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Businesses must include sustainability in bottomline assessment, says CIMB

Businesses must include sustainability in bottomline assessment, says CIMB

08 Sep 2020

All businesses must acknowledge and assess their material environmental and social risks along with their impact on the bottomline and stakeholders, CIMB Group group chief executive officer and executive director Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad said.

He said the important element for businesses to know is that profits and sustainability are not at odds but on the contrary, systematic management of environmental and social impacts would not only help to protect the business in the long term, but deliver benefits to the business and its stakeholders.

“It is in fact, all interconnected. There is no ‘either or’ choice when it comes to sustainability,” he said in his welcome note at The Cooler Earth (TCE) Sustainability Summit online via webinar here, today.

He said the push towards greater sustainability is complex but a commitment that the bank is taking seriously.

“And we accept that by bringing the issue of sustainability at the forefront of Corporate Malaysia and Corporate ASEAN, we will open ourselves to potential attacks and criticism.

“But begin, we must, as the alternative would be worse for our family, our business and our society, if we all don’t address the issues of saving our planet and protecting communities,” he said.

CIMB is hosting TCE for the second time from Sept 8 to Oct 31, 2020, with the theme “Recovery, Resilience and Responsibility”, with the aim to promote the exchange of ideas and encourage adoption of sustainable business models and lifestyles to enable businesses and communities to emerge stronger and better prepared for future challenges, post-pandemic.

Abdul Rahman said within a short period of two years since the initiative started, significant and progressive steps have been taken, with CIMB becoming the first ASEAN signatory bank to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking and successfully instituted a Group Sustainable Financing Policy and a Group Sustainability Policy.

“We are part of a number of working groups to further develop Bank Negara Malaysia’s Value-based Intermediation framework and are an active member on the Joint Committee on Climate Change,” he said.

Additionally, he said during the course of TCE, CIMB will be launching several new initiatives which include an upcoming partnership with Private Financing Advisory Network or PFAN, a global network of climate and clean energy financing experts, as well as a heritage building conservation loan with Think City, one of CIMB’s knowledge partners for the event.

Meanwhile, Abdul Rahman said CIMB has also launched Motor Takaful Plan, a Shariah-compliant insurance product offered by Takaful Ikhlas in partnership with CIMB Islamic, allowing subscribers to channel the complimentary waqf and endowment into selected institutions for public benefit.

“On top of this feature, CIMB is running a four-month campaign whereby for each successful online subscription of the Motor Takaful Plan, CIMB Islamic will contribute RM50 towards a seed fund, which will be used to purchase a bicycle to enable a child from an underserved community to go to school,” he said.

CIMB Islamic will also contribute a one-off RM100,000 to the seed fund to kick start the campaign with hopes that more prospects and existing customers will see its values and take the opportunity to participate.

TCE Sustainability Summit will feature key speakers, highlighting pandemic-related, policy-making and climate emergency topics at the TCE 2020 webinars, including renowned sustainability gurus John Elkington, author of The Triple Bottom-line, and director general of WWF International Marco Lambertini.

The summit is open to all and participation is free-of-charge with subtitles in Malay, Indonesian, Filipino, Simplified Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese language will be made available for all online sessions.

Interested participants can register and obtain the full programme, details of activities, topics and speakers at https://coolerearth.cimb.com.

Source: Bernama 

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