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Operation and Stakeholders Dimension of CSR
Operation and Stakeholders Dimension of CSR
RESPONSIBILITY
Universal Robina Corporation's focus is to help improve the quality
of life through building sustainable communities for the less fortunate,
and supporting activities that contribute to education and youth
development.
URC is an ardent advocate of activities centered on the youth. It has partnered with such organizations as World
Vision, Pathways, National Book Development Board, and Anak TV for projects that ensure the availability of
education to impoverished youngsters. The company also supports projects such as storytelling sessions, which are
spearheaded by public and provincial libraries. Every Christmas, URC participates in a yearly project with GMA7's
Kapuso Foundation, to spread Yuletide cheer to various groups of disadvantaged youngsters.
URC is also committed to ethical, moral and sound business practices in all
aspects of its operations.
Universal Robina Corporation (URC), the "first Philippine multinational”, has managed to become one of the leading snac
foods and beverage companies in the ASEAN markets. Most recently, URC has expanded its operations to developed
markets such as New Zealand and Australia by acquiring the Griffin's Food Company, a leading snacks player in New
Zealand.
URC is known for its wide-ranging food and beverage businesses which includes branded consumer foods; flour and pas
sugar; renewable energy through bio-ethanol and biomass cogeneration businesses (under the Sugar Group); hog farm
and animal feed.
STAKEHOLDERS DIMENSION OF CSR
Being responsive to our stakeholders’ expectations — mainly from investors, consumers, competitors, regulators, and ev
our employees — means that we will inevitably recalibrate our business to align to global standards. We have been
deliberate in committing to sustainability last year, and this led us in forming a sustainability steering committee compose
of the top key executives of the company and the conglomerate.
We started with the development of our sustainability strategy in 2016 and this has been further articulated as one of our
key strategic pillars during our recent strategy planning meetings. We identified and acknowledged our most material
economic, environmental, and social issues as long-term priorities. We intend to report to all our stakeholders our plan in
achieving our sustainable goals.
As we undergo this process of integrating sustainability, we will discover that we have existing sustainability programs, a
we will also discover gaps that need to be addressed by the Steering Committee, and other champions from different
business groups. These gaps will be effectively addressed by creating new programs aligned with the KPIs leading up to
2030.
Moving forward, URC will pursue such activities more strategically, having defined our key focus areas to become a bette
more sustainable company in the first five years, namely:
Natural Resources. We affirm our commitment to operate with the future in mind by making our approach proactive to
responsible resources management in terms of energy consumption, and we will go beyond environmental compliance.
will be reducing our energy and water consumption until 2030, but within the first two years, we will focus on completing
baselining of our water and energy consumption. Aside from energy and water, we will also conduct profiling and proper
disposal methods of our waste and strengthen the policies of our Energy Conservation (ENERCON) Committee in all UR
operations.
People. We maintain our commitment to be a fair employer by providing a decent workplace for our people, and enhanc
our social impact in the lives of people in the communities where we operate. Cognizant of the value created by our
workforce, our primary objectives for our employees are to strengthen employee learning and performance development
review, support employee welfare, and ensure 100% workplace safety. Achieving total workplace safety for our employe
means complying with all health and safety regulations, and aiming to reduce or eliminate lost time injury. Within our
communities, we aim to improve our approaches to community development based on measured social needs in areas
where URC operates, and further promote nutrition and livelihood.
Products. Naturally, our Products will be central to our sustainability practice. Providing safe, nutritious, and delightful fo
entails that we maintain 100% food safety throughout our operations, and provide the best quality from raw to finished
products, with an eye to making the product experience fun for everyone. We will continue to address the need for better
food choices through a wider range of products, and likewise enhance responsible marketing practices. We will ensure th
quality of our products by complying with all applicable product responsibility and labeling legislation.
For the remainder of the sustainability strategy timeline, which is until 2030, URC will be addressing the following materia
aspects on top of Natural Resources, People, and Product:
Supply Chain. Across our business units, we recognize the risks inherent to a large and diverse food supply chain. Our
commitment is to promote responsible supplier relationships throughout our procurement practices and decisions,
improving traceability mechanisms for our tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers, risk assessment within our supply chain, and
enhanced supplier training.
Economic. All this leads to economic growth that is responsible and inclusive. We reaffirm our commitment to achieving
financial viability with integrity, inclusive growth among stakeholders, enterprise risk management, investor transparency
and disclosure, innovation through sustainable practices, and other financial benefits from meeting Environment, Social,
and Governance (ESG) targets.
Today, we recognize that we operate in an industry where environmentally and socially responsible companies are
themselves in high demand, given the importance of issues like climate change, shifting consumer lifestyles, and supply
chain responsibility. These five focus areas – Natural Resources, People, Product, Supply Chain, and Economic – are
drawn from the broader trends that URC now faces and must address, and they are of utmost materiality to our business
determined through rigorous processes of stakeholder engagement, performance benchmarking, and industry analyses.
This purposeful transformation strategy will enable us to respond to the opportunities that are influencing the future of ou
business. Across the markets where we operate, lifestyle choices are geared toward wellness, and products are brought
under scrutiny, from their origins to even their retrieval. Among the middle-class populations in emerging markets,
consumers are looking for healthier and more premium snacking options.
We are perfectly positioned to address consumer trends capitalizing on convenience, on-the-go, ready-to-eat, and ready
drink. We must likewise meet the demand to increase the nutritional value of snack foods and beverages, thus maintainin
our favorable brand image.
Governments are also much stricter when it comes to the integrity of food and its processing. Regulations may vary
depending on the market, but the end goal is the same: to provide safe, good- quality products that will enhance people’s
lives. We remain focused on enhancing our operational capabilities according to the highest food safety standards, while
working together with our regulators, as we build on each other’s goodwill.
Furthermore, as a publicly listed company with a growing fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) portfolio, we heed the ca
of our institutional investors to strengthen our stance and approach to sustainability. Being a multinational player catering
diverse markets, we have a greater responsibility to be transparent with our business practices. We also compete with th
best, and indeed recognize the legacy, track record, and the on-going transformation of our global peers in pursuing
sustainable and responsible businesses.
The timeline of Our Purposeful Transformation envisions a long-term strategy that will be achieved in a series of mileston
that run parallel with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The first two years will establish ou
KPIs through baseline audits and the sustainability governance structure that will champion our sustainability initiatives in
the long run.
While we have been working hard to keep our business efficient, and ensure we do no harm to our environment and
society, those efforts will now be streamlined, and our performance measured and disclosed in a Sustainability Report. In
this inaugural Report, structured in reference to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards framework, we have
emphasized our initial focus areas – Natural Resources, People, and Product – and disclosed current performance on
which we will track our improvements. We will be targeting the remaining two focus areas – Supply Chain and Economic
for further review as we progress in the coming years.