12 minute read
ANSA McAL - Building a Sustainable Future
Who Cares Wins. This was the name of a report facilitated by the UN Global Compact in 2004, followed by a conference in 2005 where the term ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) was first coined. At the time, there was consensus that ESG criteria should be integrated, not separated, within an organization. The conference concluded with moderator Peter Zollinger, now Head of Impact Research at Globalance Bank in Switzerland, telling ESG stakeholders to "SIMPLY GO AND DO IT"
Fast forward to 2022 where ANSA McAL Group of Companies maintains a strong commitment to not just ‘doing’ ESG but making it a central pillar of sustainability. Last year, ANSA McAL’s story focused on investing in human capital to ensure a sustainable future. This year, the focus is on maintaining and improving sustainability through a conscientious adherence to ESG criteria.
As the region collectively emerges from the most challenging points of the COVID-19 pandemic, ANSA McAL’s reinvigorated ESG approach will centre the business on principles of Sensitivity to the Natural Environment, Societal Wellbeing and Good Governance. Through ESGpropelled policies and initiatives, the Group weathered the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic with a stable corporate structure. While the term ESG is relatively new, ANSA McAL’s approach to environmental, social, and governance-driven issues has always been consistent across their diverse group of companies. However, as the importance of ESG grows, an explicit integration of ESG strategy becomes increasingly necessary.
Every organization needs an overarching reason to exist. In 2022, ANSA McAL declared its purpose to be “Inspiring Better Choices for a Better World” says Carla FurlongeWalker, Group External Affairs Executive. ANSA McAL’s purpose of creating and maintaining a sustainable future for the region and by extension the world bears the hallmark of an ESG focus. It is a focus made tangible through the Group’s sustainability framework which aligns its Business Priorities to the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Group also took the opportunity this year to review its core values to reflect the true spirit of the Group as it moves into the future. Every employee is expected to always uphold each of these refreshed values during their day-today activities. These values are:
WE: Own our Mission, Love our Customers, Play Hard, Win Together, Care with Purpose, Are Unstoppable, Respect and Trust; Always.
On the way to inspiring better choices, the Group has made ESG-guided decisions to ensure a sustainable future. These decisions include a multi-sector approach to preserving the environment, transparent and informative communication throughout the Group of Companies, clearly defined governance structure hinged on ethical practice, diversity, and inclusion, and a strong sense of responsibility for improving the lives of its employees and of vulnerable populations. The tone of the ESG integration is set by the Group’s new Vision:
With inherent Caribbean creativity and resilience, we unleash a future of infinite and sustainable possibilities for people everywhere.
Environmental Sustainability with a Purpose
In the spirit of inspiring a better world, ANSA McAL envisions a more sustainable business and shared future for stakeholders, business partners, employees, customers, and consumers. The Group therefore places great emphasis on environmental preservation, paying close attention to water preservation, waste reduction, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction, and renewable energy.
To ensure the purification, conservation, and reuse of water throughout the region, ANSA McAL Chemicals Limited, continues to expand its water treatment business. In 2021, the sole Chloro-Alkalai producer in the Caribbean and a key supplier of liquid chlorine to the Water and Sewage Authority of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago (WASA) celebrated its first full year of operation of the chlorine transfill hub in Jamaica. The chemical water treatment plant promises to offer cost-effective and sustainable solutions to the industrial and commercial sectors.
Where waste reduction is concerned, Carib Glassworks Limited (CGL), the glass manufacturing arm of the newly established ANSA Packaging business of the ANSA McAL Group, firmly places the ‘E’ in ESG by using cullet (broken glass) in the manufacture of new food safe glass containers. This recycling business model forms the basis of CGL’s operations. By using as much as 50-60% recycled glass during production, CGL not only achieves strong operating efficiencies but also significant environmental benefits, that included less of certain raw materials, such as limestone, soda ash and sand. It also lessens the demand for energy and reduces CO2 emissions. Furnace life is extended because including cullet in the manufacturing mix makes it less corrosive and lowers the melting temperature. Glass recycling is a closed-loop system, creating no additional waste or by-products.
