The YTL Group's Environmental Vision
We are fully committed to being a responsible corporate citizen. Energy plays an essential role in ensuring quality of life for people
everywhere, for us and for future generations. Supplying energy reliably is critical to helping people maintain and improve their standard
of living. However, this brings with it significant challenges - for example, the very real threat of climate change means that we need to
continue to provide and deliver energy in a way that minimises the impact our emissions have on the environment. We recognise the
importance of sustainable development, taking account of the impact of our operations on society and understanding the dire
consequences of global warming.
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Letter from the Managing Director
Tan Sri Dato' (Dr.) Francis Yeoh
PSM, FICE, CBE, SIMP, DPMS, DPMP, JMN, JP
Managing Director,
YTL Corporation Berhad
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TAN SRI DATO' (DR) FRANCIS
YEOH, CBE
Managing Director, YTL Corporation Berhad
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Dear Stakeholder,
According to a McKinsey Report, of
the world's 100 largest economic entities,
63 are corporations, not countries.
Great power creates great expectations
and society increasingly holds businesses
accountable as the only institutions
strong enough to meet the significant
long-term challenges facing our earth.
It therefore becomes more than a corporate
responsibility and instead becomes
crucial for corporate survival.
We understand that as corporate citizens,
we must endure in an ever-changing
world with more limits on resources
and less credit, and companies must
develop and execute a strategy for
sustainability. Hence, sustainability
should take into account every aspect
of the business environment: be it
social, economic and cultural or natural.
Personally, I believe a sustainable business means a business
that can thrive in the long term and that true sustainability has
four equal components:
- Social - To address conditions
that affect us all, including poverty,
violence, injustice, education,
public health, and labour and human
rights
- Economic - To help people
and businesses meet their economic
needs - for people: securing food,
water, shelter and basic needs;
and for businesses: turning a profit
- Environmental - To protect
and restore the Earth - for example,
by controlling climate change, protecting
natural resources and managing waste
more effectively
- Cultural - To protect and
value the diversity through which
communities discern their identity
and cultivate traditions across
generations
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Sentul Park, Kuala Lumpur.
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Wessex Water, UK.
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Green businesses,
green jobs and emerging green economies will
very much become part of a ‘new world’
now being born but ‘green’ alone
is not a broad enough platform to sustain
most businesses for the long haul. Instead,
those that consider broader social issues
will be better poised to lead and I have faith
that at YTL, we will continue to march on
to do our part as global citizens through
leading with values.
Over a decade ago, YTL began innovating ways
to use clean technology, realising the implications
of uncontrolled carbon emissions into the
atmosphere, as well as exploring renewable
energy sources, due to the heavy energy demands
of the utilities and construction industries.
For example, as a leading utilities player,
we insist that our equipment suppliers continuously
work to improve their technologies, not just
because we demand it, but also due to the
big consumer push for it.
At YTL, we have seen firsthand how sustainability
programmes and policies have reaped outstanding
results. To illustrate, I would like to share
some of the latest developments and results
from Wessex Water, our utilities company
in the UK. Wessex Water has been recognised
by the UK water industry regulator, Ofwat,
as the most efficient operator in England
and Wales for three year running, with several
awards under its belt - including the first
water company to receive the “Queen’s
Award for Enterprise” for continuous
achievement in sustainable development.
As a progressive water and wastewater treatment
company, Wessex Water is very much focused
on reducing its carbon footprint, targeting
to become carbon neutral as a major part of
its sustainability vision. This is crucial
because the water industry happens to be an
inherently energy intensive business. And
this becomes more challenging each year, due
to the stringent water and effluent regulatory
standards in Europe, which require more advanced
and energy intensive treatments. They have
countered this increase in energy use through
an annually renewed carbon management strategy,
which helps offset some of this rise through
their energy efficiency measures.
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Our strategy is two-fold. Firstly, we have
a strong monitoring system put into
place to measure and track energy usage,
and secondly, we are pursuing and steadily
increasing renewable energy usage, wherever
possible. This strategy applies to all our
businesses within our Group.
