Ranhill Utilities Bhd, the gold winner in the utilities category at The Edge Malaysia ESG Awards 2022, intends to continue its efforts to promote a sustainable future for generations to come.

The utility company’s business model is to provide clean water and energy solutions based on a circular economy approach, says Amran Awaluddin, executive director and chief operating officer of Ranhill.

The award will inspire the company to continue placing ESG at the heart of its strategy and commit to transparent and comprehensive sustainability reporting.

“[This is] to highlight both our achievements and progress, as well as our many challenges and areas for improvement. Transparent reporting enables us to truly evaluate our performance and provides an impetus to pursue our sustainability efforts,” says Amran.

A challenge that the company faced in this journey was to reorient the hearts and minds of stakeholders, whether internal or external. Another challenge was to pivot from purely looking at the financial bottom line to integrating perspectives about the business’ impact on people and the planet.

“But we persevere in our endeavours. For us, sustainability or ESG has always been an intrinsic part of our business model and approach to value creation. It is this culture that we shall strive to continue inculcating across our many stakeholders,” says Amran.

Sustainability is inherent to Ranhill, he adds. The company has four pillars of sustainability: environmental awareness and preservation, contribution towards social well-being, inspirational workplace and culture, and enhancing governance across the group.

These pillars provide strategic direction for Ranhill to champion sustainability within its organisation and among its stakeholders.

As a utility, Ranhill has to manage the finite water resource amid increasing consumption. Reduced rainfall due to climate change, pollution incidents and seawater contaminating rivers due to flooding are additional challenges it must address.

“Against this backdrop, Ranhill continues to operate and ensure a clean and constant supply of water for millions. The provision of clean water supply to all is part of meeting a basic human need, as stated under Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6,” says Amran.

Awareness is key to the company achieving its sustainability goals, he adds. Beyond that, it must also demonstrate the business case for sustainability initiatives. It must be shown that these initiatives not only benefit society and the environment, but they also increase the company’s competitiveness and generate a return on investment.

The benefits include improved access to capital markets and financing, a lower risk of fines, increased employee satisfaction and new commercial opportunities, says Amran. “ESG has a lot to offer businesses.”

Ranhill will continue to promote the circular economy, which advocates the elimination of waste and pollution, to its stakeholders, he adds. This will be done by using recycled or grey water, addressing non-revenue water loss, which is relatively high in Malaysia, and promoting cleaner forms of energy.

“We shall continue to focus on driving our approach to sustainability through our four pillars and the circular economy model. Ranhill has established its ‘Zero Carbon by 2050’ goal, and we are aligning our business operations accordingly to achieve this milestone,” says Amran.