SM Investments Corporation, the holding company of the Sy family, has committed to support of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in a strong bid to ensure its businesses meet global sustainability targets.
This was announced by SMIC during a Virtual Roundtable Discussion on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure organized by the Climate Change Commission.
“We recognize the material role we play in the Philippines. We understand our responsibilities and we commit to using the TCFD recommendations to be part of the solution to climate change,” said SM President and Chief Executive Officer Frederic C. DyBuncio.
TCFD is a globally recognized set of recommendations by the Financial Stability Board and is one of the frameworks recommended by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) reporting.
Joining more than 2,300 supporters in demonstrating a commitment to building a more resilient financial system and safeguarding against climate risk through better disclosures, the adoption of these recommendations helps for more effective climate-related disclosures.
These could promote more informed investments and in turn could enable stakeholders to better understand the financial system’s exposures to climate-related risks.
“Ours is a responsibility to help build and protect our vulnerable country. Today we refresh our commitment to strengthen the resilience of our communities by signing up as a TCFD supporter,” SM’s Head of Investor Relations Tim Daniels said.
SM has consistently taken the agenda of climate change as an integral part of its business strategy and how this creates lasting value for all its stakeholders, identifying UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13, Climate Action as one of its focus SDGs.
Its Climate Action Strategy advances two priorities that go hand-in-hand: resilience to equip its stakeholders and host communities for climate emergencies and sustainability to help mitigate the climate crisis.
Through SM’s leadership role in UN ARISE, the Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies, it calls for a collective effort to incorporate disaster resilience as a core strategy of its business.
Leading by example, it allocates 10 percent of its capital expenditures to disaster resiliency and sustainability in the design of its malls and integrated lifestyle cities.
This includes water catchment facilities which reduce flooding in neighboring communities; science-based designs such as its SM City Marikina mall that sits on 246 stilts to enable it to withstand water level rise; and building the 60-hectare SM Mall of Asia complex 4.5 meters above mean lower low water level, among others.
With SM as a member the global 50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders project, DyBuncio emphasized the company’s commitment in looking after the welfare of its stakeholders as an intrinsic part of achieving sustained and inclusive growth.
“For a business to be able to continue to grow and last for many years, it’s very important that it supports the community in a sustainable way. In the end, it’s the community and the environment that sustains the high growth of our businesses,” he noted.
Through its banking business, BDO Unibank, Inc., SM is among the pioneers in promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency project financing by putting together a risk-based Sustainable Energy Finance Program in partnership with the International Finance Corporation, the private banking arm of the World Bank.
SM said it builds an ecosystem of sustainable businesses, strengthening the capacity and resilience of its tens of thousands of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), which remain to be the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.