In 2009, milestones of YTL’s corporate
social responsibility achievements include
winning the Global CSR Awards 2009 Silver
Award for “CSR Leadership Excellence”.
YTL Corp was also shortlisted for this year’s
ACCA Malaysia Sustainability Reporting
Awards (ACCA MaSRA) 2009.
Notably, Singapore featured heavily in our
activities this year as we embarked on two
sizeable acquisitions of prime assets on
the island. On the utilities front, the
Group acquired PowerSeraya Limited (“PowerSeraya”)
which has a market share of about 25% of
Singapore’s electricity market. PowerSeraya
is unique in its complement of multi-utility
operations that extend from its core electricity
generation activities, including trading
of physical fuels, oil tank leasing and
trading of by-products of the electricity
generation process. It is commendable that
this year, PowerSeraya won not only one,
but two Awards during the Singapore Green
Summit (SGS), organised by the Association
of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)
and the Singapore Environment Council (SEC).
The Summit featured three award categories.
PowerSeraya clinched two awards - for “Best
Sustainability Report” and “Best
First-Time Report” at the SGS -
and a “B+” from the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI), the global
standard for sustainability reporting. This
is the highest level obtained by a local
company so far.
YTL also acquired a 26% stake in Starhill
Global Real Estate Investment Trust (“Starhill
Global REIT”) which has a retail and
office portfolio currently valued at SGD1.95
billion and encompasses prime assets in
Singapore, Tokyo and China.
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Sentul Park, Kuala Lumpur.
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On 28 March
2009, YTL participated in Malaysia’s
very first “Earth Hour” which saw
more than 20 of its iconic properties both
in Malaysia and Singapore switching off their
lights for an hour in respect of this global
movement. Starhill Global REIT also subsequntly
won the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Earth
Hour Corporate Participation Award for “Best
Engagement Activities”, for its innovative
initiatives to engage business partners and
shoppers at Wisma Atria, a leading mall along
Singapore’s premier shopping street Orchard
Road.
We also organised our third highly successful
Climate Change Week from 24 May –
28 June 2009, designed to educate and raise
public awareness towards the critical issue
of global warming. This year, and in collaboration
with the National Geographic Channel, YTL’s
Climate Change Week brought to Malaysians
all over the country the exclusive televised
Malaysian premiere of the acclaimed documentary,
Strange Days on Planet Earth: Oceans.
Hosted by award-winning actor, director and
environmental activist Edward Norton, Dangerous
Catch and Dirty Secrets,
the two latest episodes of Strange Days on
Planet Earth offered a startling look into
the health of the earth’s water system
and the shocking truths which impact every
single living being on earth. This is the
first time YTL has partnered with National
Geographic Channel, bringing together the
channel’s vast global programming library
and YTL’s corporate resources and experiences,
to inspire Malaysians in the fight against
global warming.
If we look back on history, the greatest social
transformations of our age - the end of slavery,
the abolishment of apartheid, the end of colonisation,
the women’s rights and civil rights movements
- all began with public awareness, then engagement.
Those movements were led by scientists, thinkers,
concerned individuals and young people. They
led, and governments followed. This is the
rationale behind our continued faith in Climate
Change Week, our flagship campaign that
continues to educate our nation towards the
importance of climate change mitigation and
environmental protection.
As stewards of our good earth, YTL has long
supported conservation through international
groups like The Nature Conservancy,
as well as WWF-Malaysia and Rare
Conservation. In 2008, YTL hosted a “Climate
Change Gala” in support of three local
environmental organisations – Beneficiaries
included the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS),
Reef Check Malaysia and Treat Every
Environment Special (TrEES), whom continue
to inspire conservation in the nation.
Personally,
I am also proud to serve in several non-profit
organisations that make leadership in sustainability
possible, namely The Nature Conservancy
(TNC), the International Business Leaders
Forum (IBLF) and The Institute of Corporate
Responsibility Malaysia (ICRM). As a long
time member of TNC, one of the largest conservation
groups in the world committed to protecting
nature’s most precious ecosystems, I
had the privilege of working alongside world
leaders to strategise, build partnerships
and projects, as well as open doors to resources.
