Empowering the future generation through renewable energy | Business Matters

Having witnessed the devastation caused by Typhoon Odette, one of the country's oldest schools has been compelled to adopt a more energy-conscious approach. This led to a transformative partnership with a renewable energy provider which allowed their traditional values to coexist with modern solutions. I'm Pinky Webb, and this is Business Matters, where doing good is good business. In 2021, Typhoon Odette struck Cebu with devastating force, leaving in its wake a trail of destruction. Businesses, schools, and entire communities were disrupted. For several days, several communities were without access to electricity, a vital resource in this digital age. Another reminder of the fragility of our current situation in the wake of climate change. Deeply committed to molding a generation of socially and environmentally conscious Filipino leaders, a university in Cebu is leading by example, walking the talk on sustainability, transforming itself into a green university. The University of San Carlos offers education with a mission, and that means really molding the hearts and minds of our students, forming excellence in knowledge and integrity and character, as well as passion for service. This is the kind of education that we would like our students to have moving forward to create impact in the society. Being one of the oldest Catholic universities in the country, the University of San Carlos, or USC, also sees its pivot to sustainability as a response to the universal church's call for greater accountability over divine creation. USC's push for sustainability is basically founded on the premise laid out by Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si, in which he talks about ecological education, as well as ecological responsibility. This year, we turned 75 years old as a university, and we have come up with a strategic plan. Among other things, is to transform USC into a green university. And what this would mean is to lessen our dependence on non-renewable energy, and to go more towards clean and affordable energy. In pursuit of its goals, USC partnered with the retail electricity supply unit of the Ayala Group to power its campus with 100% renewable energy. We are the preferred and trusted energy supplier of hundreds of businesses in our country. This includes schools, colleges and universities, cold chains, manufacturing plants, office buildings, among others. By partnering with East and West, it's as if our customers are enabling these new renewable energy plants to be built in the grid. It's equivalent to displacing future fossil fuel plants to be built, and that's very impactful. This is why we want others to join us in this renewable energy revolution. With a growing portfolio of solar, wind and geothermal plants in the Philippines and abroad, the Ayala Group's energy company is able to make the switch to RE-convenient and economical for Philippine businesses. We help businesses here in the Philippines to save more on electricity and reduce their carbon footprint by transitioning to renewable energy. Being an Ayala company, you can be assured that your energy partner is stable and reputable. We also walk the talk about sustainability. In fact, we are the first energy company in Southeast Asia to announce its Net Zero Roadmap. ASEN also has the biggest renewable energy capacity here in the country. By maintaining high academic standards and innovating constantly, the university has held on to its stature as one of the most reputable higher education institutions in the Philippines. And with its partnership with ASEN-RES, it has blazed the trail in the academic community, becoming one of the first schools in the country to be powered 100% by nature's clean and renewable energy. This is where we really have to promote a sense of urgency, as well as accountability to all people. Understanding that everything is at stake here for all of us and we have something to contribute and something that can be done by everyone. Just like what Francis has mentioned in his encyclical, we are addressing the underlying principles of anthropocentrism, which basically arguing that humanity and human beings have all the right to exploit and utilize the environment. By choosing ASEN-RES, our customers are also enablers, enabling our company to build more renewable energy power plants to address the growing demand for power here in the Philippines. Cold storage facilities play an integral role in preserving food and essential goods, especially for an archipelagic country like the Philippines. And this industry leader has been doing just that with their strategically placed facilities across the country. Especially in archipelagos like the Philippines, creating the infrastructure to make food and other essential goods available, even in the farthest communities in the country is very crucial. Apart from the efficient transportation, where to store food and other temperature-sensitive products is also very important. This is where cold storage facilities play an integral role. As a young engineer, I was able to see the efficiencies in the cold chain. It's my estimate that 30% of our produce is lost due to spoilage. The infrastructure and logistics of handling fresh produce of our country has been a nagging problem for the past years. And the way to solve this is to identify the logistics gaps by operating and building this wide-ranging network of cold storage facilities. We play a crucial role in food chain and in food security in our country. We've been operating our plant for the past 18 years, starting with Food Terminal Inc. We make sure that we design our facilities correctly from the very start. The reason we can have more fresh foods and inventories is because we can build better world-class cold chain facilities. It can be a fusion of Japanese technology and also Filipino know-how that will enable us to come up with facilities that are energy efficient, technology-driven, and environmentally