Our newly launched Aboitiz Group Purpose: To drive change for a better world, sets an exciting backdrop to further elevate our corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability initiatives. Our Purpose inspires us to build more meaningful stakeholder relations, further deepen our social impact, and help make our communities safer, sustainable, and empowered.
The launch of our Purpose also coincides with the change in leadership for the Foundation. We thank Sonny Carpio, who retires after devoting 16 fruitful years to leading our CSR efforts that helped build our reputation as one of the most trusted corporate social institutions in the Philippines.
We welcome Maribeth Marasigan, who replaces Sonny as Chief Operating Officer. Maribeth, together with the Board of Trustees, will steer our CSR strategy to the next level of doing good to truly create a sustainable positive impact for all of our beneficiaries.
2016 Highlights
In 2016, we developed and rolled out our CSR Strategic pillars or focus areas: execution excellence in our program development efforts, stakeholder engagement through meaningful partnerships and effective communications, and capability building through better people, processes and systems. We have also aligned our initiatives to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), allowing us to contribute to the concerted global efforts in the areas of education, poverty reduction, climate change, responsible consumption, disaster risk preparation, and multi-sectoral partnerships.
Our Journey to Achieving CSR 2.0
We help the country achieve its goal of providing universal public education for young Filipinos through our various interventions in education, which include partnering with the Department of Education and non-government organizations to build classrooms, upgrade school facilities, provide scholarships and teacher training, and in many other interventions that encourage our young stakeholders to become lifelong learners.
Our livelihood programs have continued to open opportunities for thousands of stakeholders through our enterprise development partnership with CARD, Inc., and through the livelihood starter kits distributed to family partner-beneficiaries of the Mahalin Pagkaing Atin program.
We have contributed to the national government’s efforts to mitigate carbon footprint through our A-Park nationwide tree-growing program, Green Fashion Revolution’s waste management initiative, and the resource efficiency activities of our Aboitiz Business Units.
Our business units have consistently demonstrated that they are among the first to respond to affected communities during disasters. For a country that is frequently visited by typhoons, disaster relief efforts become the first step to recovery. With this in mind, Pilmico introduced The Care Package, which is a high-energy biscuit packed with 450 kilocalories, or the equivalent of one full meal. It is an efficient relief mechanism that can help local government units, corporate foundations, and NGOs optimize disaster relief, as the product does not perish easily and can be transported and stored with relative ease.
Even before any disaster strikes, we want our communities to be safe by being well-prepared and informed of typhoons and other severe weather events. WeatherPhilippines Foundation has intensified its #WeatherWiser Nation campaign and notched up its network of donors, sponsors, and partners to be able to reach as many Filipinos as possible.
WeatherPhilippines also revamped its website to enhance features that can effectively communicate weather information harnessed from its over 700 automated weather stations deployed all over the country. It can show enhanced satellite maps and lightning strike and thunderstorm updates.
2017 Outlook
This year, the Board of Trustees will be conducting a strategic planning review of our CSR strategy. How do we bring to life our Group Purpose of truly driving change for a better world through our CSR programs?
We will further strengthen and support our three focus areas on program development, stakeholder engagement and capability building. We will measure the effectiveness of our flagship programs and communicate the results by sharing the experience of our beneficiaries.
We will strengthen stakeholder engagement through effective and more interactive communication through digital platforms and social media. We will revisit the Foundation’s team structure and continue to enhance our governance and capability building mechanisms that will push for a better CSR team, better systems, and better processes.
This 2017, we will continue to strengthen our position as a neighbor of choice, sustain CSR leadership through our strategic pillars, forge partnerships with groups to leverage our resources and efforts, and increase social impact through our sustainable programs to promote inclusive growth. All these we will do to drive change on the lives of our beneficiaries and empower the communities we serve.
– Maribeth L. Marasigan, FVP and COO, Aboitiz Foundation
WeatherPhilippines will pilot the Weather for Agriculture program, another initiative that demonstrates how innovation can drive a better way of helping our stakeholders in the farming industry.
Meanwhile, the expansion of our weather station network and the mobilization of our online communication channels will serve as a stable backbone for this shift as we continue to create awareness on the availability of weather-related tools for decision-making, whether on an individual or a group level. Underlying these are our ongoing efforts to seek new partners in support of our advocacy of a #WeatherWiser Nation.
We will be working with Meteologix, our new Switzerland-based technology provider. This move brings a lot of advantages including a suite of better weather services that our meteorological team can use to enhance their forecasting capabilities.
We will reach out and engage more people through our enhanced communication channels and actively promote the free WeatherPhilippines mobile application. We will pursue more partnerships to hit our target of 1,000 automated weather stations nationwide, to ensure our sustainability and raise greater awareness towards a #WeatherWiser Nation.
Weather has always been associated with disasters, but this 2017, WeatherPhilippines seeks to change that mindset, and help Filipinos see the development opportunities brought about by weather. There is no better place to start than with agriculture, a key economic sector in the country. Thus, we plan to pilot our first program-based initiative – Weather for Agriculture. By applying weather knowledge, we hope to help agriculture communities realize their long-recognized potential to be a key driver of socio-economic growth in the country.
– Dave Michael V. Valeriano, VP and General Manager, WeatherPhilippines
To Drive Change for A Better World
The Aboitiz Group has indeed grown in size and scope but its purpose remains the same. At the heart of everything we do is The Aboitiz Way of creating a better world by living our core value of responsibility. Together with our business units, we will use the power of the Aboitiz brand, the energy and passion of our team members, and the scale of our business to create meaningful change that will benefit our stakeholders, which includes all our beneficiaries and the communities that we serve.
Susan V. Valdez
President
Aboitiz Foundation
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