At the rapid rate at which forests are disappearing,
I am glad to have fostered a long-term partnership
with TNC, who help protect forests globally
through various schemes. In the past, YTL
has donated to TNC a substantial amount of
USD500,000 to support conservation efforts
on forest protection and on coral reef conservation
in South East Asia, primarily Indonesia.
Moving onto the Arts, I was recently appointed
a patron of the International Friends of
the Louvre, which raises awareness of
this historical musuem’s collections
and museum expertise. At the American and
International Friends of the Louvre forum
held in Paris in June 2008, I was proud to
help raise USD250,000 through a live auction,
encouraging guests who bid for our exotic
travel package - consisting of an experience
on the Eastern and Orient Express train and
a stay at our private island Pangkor Laut
Resort – to visit our beautiful country
of Malaysia.
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Back on home soil, I am proud to be the honorary
advisor of the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts
Centre (KLPac). Here, my fervent passion for
the environment and for the Arts has been
realised through bringing nature and the artistic
community together in Sentul Park, a 35-acre
park in the heart of the city. Our pioneering
project, the Bird Island Green Homes Competition,
which promotes sustainable development and
energy efficient homes in Malaysia, also continues
its course, with judging having taken place
the year before and winners of the competition
to be announced duly. Here, eight leading
international names in architecture and environmental
engineering compete to build six eco-friendly
homes on Bird Island in our Sentul Park, creating
a model for sustainable living that people
around the world will be able to study and
emulate. At YTL, we believe sustainable architecture
is going to play a significant role in addressing
climate change, due to its energy and resource
efficient approach to development.
Going further, we are investors of both The
Asian Renewable Energy and Environment Fund
(AREEF) and The Renewable Energy Fund
(REEF), the latter of which was launched
during Climate Change Week 2008. Both
are vehicles that allow us to invest in and
encourage companies that innovate in clean
technology and the renewable energy sector.
Our carbon credit consultancy, YTL-SV Carbon,
continues to grow steadily with a healthy
client base. Having made strong strides in
the areas of energy efficiency and renewable
energy, it was a logical step for us to get
involved in CDM – YTL-SV Carbon is currently
the largest CDM consultancy in Malaysia and
third largest in South East Asia. It is important
to note that our specialist business not only
helps YTL go carbon neutral in-house but also
helps companies go “clean and green”
through helping them apply for carbon credits
through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The Kyoto Protocol calls these credits certified
emissions reductions (CERS) and allows Annex
B countries, such as Malaysia, help meet their
domestic emission-reduction commitments under
the treaty. Recent studies have shown that
the carbon trading business in Malaysia is
expected to be worth RM3.2 billion and RM6.4
billion in the next few years, driven by companies’
increased participation in environmentally
sustainable projects. The Malaysia Energy
Centre estimates that the country has up to
RM100 million tones of carbon credit potential
for the 2006 to 2012 period and it could benefit
from carbon trading, which is now worth USD60
billion globally but could grow to USD1 trillion
in a decade. Currently, the Government is
also considering giving companies involved
in CER, and renewable and environment-friendly
energies a tax exemption for 10 years, investment
tax allowances and import duty and sales tax
exemptions on equipment.
For every crisis, there is an opportunity.
The crisis we now face is our chance –
and your chance – to build a strategy
for sustainability not only into the core
of your company, but also into your life.
At YTL, I trust that we will continue to do
our part in running the good race by continuing
to adopt sustainable practices and corporate
responsibility in all that we do.
As we look to the year ahead, and whilst the economic
climate continues to fluctuate between expectations of
further problems and hopes for recovery, the Group remains
focused on its path - the long-term view that has brought
us to this stage and will continue to form the foundations
of our journey forward to continue to build a stronger brand
for our customers, a stronger corporate citizen for our economy
and a stronger corporation for our shareholders and investors.
And so, our journey continues.
May God bless each and everyone of you in all your positive endeavours. |
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YTL - CSR Report 2006
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YTL - Sustainability Report 2007
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YTL - Sustainability Report 2008
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YTL - Sustainability Report 2009
(2.92 MB)
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