SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), the holding firm of the Sy family, on Thursday said it signed a commitment to support the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to ensure its businesses meet global sustainability targets.
“We recognize the material role we play in the Philippines. We understand our responsibilities and we commit to using the TCFD recommendations to be part of the solution to climate change,” Frederic C. DyBuncio, SMIC president and CEO said during the virtual roundtable discussion on climate-related financial disclosure organized by the Climate Change Commission.
The said task force is a globally recognized set of recommendations by the Financial Stability Board and is one of the frameworks recommended by the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission on environmental, social and corporate governance reporting.
SMIC joins more than 2,300 supporters in demonstrating a commitment to building a more resilient financial system and safeguarding against climate risk through better disclosures.
The adoption of these recommendations helps for more effective climate-related disclosures as these could promote more informed investments and in turn could enable stakeholders to better understand the financial system’s exposures to climate-related risks, the company said.
SM said it has taken the agenda of climate change as an integral part of its business strategy and how this creates lasting value for all its stakeholders, identifying United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action as one of its focus.
Its climate action strategy advances two priorities that go hand-in-hand: resilience to equip its stakeholders and host communities for climate emergencies and sustainability to help mitigate the climate crisis, the company said.
Through SM’s leadership role in UN ARISE, the private sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies, it calls for a collective effort to incorporate disaster resilience as a core strategy of its business.
SMIC said it allocates 10 percent of its capital expenditures to disaster resiliency and sustainability in the design of its malls and other developments. This includes water catchment facilities which reduce flooding in neighboring communities; science-based designs such as its SM City Marikina mall that sits on 246 stilts to enable it to withstand water level rise; and building the 60-hectare SM Mall of Asia complex 4.5 meters above mean lower low water level, among others.
“For a business to be able to continue to grow and last for many years, it’s very important that it supports the community in a sustainable way. In the end, it’s the community and the environment that sustains the high growth of our businesses,” DyBuncio said.
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