Best Caribbean Companies delivering on Sustainability

10 Years of the

Corporate Sustainability Review

The CSR Honour Roll of Companies

Adam's Bagelry

Angostura Limited

Ansa McAL Group

Atlantic Trinidad & Tobago Limited

BGTT

Bp Trinidad & Tobago

Columbus Communications

DeNovo Energy

Ege Haina Puerto Rico

Emtec Guyana

Energy Chamber of T&T

ExxonMobil Guyana

First Citizens Group

Flow

Grace Kennedy Jamaica

Guyana Distillers Limited

Guyana Pharmaceutical Company

Hyatt Regency TT

Kansmacker Recycling

Massy Group

FEATURES

These companies have either participated or journeyed with us over the last 10 years.

Methanex Trinidad

Metro Guyana

Nestle Trinidad

Nexus Hub Inc

Petrotrin

Phoenix Park Gas Processors Ltd

Power Generation Company of T&T

RBC Financial

Republic Bank Financial Holdings

Sagicor Group

Sandals Resorts

SCG Caribbean

Scotiabank Trinidad

Shell T&T Ltd

Technip FMC

The National Gas Company of Trinidad & Tobago

The T&T Chamber of Industry & Commerce

The Women’s Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Guyana)

Tommy's Brewery

TSTT/B-Mobile Foundation

We are particularly grateful for the persistent partnership of Atlantic, bpTT, the NGC and Nestle who have been with us for most if not all of 10 years. These companies have been committed to delivering social programmes that are consistent with the principles and objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Atlantic

In our very first edition in 2012, Atlantic stated its sustainability strategy as the bedrock of its operations and a cornerstone of its governance structure:

“Sustainability refers to our intention to create long-term value for our company and shareholders, employees, communities, and the wider nation. Our sustainability commitment is to lead sustainability in our communities and our country by: responsible environmental stewardship; building capacity through education; enabling our employees to be agents of change through volunteerism; developing the local supply chain; and building strong partnerships. Key focus areas for the company have been sport, education, local economic development and the environment.”

Point Fortin as host community has been central to the company’s CSR programme.

In 2014 Atlantic introduced the Loan for Enterprise and Network Development (LEND) Agency. The Agency’s primary objective was “to promote economic welfare in the communities of Trinidad’s southwestern peninsula, by facilitating new or expanded business activity in key non-energy sectors. The Agency offers financing to MSMEs, sole traders and new entrepreneurs who might be ineligible for mainstream bank loans. Atlantic saw this as a way to grow the MSME sector which is estimated to constitute the majority of private enterprise in the Caribbean and contributes more than 50% of GDP. With sustainability at the core of its business, the company sets itself targets and regularly assesses and reports on its performance. For the last 18 years, the Company has published annual sustainability reports. This practice of full disclosure on social investments is unmatched within the industry.

Donna Ramsammy, Producer and Editor-in-Chief of the Corporate Sustainability Review.

bpTT

bpTT has published details of its social investments in every edition of the Review since 2012. The social strategy has been about building national capacity for the sector and its future; and playing an active role in national development. Key areas for social spend have been in Arts & Culture, Education, Environment and Enterprise & Manpower Development.

Specific to ESG goals, bpTT is on track. At the Group and national levels, the Company’s Net-Zero ambition is at the heart of its Environmental strategy.

bpTT’s Social agenda focuses on employment generation and skills development. This is why the company invests heavily in education; and why in 2004, the Company converted its staff recreation facility in Mayaro to a learning centre through partnerships with the UWI Open Campus, the UWI School of Continuing Studies, the Adult Literacy Tutors Association, and the SERVOL for skills training. But the hallmark of the Company’s social programme has been the Mayaro Initiative for Private Enterprise Development. Launched in 2002 and seeded with a modest TT$7.2m, the fund aimed to stimulate micro-enterprise development and economic diversity through self-sustaining employment. By 2012, the fund had already disbursed more than TT$37m to 2000 entrepreneurs and created 2000 permanent and 4000 part time jobs. Today the fund generates repayment rates of 85%, way above the norm.

bpTT’s commitment to good Governance is described as its primary responsibility. This is evidenced in its commitment to safety, building a safety culture within the sector, and entrenching diversity, equity, and inclusivity as core facets of its workplace culture.

NGC

When NGC outlined its CSR strategy in 2012, it was described to the Review as an “Innovative Community Economic Development programme which seeks to utilize the physical, human, social and cultural assets of the community to promote economic growth and selfreliance.”

The strategy was built upon four distinctive pillars. Community Economic Development is Pillar One by which NGC delivers skills training needed for the energy industry. Pillar Two addresses Community Engagement which deals primarily with awareness and emergency preparedness around NGC’s pipeline facilities. Youth Development is Pillar Three and this is delivered through investments in sports. Pillar Four, Contributions and Sponsorships, is more broad-based and addresses programmes and initiatives in Education, Arts & Culture and Human and Social Development.

By 2019 NGC was evolving as a global business and reconfiguring for sustainability. In support of the government’s commitment to the Paris Climate Change Agreement, NGC has been actively pursuing agendas related to Energy Efficiency. The Company shifted focus from just aggregating and selling natural gas to becoming more focused and collaborative with stakeholders along the entire value chain.

Nestlé

Nestlé prides itself as the world’s leading Nutrition, Health and Wellness Company, a distinction that is reflected in its CSV programmes. At Nestlé social responsibility is about Creating Shared Value (CSV). That means proactively identifying opportunities to link its core business activities to action on related social issues. For Nestlé “there is no higher priority than enhancing the

quality of life for our consumers by providing tastier and healthier food and beverage choices.”