friendly. We now serve 650 clients through 11 facilities cut across the country. This world-class and professional cold storage network features warehousing, transport, and other intangible services such as inventory management, order processing. The list keeps on growing, and all these lists should suit the needs of our clients. With their strategically placed facilities across the country, the company is able to extend the shelf life of perishable food meat, fish, and dairy products. We are particularly proud of our plant in Salmar. After we built the facility there, more food producers came, and with it also retailers which are composed of hotels, caterers, and of course restaurants. More are coming. It's great to see the multiplier effect that these facilities can have in these remote areas, and it's the same design that we will uphold in all our provincial sites. In order to start something and fulfill our intention of pump-priming the economy. Its biggest facility is an industry leader with over 60,000 shelf space capacity. To keep its facilities operating optimally, the company constantly measures data and uses technology to improve the efficiency of its equipment and its people. For cold chain companies like Glacier MegaFridge, the capacity to keep temperatures within ideal levels is constantly being tested by climate change and global warming. The recent effects of climate change has been alarming and quite crucial. Our power supply is being threatened by this vagoizing weather. In our line of business, we have two important tasks to do, and that is quality preservation to make sure that the product stays at the right temperature in order to prevent any microbial growth. We also have to do energy management so that our compressors run round the clock for the next 25 years. With their reliable network of cold storage plants over wide and strategic areas in the country, the company is able to extend its reach in providing integrated logistical cold chain solutions to growing economic centers and remote areas. To future-proof its business, the cold chain company turned to nature's own energy sources to power its facilities. It partnered with the Retail Electricity Supply Unit of the Ayala Group to facilitate a smooth and cost-efficient transition to renewable energy. For our 25-year sustainability program, we chose a capable partner in Ace & Res. We share the same values in operational efficiency and safety standards. They completely understand our requirements. Like us, Ace & Res believes in foresight. They believe in measuring and assessing everything in energy. This keeps our business going since energy management is what keeps us afloat. It's important to sustain our operations in this industry. Ace & is the listed energy company of the Ayala Group, and our company has around 4,500 megawatts of attributable capacity from our own power plants. We help businesses here in the Philippines to save more on electricity and reduce their carbon footprint by transitioning to renewable energy. While it continues to find ways to make its operations more efficient, the company hopes that its transition to renewable energy also inspires others in its industry to do their share in building a nation that has a vibrant economy and a bright and sustainable future. We believe in a future that is sustainable, where our planet and people are safe, and the earth is able to renew itself. We believe in the good of humanity, coming together for a purpose, for a greater good, for a future that is sustainable. We are the first energy company in Southeast Asia to announce its Net Zero Roadmap. By partnering with Ace & Res, it's as if our customers are enabling new renewable energy plants to be built in the grid. This is equivalent to displacing future fossil fuel plants to be built, and that's very impactful. This is why we want others to join us in this renewable energy revolution. We want to leave a finer footprint in the environment, and I think it's a good feeling that we were able to be part of the vision-building effort in that area. Every Filipino family has the right to access delicious and nutritious food daily, but with the rising prices of commodities, many opt to go with unhealthy options. But this partnership aims to change that by empowering families by bringing sarap sustansya right into their backyards and kitchens. For an agricultural country that is blessed with an abundance of food resources, the rising incidence of food insecurity continues to be a problem for the Philippines. When we say food security, it means that every household is able to access the sustansya and the quality of food. If we are food insecure, usually there are families that can't eat three times a day, and others are just relying on cheaper food. Aside from poverty, climate change also contributes greatly to the food insecurity dilemma. When farmers produce less vegetables, the supply to the market becomes less, and prices go up. And with rising prices of commodities, moms like Rina Makrohon resort to prioritizing cheaper food options over nutrient-dense dishes, just so that she can provide food on the table. Nearly 51 million Filipinos faced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2020 to 2022, the highest in Southeast Asia. As a result, about 5 in 100 Filipinos are undernourished. To help address food insecurity both on the micro and macro level, the Department of Agriculture is promoting the practice of urban gardening. This urban garden in Los Banos, Laguna, called Sarap Sustansya Garden, is a collaborative partnership between the Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Plant Industry and a trusted food and cooking aid brand. So in the Sarap Sustansya Advocacy Program, we aim to promote food security by helping the youth and also the community learn about planting vegetables. And we transmit this knowledge to the mothers and of course to the students, so that they can learn how to grow their own food. With urban gardening, communities are able to access a steady