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Small businesses urged to adopt more sustainable practices

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ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Business owners wait for customers at their al-fresco dining set-up in Makati on February 4, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File." src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/news/02/07/20220204-covid-sme-alert-level-2-gc-9727.jpg"/><figcaption>Business owners wait for customers at their al-fresco dining set-up in Makati on February 4, 2022. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File.</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA - The Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) on Tuesday urged more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to adopt sustainable practices to ensure their survival and that of the planet’s.During RCBC’s 2nd Sustainability Forum, the bank’s Corporate Banking Group Head Elizabeth Coronel said making the shift is important amid the rising number of big and multinational corporations pledging to work only with environmentally-conscious suppliers.“SMEs are actually part of a larger supply chain— a supply chain of big customers, big corporations, multinational corporations. These corporations on their own already have their own sustainability initiatives and are already requiring everybody in their ecosystem to be sustainable as well. So it is very important that SMEs are able to adopt for them to continue to do business dealings with the big corporations and multinationals,” said Coronel.Coronel said going sustainable can be done gradually, adding that SMEs can start by looking at their core processes to see what can be adjusted.“One example is single-use plastic. Do they use a lot of that? Practicing circular economy where you recycle, reuse— those are things that we can actually start on a small-scale and later on embed it in your process, in your mindset, in each and every employee’s mindset to be able to come up with a sustainability-focused team,” she said.Glenda Anisco-Niño, the Sustainability Partner for Financial Services at SGV &amp; Co., also noted other benefits that SMEs can gain in the long run from employing sustainable practices like improved efficiency and savings on costs.Anisco-Niño highlighted the potential to attract more customers and talent.“There are a lot of surveys [showing] that consumers nowadays also consider the sustainability position of the brand in making their purchase decisions. In terms of attracting talent as well, employees also consider what are the positions of their company in terms of social issues for them [to decide] if they will stay in the company or to join another,” she said.For former Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Leonido Pulido III, who works with companies to expand the use of electric vehicles in the public transport industry, SMEs now have more opportunities to start their sustainability journey with the help of the government and loans from financial institutions.“For SMEs, it’s really the risk aversion. That’s really the problem. You don’t want to put up more money, more capital when you can use those resources for your own bottom line. But now we have government institutions coming in, the private institutions are coming in so there are more opportunities for them,” he said.RCBC is among the banks in the Philippines providing sustainability financing instruments (SFIs) to help fund company projects.According to RCBC President and CEO Eugene Acevedo, the bank has already issued a total of $1.4 billion in SFIs to date.“We are not keeping sustainability to ourselves. We are making sustainability accessible to our customers and investors. Through sustainable financing instruments of SFIs, they can get in on the action and participate in building a more sustainable future,” said Acevedo.

RCBC on Tuesday urged more small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to adopt sustainable practices to ensure their survival and that of the planet’s.