Shell officials holding the reward

Pilipinas Shell scores a big regional win for the Philippines as it won “Asia’s Community Care Company of the Year” for the 2018 Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards (ACES). The company was represented by Ramon Del Rosario, Vice President for External Relations and Government Relations, and Jose Jerome Pascual, Chief Financial Officer.

The ACES Awards recognizes successful companies and individuals in Asia across two main domains: leadership and corporate social responsibility. It values services and achievements of businesses, both large and small, national and international, for their esteemed contributions to their communities and the world.

This recent win underscores how Pilipinas Shell’s business principles are based on its core values of honesty, integrity, and respect for people. These indicate how the company promotes trust, openness, teamwork, professionalism, and pride in what it does. With its core values as the foundation, sustainability is truly woven into the fabric of Pilipinas Shell.

There are three main themes that Shell CSR programs all over the world follow. The first is to find opportunities to enable access to energy through different lenses, by catalysing local energy markets and supporting entrepreneurs and partners in the development and distribution of energy solutions. The second is to support STEM education by equipping young people with vital skills and ‘habits of mind’ that STEM employers are increasingly demanding. Shell also wants to empower teachers by supporting their development, confidence, and capability in STEM teaching, to help keep pace with a rapidly changing industrial landscape. The third focus is to create jobs and economic development opportunities for local communities.

Among the numerous CSR programmes, Pilipinas Shell considers Movement Against Malaria (MAM) and Gas Mo, Bukas Ko (GMBK, ‘You fuel my future’) as the flagship advocacies that best demonstrate its commitment to nation-building

Movement Against Malaria

MAM started as Kilusan Ligtas Malaria (KLM) in 1999. KLM was a collaboration between PSFI and the Provincial Government of Palawan, together with the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) Center for Health and Development, to combat the malaria epidemic which claimed many lives in Palawan. KLM set up microscopy centres in 320 villages to ensure early diagnosis and prompt treatment of malaria. Due to the program, KLM helped substantially reduce malaria deaths and morbidity in Palawan. From 2006 to the present, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (The Global Fund) provided funds to try to replicate the success of KLM in Palawan. The expanded project is called Movement Against Malaria and is implemented by PSFI in partnership with DOH, the World Health Organization (WHO), and various local government units in 40 of the 58 provinces in the country still affected by malaria.

GAS MO, BUKAS KO (“You fuel my future”)

GMBK, a scholarship program, was set to support Filipino youths, specifically Pilipinas Shell’s technically-capable gas attendants or their dependents, in pursuing their studies. The aim is to enable them to innovate and create technologies, products, and services that can compete in the global markets and stimulate economic growth for the Philippines. As of 2017, GMBK has sponsored over 1,600 scholars. Approximately 85 percent of them took on bigger responsibilities as gas attendants, while some were promoted to higher positions.

Pilipinas Shell believes good relationships lead to good business and good profit. Its main objective is to create a positive presence in the communities and societies where it operates, and so gain community acceptance of business objectives. The organization hopes to enhance the communities around it, complement their efforts toward self-reliance, and help them develop together with the business. Managing relationships with its communities helps it secure its social license to operate, enhances its global and local reputation, and enables Pilipinas Shell to avoid operational delays.

Pilipinas Shell remains as the Filipino people’s partner in nation-building through its program that not only provide energy to power the economy but touch millions of lives. It continues to collaborate with its network of stakeholders to meet the country’s energy needs while being conscious of its role as an enabler in society. This is how Pilipinas Shell makes the future.