Wellness is a serious concern for Nestlé in its product offering. Confronted by the alarming rates of lifestyle related diseases in Trinidad and Tobago, in 2012 the Company decided to tackle the issue of obesity. The National Risk Factor Survey of 2011 showed that 55% of the population was overweight. The Company launched its Wellness Caravan - a mobile unit that undertakes BMI testing and counselling to encourage healthy eating and healthy lifestyles.

In 2013, Nestlé introduced its first Annual Health Fair to raise awareness on childhood obesity (which stood at 23% for the Caribbean), and a family approach to health and wellness.

In terms of meeting ESG principles, Nestlé remains in the top quartile regionally and globally of the World’s Most Attractive Employers. The Company doesn’t just pay lip service to the notion of employees as their best assets, it invests in helping employees grow, develop and feel valued. In 2020 at the height of the C-19 pandemic, the Company was focused on ensuring that each employee was safe, healthy and secure.

Nestlé is committed to an inclusive workplace, to ethical advertising, ethical sourcing, accurate labelling, transparency in reporting in addition to continuous improvement of its products to meet stringent guidelines of the World Health Organization.

The following companies are outstanding for leadership roles in social responsibility in their respective sectors.

ANSA McAL has taken the bold step to entrench the SDGs and to employ ESG standards of measurement

and reporting into its business strategy and delivery. Following its acquisition of BG, Shell Trinidad and Tobago Limited has embarked on a definitive investment programme in transformative education.

Republic Financial Holdings Limited is leading ESG delivery in the financial sector.

Ansa McAl

Emerging from a family-owned company, the ANSA McAL Group has grown into a highly successful conglomerate reaching across the Caribbean and trading across borders. The Group’s Motto is “Together we are family” taking its home-grown values into the corporate sector. With a diverse workforce, a multisectoral business and a deep commitment to a responsible culture, the Group fosters a work environment that is built on meritocracy and a people-value approach.

Covid-19 affirmed the Group’s CSR philosophy of Collaborating for the Greater Good. Always with its people first, the Group has been at the forefront of national disasters and humanitarian relief. However, the pandemic showed just how much ANSA McAL values local communities.

The ANSA McAL Group is repositioning to place ESG principles at the centre of its operations. Over the last year, the Group has made a bold move to grow its business in step with Sustainable Development Goals and on the principles of Sensitivity to the Natural Environment, Societal Wellbeing and Good Governance. A key contribution will be creating a pathway for other Caribbean business to expand intra and extra regional trade to provide generational, regional wealth.

This year, ANSA McAL embarked on a systemic review of its social agenda, corralling its leadership into rethinking and re-strategizing about what it means to

be a responsible company using the lens of the SDGs and employing ESG principles to interrogate, measure and manage what and how it invests CSR spend. It has made social performance a dimension on how it appraises and rewards business delivery. Priorities for the Group are Water Preservation, Modern Energy, People & Communities, Climate Impact and Corporate Governance.

Shell T&T

Shell’s CSR programmes have evolved with the growth of the company, from its roots in heritage BG Trinidad & Tobago. In our 2012 edition, the heritage organisation designed its social investment programmes towards strengthening capacity through education and training, increased local content through employment and contractor development and in fostering empowered communities. Much of that work continues today; but Shell has opted to invest heavily in equipping the workforce of the future in preparation for the energy transition to renewables. Shell is using a STEM approach to transform the learning environment by introducing critical thinking into the secondary school curriculum.

STEM is based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Rather than teach the four disciplines as separate and discrete subjects, STEM integrates them into a cohesive learning paradigm. Shell has recently added Reading and the Arts, making it a STREAM methodology.

Shell’s flagship programme focuses on several areas of intervention: Teacher development -scholarships to the STEM Centre in the United Kingdom; a STREAM Centre and STREAM Technology Centre and Science Bus; Student support and development and access

to technical skills training; Science and Career Fairs; Employee Volunteerism; and establishing STREAM Centres over a three-year period.

Republic

Republic Financial Holdings Ltd strives always to improve the quality of life for those communities in which they operate through strategic partnerships, disaster relief, and economic strengthening. The iconic Power to Make a Difference Programme (PMAD), is built on four social pillars –Power to Help, Power to Care, Power to Learn, and the Power to Succeed - through investments in sports and environmental initiatives. These programmes are generally delivered through strategic partnerships with organisations that Republic monitors and audits to ensure that criteria for delivery are adequately met and that there is responsible management of resources and transparent reporting.

Republic focuses on a different theme over a four-year cycle and puts around 60% of its social spend in that key area. For instance, in 2004-2008 there were significant investments in poverty alleviation programmes and in 2009-2012 the focus was on the differently abled. In this way, the company has been able to make a bigger impact in driving measurable change in the lives of persons who are benefiting from its programmes. In 2013 the focus was on the Power to Learn through collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the T&T National Commission for UNESCO. The programme aimed at increasing literacy in infants by redesigning how reading skills are taught and includes training for teachers and infants.

More recently, along with 300 banks worldwide, Republic has signed on to the UN Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) and has appointed an Office of Sustainability to integrate sustainability into its strategic

and operational processes. The PRB represents the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework and aims to accelerate a positive global transition for people and the planet by taking action to align their core strategy, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.