More companies and stakeholders seen seeking sustainable options

LISTED firm Holcim Philippines, Inc. and web-based enterprise platform Anaplan said they saw increased demand and interest from organizations and stakeholders in monitoring, tracking, and reporting their sustainability performance.

“More organizations are asking us about how they can optimize their operations and reduce their environmental impact,” Anaplan Senior Vice-President and Managing Director for Asia Pacific Mark Micallef told BusinessWorld.

Mr. Micallef said that although more Filipino organizations are starting to move towards creating comprehensive environmental, social, and corporate government (ESG) programs, they are still unsure about where to start.

“In reality, establishing an ESG program needs a structured approach — from conducting a materiality assessment to understand the current baseline, to setting goals and tactical actions along with reporting to track the progress,” he said.

Anaplan’s platform helps organizations in assessing their strategic ESG roadmap by exposing likely outcomes and impacts on the companies’ goals at the point of decision.

“This helps organizations to weigh scenario trade-offs and mitigate risks as well as assess lower cost pathways for ESG initiatives,” Mr. Micallef said.

Holcim initially deployed Anaplan solutions in 2018 to replace the company’s old legacy systems used to plan sales, and commercial and logistics forecasts that were found to be inefficient.

“The rapid growth of the Philippine sustainable development sector and an ongoing evolution of decarbonization regulations and policies, are complexities that legacy business systems have been unable to process and navigate efficiently,” Mr. Micallef said.

He added that the old systems are especially inefficient in accounting for new carbon metrics that Holcim’s customers were beginning to demand.

Holcim makes use of Anaplan’s Connected Planning platform, which interprets market-based solutions, adjusts projected business outcomes to macro shifts, and drives wider time and cost savings at scale.

Anaplan’s solutions also monitor and track Holcim’s decarbonization key performance indicators such as carbon dioxide emissions, fuel mix and emissions forecast.  

“Collaborating with Anaplan gave us the opportunity to simulate real-time, develop forecasts or scenarios analysis, and enhance and hasten the decision-making process,” Holcim Head of Financial Planning, Performance and Analysis Alexander V. Taar said. “All of these translated into increased efficiencies in the production, distribution, and selling processes.”

Mr. Taar said that Anaplan’s solutions helped in communicating to its stakeholders the company’s positive momentum on its digitalization and sustainable development roadmap.

“The growing awareness and appreciation of the value and urgency of businesses embracing sustainability is a development we highly welcome,” Holcim President and Chief Executive Officer Horia-Ciprian Adrian said.

For its part, Holcim has been directly engaging its key stakeholders and has ramped up mass communications to the public to promote sustainable products.

Holcim has embarked on a decarbonization mandate, which according to Mr. Adrian is focused on four areas: greening operations, building better with less, making buildings sustainable, and building new structures from old.

“We are already accelerating this sustainability from greening operations to expanding our eco-friendly offerings,” he said. — Justine Irish D. Tabile