The combined benefits to the business and the environment explain why ANSA Packaging continuously encourages consumers to return their used glass. These efforts will undoubtedly inspire the wider community to have a positive impact on the environment and achieve the collective goal of creating a sustainable future.
ANSA Polymer, the plastic manufacturing arm of ANSA Packaging also ensures an environmentally friendly manufacture of plastic, one of the most persistent pollutants on Earth. Unsuitable crates are ground up at the manufacturing plant to be used as resin to make new crates. ANSA Packaging increased the content of reground material used to manufacture new crates from 30% in 2021 to 60% in 2022.
Another area in which the Group reduces greenhouse gas emissions in its operations is through the recovery of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the Group’s breweries in Trinidad and St. Kitts. At each brewery, CO2 is captured and reused in the brewing process.
ANSA McAL is very committed to playing its part in the transition to clean energy in the region. Some examples of the Group’s efforts in this regard are ANSA Merchant Bank’s Green Financing programme in Barbados which incentivizes the purchase of new and nearly new Hybrid and EVs (electric vehicles) and, Carib Brewery’s transition of over 25% of its distribution fleet to compressed natural gas (CNG). ANSA McAL also followed up their 2018 investment in an operational wind farm in Tilarán in the Guanacaste province, Costa Rica with a 2021 co-investment of the Monte Plata Solar Park in the Dominican Republic.
Most notable in 2022 was the launch of the Caribbean Natural Capital Hub by ANSA Merchant Bank in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, and ANSA Bank in Trinidad and Tobago, in partnership with The Cropper Foundation and the Capitals Coalition. This pioneering initiative acts as a catalyst for the business community to come together to transform corporate decision-making to reflect and improve their impact on nature’s assets and to develop sustainable initiatives which will benefit the environment, communities, and economies. Under the Hub there will be several initiatives such as Grant Challenges for SMEs, startups and innovators in Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, sponsorship of a citizen’s blog, and much more.
Communication is key
A key tenet of ESG is stakeholder engagement. For ANSA McAL, this begins with a workforce of approximately 6,000 people. Transparent and informative communication is a strategic priority for ANSA McAL to ensure that the Group continues to be an employee-centered organization.
Recently, the Group invested in technology which will empower employees by giving them real time access to their personal data, as well as keeping them abreast of developmental opportunities, career pathing and identifying targeted training as they grow within the organization. The new Human Resource Information System (HRIS) and Payroll System in tandem with an ongoing Competency and Career Pathing Project will assist in strengthening the Group’s succession pipeline thus ensuring business continuity in the long term.
Given its size and scale, ANSA McAL sees it as crucial to ensure that its ESG objectives are communicated in a consistent manner across each of its ten sectors. Getting everyone on board with the Group’s purpose as well as keeping everything above board is managed through key performance indicators set for all employees throughout the organization.
As the Group moves to consolidate its ESG focus, it recognizes that wider stakeholder engagement is increasingly important to communicate all sustainabilityrelated developments. It plans to achieve this through its annual reports, press releases, internal email, and social media posts etc. In 2022 each of the Group’s businesses set ESG targets which are integrated into their business plans. The Group will disclose those targets to the public in 2023 and begin reporting on their progress from 2024.
Sustainable Governance
Through its 140-plus year history, one of the pillars of ANSA McAL’s success has been good corporate governance. This is crucial to building trust between companies and shareholders, its employees, the environment, and communities.
In 2021, the Group received the award for the Best Corporate Governance Conglomerate in the Caribbean from Ethical Boardroom, a London-based magazine. ANSA McAL was then featured in the Spring 2022 issue of the magazine wherein the Group’s corporate governance structure was highlighted. One of the key elements of the Group’s governance structure is an independent board of directors. The Board has set a target of at least 50% independent directorship. For the period 2019-2021, Independent directorship has increased from 27 percent to 47 percent. Between 2021-2022, four (4) independent directors were elected and appointed to the Board.
