Ayala adopts integrated reporting framework

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala Corp., the country’s oldest conglomerate, has adopted the Integrated Reporting framework, a first in the country as it contributes to efforts of meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

During Ayala Corp.’s annual stockholders’ meeting Friday, officials said integrated reporting reflects the group’s philosophy of sustainability that values society’s welfare and environmental conservation in equal terms with profit.

“Developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council, the IR framework has enabled the group to elevate our standards of accountability and stewardship. Integrated reporting will allow us to better communicate our value creation process through both our financial stability and sustainable development goals,” Ayala Corp. chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala said.

Guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Ayala Group continues to align and integrate its shared value creation process into the core of its corporate strategies, the company said.

Zobel said the conglomerate wants to ensure that its sustainability initiatives are complementary to each other and contribute to greater positive change in the long term.

Ayala’s core businesses are Ayala Land, BPI, Globe Telecom, Manila Water and IMI while new businesses launched in recent years include AC Energy, AC Infra, AC Education, AC Industrials and AC Automotive.

Officials said the different businesses in the group continued to make progress on their sustainability goals.

Ayala Land for instance, contributes to the sustainable development of communities and cities through its 20 master-planned estates across the country.

ALI is also implementing a program to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and become carbon-neutral by 2022 through passive cooling design, eco-efficiency, renewable energy sourcing, and forest regeneration and protection.

For the water arm, Manila Water continues to grow its portfolio of water and used water services.

Meanwhile, Globe continues its sustainable journey through its Project 1Phone where the company hauled 141,834 kg of e-waste for recovery and recycling, and diverted 12 percent of waste from landfills in 2016. The proceeds from the recycling process were used to build 46 classrooms across the country.

BPI, for its part, has increased its efforts in supporting microentrepreneurs by providing P53.5 billion worth of loans to agribusinesses for agricultural productivity and food security.

The Ayala Group’s combined capital spending has reached more than P720 billion in the past five years.

In the same period, the group paid P189 billion in combined taxes to the national government.

Ayala has generated jobs for nearly 125,000 individuals domestically and abroad.