This story was first published on Stewardship Commons.
Sustainability and profitability can go hand-in hand. Sunway believes in doing well by doing good through its commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah AO is the founder and chairman of Sunway Group as well as the founder and trustee of the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation (JCF). His commitment to the sustainability agenda is summarised in the company’s vision statement, “to be Asia’s model corporation in sustainable development, innovating to enrich lives for a better tomorrow.”
Sunway Group was founded on the concept of sustainable development, and the journey began with the construction of Sunway City Kuala Lumpur. This tin-mining wasteland was transformed into an integrated, smart and sustainable township.
Sunway City Kuala Lumpur
The company rehabilitated the abandoned mining pools and built an integrated township that houses educational institutions, commercial entities, a medical centre, retail and leisure outlets, and a residential neighbourhood for more than 200,000 people. Its flagship smart, sustainable city township – Sunway City Kuala Lumpur – is now Malaysia’s most dynamic living laboratory and a test bed for researchers, experts and academia to generate sustainable real-world solutions for the prosperity and progress of the people and the planet.
Sunway City Kuala Lumpur Eco Walk
Sunway recently established the Health Innovation Hub, the first of its kind in Malaysia. This joint initiative by Sunway iLabs and Astra Zeneca aims to construct a network of partnerships that will work to solve, scale and showcase innovative and holistic health solutions across the region
Sunway believes that corporate responsibility and profitability can go hand in hand, that it wins by rising to the call of supporting and protecting its stakeholders – customers, staff, suppliers, shareholders and the communities in which the company operates.
Its embrace of the sustainability agenda is not dependent on nor driven by external regulatory factors. It has seamlessly integrated the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework into the company’s culture, and its corporate goals and visions are aligned with the UN SDGs from the company’s inception. Sunway views the ESG measurement and compliance framework as one of the more effective tools and a “means to an end” to achieve the UN SDGs.
Education and Research
By channelling funds into JCF, Tan Sri advances his causes to champion and advocate quality education and world-class research. Adopting a social enterprise model, the Foundation is the largest of its kind in promoting education in Malaysia. The Foundation has disbursed more than 618 million Malaysian ringgit (US$184.6 million) in scholarships as of 2022, and it is Tan Sri’s goal to give out more than RM1 billion in his lifetime.
Tan Sri, through the Foundation, gifted a total of US$20 million to the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UN SDSN), headed by the renowned Professor Jeffrey Sachs. The first tranche of the gift, totalling US$10 million, was disbursed between 2016 and 2021. A significant portion of the funds was used to establish the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development at Sunway University. The centre, chaired by Professor Jeffrey Sachs himself, is the only such entity in the region.
Tan Sri Dr Jeffrey Cheah AO with Professor Jeffrey Sachs
In 2020, the Foundation committed another US$10 million to the UN SDSN. The gift is being used to establish and fund the operations of the Asian headquarters of the UN SDSN at Sunway University, making it one of only three such global centres tasked with continent-wide sustainability initiatives. The other centres are in Paris, which oversees Europe and Africa, and New York City, which oversees the Americas.
In the latest sustainability initiative, the Foundation established the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University. The centre is working with the other institutions at Sunway University to advance the sustainability agenda in the region.
Net-Zero Commitment
Taking its commitment to the sustainability agenda one step further, Sunway has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. This is in line with the Malaysian government’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050, as outlined in the Twelfth Malaysia Plan.
Sunway Group is the first corporation in Malaysia and among the first in Southeast Asia to introduce a carbon pricing framework into its businesses. Sunway’s business divisions will work towards their decarbonisation targets. Business divisions that fail to meet these targets will be penalised by deducting an amount from their bonus pool. Between 2022 and 2024, prices will be set at RM15 per ton of carbon dioxide above a pre-defined threshold. This carbon price will be recalibrated progressively in subsequent years, sending a message to its internal stakeholders that they need to find solutions to cut carbon emissions – or pay the price.
To drive progress towards net zero by 2050, Sunway has set an interim target to halve emissions by 2030 (from 2010 as the base year, as per the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recommendations). From now until 2030, Sunway’s focus is to reduce residual emissions by improving efficiency and using energy substitution. However, to reach net zero by 2050, it plans to focus on using carbon offsets, such as carbon storage and capture, and investing in large-scale renewable energy. Sunway partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017 to research carbon capture, utilisation and storage technology (CCUS) to make it commercially viable.
Sunway Group is one of Southeast Asia’s leading conglomerates with core interests in real estate, construction, education, healthcare, retail and hospitality. With a presence in more than 50 locations worldwide, Sunway Group comprises 13 business divisions with a staff strength of 16,000 employees.
Sunway is committed to advancing the UN SDGs and aligning them with the group’s ESG targets as part of its corporate strategy and social responsibility towards driving its long-term success and deepening its commitment to nation-building.
Sunway’s deeply held core values of Integrity, Humility and Excellence ground its actions and strategies. Sunway upholds the right values to build a sustainable and progressive society. The emphasis on its core values is a key ingredient in Sunway being where it is today.
Photo by Dominik Vanyi on Unsplash.