ANSA McAL’s acknowledgment of effective independent board leadership as a key component of good corporate governance is evidenced by its Director Independence Policy. This Policy outlines the criteria used to determine the independence of a director. Through an attentiveness to independent directorship, ANSA McAL maintains compliance with global standards in corporate governance as described by the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN).
The Group’s dedication to effective board governance is sustained through its board evaluation program. Through third-party Board evaluations every three years with annual self-evaluations in the interim, the Group upholds a high level of board performance which is an important factor in growing shareholder value over the long term. Board evaluations typically focus on each Director’s knowledge and skills, the Board’s decision-making processes, how well Directors worked together to achieve the Group’s strategic objectives and how the Board performs in relation to its role and responsibilities outlined in the Board’s Charter. The results of the evaluations are used to guide the development of the Board’s director training agenda as well as action plans geared to close any performance gaps.
To provide the Board with support in performing some of its key functions, the Board has two (2) subcommittees – the Governance, Nominating and Remuneration Committee (GNRC) and the Audit Committee. The Board’s meetings are essential to the governance framework. As a further indication of engagement within the organization, attendance at Board meetings during 2022 was 98% on average.
Towards a perfect 10 for diversity, equity and inclusion
It might be considered fortuitous that the 10th year anniversary of the Corporate Sustainability Review shares the same number as the UN’s number 10 SDG goal: Reduce inequality within and among countries. However, there is nothing unexpected about ANSA McAL’s strong sense of social responsibility to its employees as well as the communities it serves.
Through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) the Group provides counselling and guidance to its employees and their families. Additionally, the ANSA McAL Foundation, established in 1992, donated $1,207,579 TTD in grants last year to charitable causes including schools, children’s homes and community-based organisations. As the region emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, inequalities that existed prior to the virus have deepened. ANSA McAL’s culture of social responsibility ensures a commitment to improving the lives of vulnerable communities. Organisations that benefited from the Group’s philanthropy last year included St. Dominic’s Children’s home, The Rose Foundation, Adult Literacy Tutors Association (ALTA), Marian House, National Centre for Persons with Disabilities, Kids in Need of Direction (KIND), and the University of Trinidad and Tobago.
ANSA McAL is considered to be one of the Caribbean’s most progressive business institutions promoting diversity across the Group. To ensure the Group’s core values of respect and trust are upheld within the organization, ANSA McAL’s Code of Ethics and Conduct Policy expresses commitment to the principles of equal employment opportunity and inclusion while prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, marital status or disability.
Within the governance structure and where gender diversity in key leadership positions is concerned, the Group is truly leading the way by increasing female appointees to the Board, despite no existing quota for women on boards in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2021 two additional female directors were appointed to the Board with a third appointment of another female director in 2022. These appointments have increased the Group’s female membership from eight percent in 2019 to thirty-one percent in 2022.
A history of commitment to ESG
Although the term ESG first featured in the corporate world in 2004, the ANSA McAL Group of Companies through its 140plus year history has always been attentive to environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and effective governance. ESG principles have been woven into the culture of the Group such that it has become a main focus and driver of the Group’s reinvigorated purpose of ‘Inspiring Better Choices for a Better World’.
Through initiatives geared toward preserving the environment, improving lives and livelihoods for employees and their families and vulnerable communities and promoting diverse and ethical corporate governance, ANSA McAL maintains its position as a robust and progressive institution in Trinidad and Tobago and the region. With ESG principles projected to grow in popularity, more will be expected of corporate organizations to go beyond the role of just maximizing profits and toward ensuring a sustainable future.
Through a concerted effort at becoming a sustainable organization, the Group is actively shaping a more sustainable region and world. By charting this course to a Sustainable Future, ANSA McAL hopes to inspire others to do the same. The next generation deserves this.
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