First Holdings attains 52% carbon neutrality level

MANILA, Philippines -  First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH) has expanded the scope of information available to the public in its 2016 Annual Report by supplementing it with a Sustainability Report, adhering to the standards set by the Netherlands-based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

Adopting the GRI standards in the sustainability report further improves FPH’s level of transparency by providing the public, especially investors, updated information not only about the financial health but also about the contribution of FPH and its subsidiaries to the environment and society.

For FPH, the sustainability report, titled “The Path to a Cleaner World is Ahead of Us,” likewise serves as guide for the company and its subsidiaries to assess the depth of their support in attaining the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the Philippines and 193 other member-countries of the United Nations adopted in 2015.

The SDGs envision freedom from poverty, hunger, illiteracy, sickness, and security threats as a way to achieve a sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous world by year 2030. The UN goals also include ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all; as well as taking urgent action to combat climate change.

The maiden sustainability report detailed various FPH-wide sustainability activities for 2016, the year FPH declared to commit all its businesses to low-carbon operations. FPH is the parent firm of First Gen Corp., the country’s leading clean and renewable energy company with 3,477 megawatts in total installed capacity, including 1,458 MW of pure renewable energy from First Gen’s own subsidiary Energy Development Corp. (EDC).

The 2016 sustainability attested that FPH and its subsidiaries as a group offset or cancelled out 52 percent of their total carbon footprint in 2016. No other local conglomerate has so far attained that level in offsetting their carbon footprint.

EDC helped to cancel out the FPH group’s carbon footprint by protecting 170,494 hectares of natural forest and planting 853,744 trees in EDC geothermal areas. In the process, EDC likewise achieved not only carbon neutrality. It has become a carbon positive company, creating a carbon footprint that amounted to only 30 percent of its carbon absorption capacity.

“My perspective on the role our businesses should play is this: each and every company should make people’s lives better, both within and without,” FPH chairman and CEO Federico Lopez said in the report. He added that “(we) remain guided by this value as we venture onto a path we thought long and hard about, and one we decided was of the utmost urgency.

“Our subsidiaries are now migrating to renewable energy (RE) power, measuring their carbon footprint, saving and enhancing water supplies, efficiently using materials to reduce waste, managing their energy utilization, and inculcating a culture of sustainability among our employees. Our end goal is for a sustainable, resilient, fair, and prosperous world for all,” Lopez added.

The 2016 FPH Sustainability Report was assessed by an external review committee, composed of prominent academicians chaired by Dr. Winston Padojinog, president of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P). The committee also included Dr. Nanette Dungo UA&P professor; and Dr. Antonio G.M. La Viña, Ateneo de Manila University professor. FPH prepared the report with guidance from the UA&P Center for Social Responsibility.