CompCompanies from Singapore, Thailand, India, and Philippines Feted at the AIM Asian CSR Awardsanies from Singapore, Thailand, India, and Philippines Feted at the AIM Asian CSR Awards

Bangkok, Oct 26, 2012 – (ACN Newswire) – Five companies from Singapore, Thailand, India, and the Philippines were awarded at the latest AIM Asian CSR Awards, held last October 26, 2012 at the Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. The AIM Asian CSR Awards are a featured event in the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR), which has brought together over 550 delegates from 30 countries, representing various sectors of society, including businesses, governments, NGOs/civil society, multilateral organizations, and the academe.

The AIM Asian CSR Awards Program recognizes Asian companies for embodying the principles of corporate responsibility in their business philosophy and operations. Companies that have received the award continuously innovate and implement sustainable approaches toward becoming socially responsible.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong graced the awarding ceremonies as the Guest of Honor and presented the trophies to this year’s winners.

“Recipients of the AIM Asian CSR Awards demonstrate leadership, sincerity, and commitment in incorporating ethical values, compliance with legal requirements, respect for individuals, involvement in communities, and protection of the environment into the way they do business,” explains Prof. Felipe B. Alfonso, Conference Director of the AFCSR 2012.

“It is our belief that CSR can only be truly sustainable when it is integrated into the company’s business model and is considered as fundamental to its business strategy, and we hope that through the Asian CSR Awards, we are providing the private sector across the region with examples of best practices,” adds Alfonso, who also serves as the Executive Advisor of the Asian Institute of Management – Ramon V. del Rosario, Sr. Center for Corporate Social Responsibility (AIM-RVR CSR Center).

The four focus areas of the AIM Asian CSR Awards are the following: Environment and Value Chain Management, which recognizes how a company manages its value chain in order to optimize its social and environmental footprint; Governance and Society, which recognizes a company’s capacity to manage its relationships with society through initiatives in education, employment, access to technology, income generation, health, and social investment, as well as its ability to adhere to transparency and accountability standards; Labor and Employee Engagement, which recognizes how a company manages employee relationships and ensure their welfare and protection; and Product Responsibility and Consumer Rights, which recognizes a company’s initiatives on fair marketing, product labelling, protection of consumer’s health and safety, sustainable consumption, compliance, consumer service, and awareness.

The grand prize of the AIM Asian CSR Awards is the Intel-AIM Corporate Responsibility Award (IACRA), given to an organization that has taken on a fully embedded approach to CSR across all four focus areas. The award, which is presented to a chosen company after a rigorous selection process, is a testament to the advocacy of both the AIM-RVR CSR Center and Intel Corporation in promoting strategic and embedded CSR, which has generated significant and sustainable impacts. IACRA is also an embodiment of Intel Corporation’s thought and action leadership on CSR and social innovation.

“The main criterion for selecting the recipient to the IACRA is that the organization must have made CSR an integral part of the way they do business. Their CSR programs or projects must have a significant impact and are sustainable in all appropriate areas of operations,” explains Dato Timothy Ong, the newly-appointed Chairman of the Board of Advisors of the AIM-RVR CSR Center.

“IACRA is a manifestation of our shared commitment to bring value to businesses across Asia, not just by providing them with the tools and frameworks that would help them in engaging stakeholders and bringing about social innovation,” he continues. “We are also recognizing the good work that they do and the significant positive impacts that they have created for and with their internal and external stakeholders, and we remain optimistic that these companies would continue becoming Asia’s shining examples on how businesses can help bring about social change.”

For AIM President Dr. Steven J. DeKrey, both the AFCSR and the AIM Asian CSR Awards are indicative of the ever-growing need for companies and managers to be capable of resolving issues and addressing opportunities in the business and development sectors. “Businesses need to be ethically aware and environmentally conscious, he shares. Initiatives such as the AFCSR and the AIM Asian CSR Awards are platforms that facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas that would continue to transform businesses, enabling them to create even greater shared value for all their stakeholders and contribute more significantly to their communities.”

