“At Ayala, our sustainability agenda and ESG commitments respond to the call for businesses to do their part in building a sustainable and equitable future. It is through these efforts that we hold ourselves accountable to all our stakeholders and understand what opportunities we can work on to help safeguard our planet and people”opportunities we can work on to help safeguard our planet and people”
Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, Ayala Corp. chairman, proudly declared in the conglomerate’s Ayala Integrated Summit in October last year that the group will be completing its net zero roadmap by the end of this year.
The roadmap, under development in partnership with consultancy firm South Pole, encompasses full accounting and validation of emissions, intervention assessments, and setting science-referenced targets for each Ayala business unit, on the way towards a net zero greenhouse gas emission by 2050, Zobel said.
Such commitment exemplify the trailblazing feature of the Ayala Group whose story goes side by side with the economic development of the Philippines since the Spanish era when it was established in 1834 as Casa Roxas.
Throughout its 189-year history, Ayala pioneered numerous initiatives that served as icons in Philippine society, such as the establishment of a distillery that will today be known as Ginebra San Miguel Inc. It was Ayala’s predecessor that established El Banco Espanol Filipino de Isabel II, the first bank in the Philippines that is today the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).
Ayala is also the first to introduce to Filipinos their first tram, though the business will eventually evolve to become the country’s largest electricity distribution firm, Manila Electric Co.
Lastly, it was Ayala’s vision of a large master-planned realty development in the 1960s that served as the model for future real estate endeavors by other realtors – the Makati central business district.
In the net zero roadmap, Ayala again was the first conglomerate to commit to a net zero greenhouse gas emission in 2021.
This will earn for the Group numerous citations.
In December last year, Ayala was among the conglomerates that received the highest rating from UK-based Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) for its sustainability initiative.
Ayala’s B rating under the CDP ranking is also higher than the Asian regional average of C.
“We must invest in our people for the future of work, so that they are equipped and empowered to benefit from the changes transforming the way we do business. Critical to the development of this social agenda is also paying closer attention to the importance and concretization of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles and practices.”
“At Ayala, our sustainability agenda and ESG commitments respond to the call for businesses to do their part in building a sustainable and equitable future. It is through these efforts that we hold ourselves accountable to all our stakeholders and understand what opportunities we can work on to help safeguard our planet and people,” said Zobel in October.
“We are excited by how these developments can help usher in new technologies, while also satisfying growing demand for more eco-conscious product and service offerings. We look forward to seeing more initiatives that can get us closer to our net zero objective,” Zobel would add.
The net zero roadmap will also earn for the conglomerate the distinction of being one of 32 publicly-listed companies recognized for its corporate citizenship initiative during the 2021 Asean Corporate Governance Scorecard (ACGS) awards.
Adding cherry on top of the award is that eight of the 32 Philippine awardees fall within the Ayala Group of Companies, namely, Ayala Corp., Ayala Land Inc., BPI, Globe Telecom, Inc., ACEN ,Integrated Micro- electronics Inc., Ayala Land Logistics Holdings Corp. and Cebu Holdings Inc.
The Ayala Group joins 226 other companies that were cited last year for their effort to institute corporate governance initiatives in their respective businesses.
In February 2022, the Institute of Corporate Directors, the Philippines’ Domestic Ranking Body for the ACGS initiative, inducted Zobel as an honorary fellow for his “lifelong commitment to promoting the highest standards of governance among Philippine corporations.”
“Ayala remains committed to the highest standards of corporate governance and continues to uphold these standards across our business units,” Zobel then would say.
Beyond addressing environmental concern, the Ayala Group is working to make inroads in social issues, with the group putting together a framework to uphold “dignity and equality” for stakeholders, according to Zobel.
This framework will enable “an ecosystem of support for our partners, and strengthen the social fabric of the communities we interact with,” he said.
Such initiative requires that Ayala institute changes within its businesses that will allow wider access and greater affordability of products and services that can improve the quality of life of Filipinos, according to Zobel.
“We must invest in our people for the future of work, so that they are equipped and empowered to benefit from the changes transforming the way we do business. Critical to the development of this social agenda is also paying closer attention to the importance and concretization of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles and practices. A deliberate DEI strategy allows us to truly encourage employees to bring their whole selves to work and promote meaningful and informed participation without any fear of discrimination or retaliation,” he said.
“In the face of complex challenges such as those that the last two years have shown us, we are called to become steward leaders, with a responsibility to care for future generations, the environment, and society at large. It is this mindset of stewardship and guiding principle of creating shared value that will pave the way towards long-term resilience, sustainability, and equality. The profound challenges that businesses face today demand a culture of transformation, guided by a tenacity and desire for lasting change,” Zobel added.
This effort will not be missed by the inaugural Steward Leadership 25 (SL25), presented by Stewardship Asia Centre, INSEAD Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society, Willis Towers Watson, and The Straits Times, where Ayala will be the only Philippine-based company under the conglomerate category to be included in the inaugural.
SL25 is an annual listing of 25 APAC-based organizations that showcased “notable efforts to create a collective better future for stakeholders, society, future generations, and the environment.”
SL25 cited the critical role played by Ayala Corp. in helping the Philippines withstand the impact of the pandemic, noting that it has deployed over P24 billion for its holistic COVID response, covering employee and customer support packages, construction and capacitation of public health facilities, and addressing the urgent needs of the most vulnerable groups.
Ayala’s commitment to such lofty goals appear to be appreciated by the financial market as demonstrated by its continued inclusion into the MSCI index that many investors follow to determine what stocks to invest in.
The company and its units that form part of the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) likewise continue to contribute a significant part of the PSEi’s recovery since end-September last year – the PSEi is now back at the 7,000 level.
Before becoming chairman at Ayala Corp. in 2021, Jaime Augusto or JAZA was Group CEO for 26 years. Zobel has a BA degree from Harvard College and and MBA also from Harvard .