supply of nutritious food and grow healthy ingredients just by using a small plot of land even in one's own backyard. In addition to urban gardening, the food brand also aims to equip Filipinos with basic culinary knowledge and Sarap Sustansya cooking, helping moms prepare easy-to-cook dishes for their families that not only are nutritious and delicious, but also time and budget friendly. We do this through our Maggi Recipe website. In our website, we have more than 600 recipes. And a way to make simple meals even healthier is food fortification, making essential nutrients like iron more easily accessible using the food brand's enhanced seasoning product. With the valuable learnings acquired from the Advocacy Program, Rina was able to grow a thriving vegetable garden in her own backyard and in her community together with like-minded neighbors, making use of its simple yet nutritious ingredients to cook healthy and tasty meals for her family to enjoy every day. It's very important because nutritious food is what gives our body energy. The improvement I've seen today is that they are more energetic. By promoting food security through urban gardening and enabling cooks gain access to better nutrition through fortified products and easy-to-prepare healthy meals, the Sarap Sustansya Advocacy hopes to bring positive impact to every Filipino family kitchen. They have the right to access good food, nutritious and delicious food. But we recognize that this is not always easy. So we at Maggi, we are here to partner with you so that we can help, we can inspire, and we can enable you to prepare the fresh food, the nutritious food that you believe in every day. Modernization has nearly pushed the centuries-old craft of wood carving in Paete to the edge. Yet a simple visit to the Philippines' wood carving capital has kindled the interest of a wine tycoon in this art, breathing new life into an industry that has supported generations of Paeteños. Modernization, with its promise of innovation and convenience, can dramatically reshape an entire town. In Paete, Laguna, an age-old tradition of wood carving has been a way of life for generations. However, as the wheels of progress rolled on, Paete's carving industry found itself standing at crossroads. The constraints of modernity, diminishing demand and waning interest from the younger generation, threatens the likelihood of experienced carvers. It's very hard to compare our daily life to what we do here in the carpentry business. Every day, every house is like a home to me. I can do almost everything here. I'm a young man, but I'm able to carve here. Amid these struggles, some young individuals symbolize hope for the industry's future. I started when I was 16 years old. My grandfather taught me how to carve. I learned it here at home. I saw that I have talent. There are a lot of kids who are not interested in carving. And I saw that I can teach them. But a single pair of young hands isn't enough. This is where a vision takes root. A vision initiated by the man behind one of the Philippines' largest manufacturers of premium wines. I had a friend who had some Paete pieces and kind of admired it. And I said, maybe we should go take a look, go to Paete and find out what we can pick up from there as well. We saw a lot of really very interesting pieces and a lot of talent that went into the artwork that we saw. And that was the start of our, call it love affair with wood carving pieces of Paete. His admiration eventually transformed into a vision for a more vibrant wood carving industry in Paete. I felt that not only was that a good investment, but also it was a way of helping out those in need. So I started also buying not just sculptures, but also artwork from very prominent Paete artists. Five or six or seven people actually staying in our place in Silang, spending their time there, seeing them work and seeing their passion, seeing their creativity and all that. From purchasing artworks, the Wine Tycoon aimed to provide a space where artists could freely dedicate themselves to their craft. One of the things that we thought that would demonstrate our real sincerity in helping out, you know, promote art in Paete is to actually provide a venue for which artists can actually do the work. As a first step, we recently bought a piece of land. It's a beautiful piece of land. It overlooks Laguna Dubai. It is high up in the mountains. And it's almost adjacent to a very important landmark in Paete called Datlung Cruz. These efforts led to a transformation, not only in the carving community, but also in Paete's overall economic landscape. You should actually give these young people a chance to develop early on. I would want to see young children to be given the privilege of developing a sense of artistry, their taste in art, their knowledge in art. It's hard to love in a place where you don't belong. We know that you are supportive of the people of Paete. Thank you, my friend. This only proves that the profound connection between personal passion and the power to ignite positive change has the power to transform the lives of many, one community at a time, and help them carve a future that can stand the test of time. It starts with that. What is your passion? What is your idea of what makes you happy? And in my case, it's wine, it's art, and we try to make as much of it as we can and promote it as much as we can in that scene. And I invite other companies, maybe just to start with what their own passions are. What is it that makes them really happy in what they do? For programs that empower and enable communities to last, ownership and sustainability must be the groundwork of all CSR programs, as change is not just a one-way street, as all of us must do our part. Join us again next week as we share more inspiring stories of communities and people whose lives have changed for the better. For comments, suggestions, and updates, do follow us on our social media accounts. I'm Pinky Webb, and this is Business Matters, where doing good is good business.