The winners of the 2012 AIM Asian CSR Awards are the following:

Environment and Value Chain Management Award
Company: Ayala Land, Inc.
Country: Philippines

Ayala Land has implemented innovative approaches to sustainability in its land development activities, especially by providing opportunities for everyone, regardless of social class, to live in a more sustainable environment. Ayala Land implements sustainable construction and development practices, as well as a solid waste management program and an energy efficiency program, implemented through conservation practices, innovative technologies, and investments. Ayala Land has established the first eco-city in the Philippines, adopting environmental and social development principles. It has also successfully integrated conservation and biodiversity protection programs with its land development projects.

Governance and Society Award
Company: ITC Limited
Country: India

ITC Limited has a solid Triple Bottom Line strategy and has been able to design its Social Investments Programs with innovative models that simultaneously create shareholder value and embed social and environmental benefits in its multiple value chains. This has enabled the company to build sustainable livelihood and promote economic growth for rural communities.

Labor and Employee Engagement Award
Company: HGST Philippines Corporation
Country: Philippines

HGST Philippines Corporation strives to address environmental, social, and economic sustainability issues. It does this by implementing programs for employee care, development, empowerment, and engagement with the business, with the local community, and with society at large. HGST has implemented a “CSR Starts at Home Program”, which addresses employees’ needs and concerns for personal and professional development. The needs covered by the program include family welfare, education, and housing. The program has uplifted employee morale, which has then led to increased employee engagement and productivity.

Product Responsibility and Consumer Rights Award
Company: Pruksa Real Estate PLC
Country: Thailand

Pruksa Real Estate PLC’s CSR strategy takes into account people, process, and product. Particularly for its products, Pruksa Real Estate PLC pays close attention to the procurement of raw materials, the utilization of construction technology, and the acquisition of materials from suppliers. The company aims to manufacture more environment-friendly products, implementing efficiency throughout their processes, from addressing customer needs to product development to construction to sales and to after-sales home maintenance.

Intel-AIM Corporate Responsibility Award
Company: StarHub Ltd.
Country: Singapore

At the heart of StarHub’s business strategy are its people, as it serves customers by building a committed and motivated workforce. The company implements human resource policies that promote safe and healthy working conditions, fair employment, teamwork, learning and development, and career growth and performance awards to attract, retain, and grow talent. As a leading telecommunications operator in Singapore, the company runs data centers and base stations consume significant amounts of energy that produce greenhouse gas emissions. This then creates an imperative for StarHub’s two-pronged environmental approach; the first is reducing the relative consumption of energy, fuel, and water, and minimizing waste, and the second is increasing the use of renewable energy, as well as implementing initiatives for water and resource conservation and recycling of waste.

About Asian Forum on CSR (AFCSR)

Following ten successful conference runs in six of Southeast Asia’s major cities – Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore, the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR) continues to be at the forefront of CSR development in Asia. This 2012, Bangkok will host the 11th AFCSR on October 25 & 26, Thursday & Friday.

The AFCSR is recognized as the largest and most significant conference on CSR in Asia, this evident by the numbers of delegates who have attended the conference through the years. The forum is extremely well supported and attended, not just by the business sector but by government officials, the academe, civil society, media, and multinational and multilateral organizations operating in Asia.

Launched in Manila in 2002, AFCSR’s mission highlights innovative programs and best practices in CSR by corporations in Asia in order to promote CSR as a key strategy in addressing public needs and problems, to showcase corporate standards on CSR as strategy, and to build a network of CSR practitioners across Asia. For more information on the AFCSR, visit the website atwww.asianforumcsr.com.

Contact:

Mika Palileo

Ogilvy Public Relations Manila

Tel: +632 238 7000 loc 7052

mika.palileo@ogilvy.com