Cementing a sustainable future
While other companies choose to donate to charitable institutions, building solutions provider Holcim Philippines, Inc. is moving away from this tradition. Instead, Holcim has opted to be more proactive by collaborating with communities in order to understand their needs, and then later create solutions that can improve their lives.
John Stull, Holcim Philippines President & CEO, Cara Ramirez, head communication, and Steph Fogoso, environment manager. PHOTO BY MARY GRACE DATILES
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. That’s really the message we want to send. We want to help people be educated and to give them the skills to be successful,” Holcim Philippines President and CEO John Stull said during a media interview.
Since 2015, Holcim Philippines corporate citizenship programs have benefited close to 300,000 people in its communities and beyond. With the recently launched Holcim Helps campaign, the company now aims to help close to 400,000 people in its communities by 2020.
Holcim Helps standardizes the communication programs of its various sites for their communities particularly on social and environmental initiatives. It is a part of Holcim Philippines’ social responsibility and sustainability commitments to have a more positive impact on development.
In a statement, Stull mentioned Holcim Helps aims to make its communities and the public better understand and appreciate that Holcim Philippines’ programs are about working with our partners for a much better future.
The executive pointed out that Holcim Helps underscores the company’s goal of making their programs more collaborative with the communities instead of charitable donations as the primary form of assistance.
“Instead, our goal is to partner with them to better understand their needs and equip them with the means to improve their lives through capability-building initiatives for a more sustainable and lasting positive impact,” he continued.
The campaign follows the Lafarge Holcim Group’s sustainable development strategy that includes a set of actionable goals to contribute to the global efforts in tackling the pressing issues stated in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
“We are a materials supplier, and we offer solutions – solutions that can not only help the country grow faster and build more efficient structure but also to do it on a sustainable way,” said Stull.
Sustainable efforts
Continuing its commitment to improve its environmental practices, Holcim Philippines is in the midst of a revolutionary innovation that increases company’s efficiency while reducing the carbon footprint.
Launched in 2015, the Sustainability Plan 2030 includes programs such as reductions in carbon emissions and fresh water use by 40 percent and 30 percent versus 1990 and 2015 levels, respectively, and increased use of qualified wastes as alternative fuel and raw materials to replace 30 percent of traditional fuels.
“These initiatives help improve the efficiency of our operations thus generating savings for our business. More importantly, our sustainability programs allow our company to further support our commitment be a partner in helping the country build a better future,” said Stull.
Social programs
Holcim Philippines communications head Cara Ramirez said education programs have received the largest share of funds for social programs, followed by livelihood and employment.
In line with the company’s initiatives to a sustainable future, Holcim Philippines launched Galing Mason in 2010 to help build the skills of masons.
Working together with Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the masons get certified depending on the level of the module of they have attended. To date, the program has trained more than 5,000 masons.
“We want to focus on programs that would really promote sustainability not just us but also for the person who are gaining the support,” said Ramirez.
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