MAP CSR leadership challenge awardees named

The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) recently announced the winners of the second MAP CSR Leadership Challenge.

The MAP CSR Leadership Challenge aims to promote CSR as important and integral part of good management practice, inspire MAP members and other top executives to improve their practice and set the bar for the practice of CSR in the country, and recognize companies that exemplify what it means to be a true corporate citizen through their CSR programs.

The Integrated CSR Award (the main award) is given to a company that has truly made CSR part of the way it does business. Its CSR activity is not just a program, not an accessory or a hobby, but an integral part of the way it formulates its overall corporate strategy. There were special awards for Education, Enterprise Development, Environment and Sustainable Development, and Health.

To emphasize the strategic value of CSR to a company’s operation, the stories of the winners and participants will be turned into case studies by the Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School of Business. This is a good way to perpetuate and learn from their example, while exploring new models that can work well in the Philippine setting and provide inspiration for the youth.

Petron received the prestigious Integrated CSR Award for its “Growing. Greening. Giving Back: Making CSR and Sustainability A Way of Life in Petron” strategy.

Petron has adopted CSR and Sustainability as a management approach throughout the organization. Petron sees CSR as integral to its long-term success.

Environmental agenda

As the leading provider of total customer solutions in the energy sector and its derivative businesses, Petron’s efforts are anchored on its commitment to create shared value for all its stakeholders in fulfillment of its mandate to care for the community and the environment. It strives to conduct its business in a manner that places equal importance on its social and environmental agenda together with the attainment of its economic objectives, while strictly and consistently adhering to the principles and practice of corporate governance.

The “Best in Education” Special Award went to Ayala’s Gilas (Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students) Program.

Gilas is a private sector-led initiative with the overarching goal of connecting all of the country’s public high schools to the Internet.

The Gilas strategy utilizes the following components: (1) provision of equipment and Internet peripherals to public high schools with computer laboratories; (2) school mobilization for laboratory set-up; (3) teacher training on basic Internet literacy, troubleshooting, and local area networking (LAN) administration; (4) ICT leadership and sustainability training for school heads along with their second liners; and, (5) project administration that includes monitoring and technical assistance.

The private-public partnership (PPP) scheme highlighted by a counter parting strategy enabled the program to move on a larger scale addressing an education need not just for specific areas but for the whole public high school system itself. Engaging the public sector to put in their share of resources to be matched by the private sector helps in securing the projects’ sustainability and ensuring community’s ownership and participation because of the stake they have placed in the project.

The “Best in Enterprise Development” special award went to the Bank of the Philippine Islands’ Show Me, Teach Me, SME – Empowering Entrepreneurs.”

“Show Me, Teach Me, SME” is a learning program offered to entrepreneurs for free that focuses on financial and credit management for ventures with asset sizes of P3 million to P15 million and with a workforce of up to 100. The program, which started in 2004, has reached nearly 900 entrepreneurs from more than 20 cities and municipalities in the Philippines.

Petron’s “Measuring, Managing and Minimizing our Environment Footprint in Bataan” program got the “Best in Environment and Sustainable Development” special award.

Petron has undertaken major initiatives to better manage and effectively reduce its footprint in its Bataan refinery. Its water footprinting project aims to properly segregate the different wastewater streams and identify opportunities for water reduction and reuse. Its footprinting for solid and hazardous wastes establishes a baseline profile of solid and hazardous waste generation and treatment cost and identify means in which they can be reduced.

Best in health

Its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Accounting and Air Emissions Inventory Development project aims to measure baseline emission data and identify ways to reduce emission. This project will contribute to strengthened capacity within Petron, in integrating GHG and air emissions inventory with existing accounting systems of Petron; in identifying emission reduction measures for improved environment and financial performance; in participating in carbon markets such as CDM; and in providing the basis for the development of a formal GHG and air pollutant accounting system for the Petron refinery in Bataan that could be rolled out to other Petron depots all over the country.

The “Best in Health” special award went to SM’s “Health and Medical Programs.”

SM’s programs cover medical missions, mobile clinic services, wellness centers for children and the elderly, health centers, hospice units and blood bank for employees.

SM’s mobile clinic makes health services accessible. It has adopted entire wards of some government hospitals and converted them into Felicidad Sy Wards, by renovating, repainting, refurbishing and donating medical supplies and equipment.

SM’s Gamot Para sa Kapwa project is a comprehensive medical mission for indigent families within the vicinity of SM malls. It also provides literacy programs to enable communities to prevent and manage diseases long after the medical mission is gone.

The panelists for Education were: Nena Alcuaz-Reyes (chair), president of Center for Leadership and Change Inc.; Dr. Ester Garcia, president of University of the East; and Dean Popoy Juico, senior professional lecturer of De La Salle University.

The panelists for Enterprise Development were: Chit Juan (chair), president of Philippine Coffee Board; Joey Bermudez, chair of Maybridge (Asia); Dan Songco, president of PinoyME Foundation; and Jess Dinglasan, relationship partner for Philippines of Li & Fung (1937) Management Ltd.

For Environment and Sustainable Development, the technical panelists were: Tammy Lipana (chair), president of Isla Lipana & Co. Foundation, Dr. Cora Claudio, president of EARTH Institute Asia, Alex Escaño, president of MFI Foundation, and Grace Favila, special adviser to the Board of Philippine Business for the Environment.

The panelists for Health were: Alma Jimenez (chair), president and CEO of Health Solutions Corp., Imee Centeno, SVP of Unilab, Do Ejercito, chair and president of Northern Access Mining, and Rose Montenegro, president and CEO of MakatiMed.

Validators

No awardee was chosen for Integrated Rural Area Development, which had the following panelists: Professor Mayo Lopez of the Asian Institute of Management, and Gil Salazar, former executive director of Philippine Business for Social Progress.

The steering committee, which served as board of judges for the Integral CSR Award, was composed of Lydia Sarmiento (chair of steering committee), consultant of League of Corporate Foundations (LCF), Chit Juan, Junie del Mundo, chair and CEO of EON The Stakeholder Relations Firm, and Jess Dinglasan.

The validators were Ben Teehankee (chair of the validation team), associate professor and chair of Management and Organization Department of Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business of De La Salle University (DLSU), Dr. Carolina Guina, research advisor of Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School of Business, Raymund Habaradas, associate professor of MOD of DLSU, Edward Legazpi, professor of AdMU-GSB, and Andrea Santiago, associate professor of MOD of DLSU.

(Feedback at map@globelines.com.ph. For previous articles, visit <map.org.ph>.)

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