The Enderun Extension and JCI-Manila recently held a Sustainable Enterprise Summit at The Tent at Enderun Colleges in Taguig. This highly significant event sought to gather top leaders and experts in the field, business professionals, entrepreneurs and students to discuss sustainability practices and principles, both as applied to business enterprise and to civil society.
I was privileged to be invited as speaker and panelist on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability strategies. I took the opportunity to showcase what the MVP Group of Companies in the Philippines has done in the realm of CSR and sustainability, the strategies it employed, the challenges it faced, as well as the success stories of each member company of the Group.
Any discussion on the CSR and sustainability efforts of the MVP Group would take up a whole summit in itself. In all modesty, the CSR and sustainability projects of the Group have been cited for numerous awards and distinctions, both here and abroad, but we look to these awards and honors not as having the effect of resting on our laurels and slacking off, but, rather, as inspiration to do more, be more, and help more.
The Summit’s theme was based on what is known as the Triple Bottom Line or TBL of “People, Planet, Profit,” a term coined by business author John Elkington and oftentimes used in reference to CSR and sustainability. It was the Summit’s aim to encourage sustainable practices in business enterprises while maintaining profitability by “helping protect the environment and improving the lives of society.”
I am reminded of how India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, captured the essence of what we all should strive to achieve as we build this nation through sustainable enterprise. In August 1947, on the eve of Indian independence and soon after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Minister Nehru said that “The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means ending poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us, but as long as there are tears and suffering, our work will not be over.”
While our work in this country is indeed far from over, may all of those who read this resolve to wipe every tear, from every eye of every Filipino.