, social and corporate governance – standards into their credit analysis.

Thus, ESG has become the set of standards for a company’s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen investments and this is beyond corporate social responsibility and the environment.