The country’s leading geothermal company, Energy Development Corporation (EDC) of the Lopez Group, has been elevated to the Anvil Awards’ prestigious Hall of Fame this year after winning five Gold Awards for its outstanding annual performance reports.
EDC’s five Gold Anvil awardees are truly exceptional annual reports deviating from the standard format for similar publication. The company’s yearly performance encompassing operational and financial results, as well as CSR, environmental management, and corporate governance achievements are presented using engaging narratives, vibrant photos and infographs, making it more interesting and reader-friendly.
The five annual reports that bagged Gold Anvils are A New Beginning (2007), Greenergized (2008), Values @ Work (2010), It’s Possible (2012) and Execute and Deliver (2014). The first two reports narrated EDC’s transition from being a government-owned-and-controlled corporation to being a publicly-listed and fully-privatized firm after its acquisition by the Lopez Group.
For the 2010 annual report, EDC integrated the company’s annual and sustainability performance following the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) sustainability reporting framework. It was the first Philippine report to be certified as fully compliant with the GRI framework. Using the GRI framework has enabled the company to benchmark its performance against global best practices as it measured its economic, environmental, and social impact. This and all succeeding reports were externally assured by a panel of experts in sustainability.
In 2013, EDC released its first GRI level A+ report entitled “It’s Possible.” It was rated A+ by the GRI for the company’s disclosure on all relevant key performance indicators using the Electric Utilities Sector Supplement for sustainability reporters. This report garnered the fourth Gold Anvil for EDC.
EDC’s fifth Gold Anvil Award was bestowed on its 2014 performance report, “Execute and Deliver,” which reported not only on the company’s record high recurring net income of P9.3 billion but also on its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance.
“We recognize that integrated annual and sustainability reporting is an emerging global trend that allows us to give our stakeholders a holistic view of our performance. Using the GRI framework paved the way for us to tell our sustainability story in a systematic manner that reflects how we continuously manage the resources that we measure each year,” EDC President and COO Richard Tantoco said.
These performance reports also narrate the annual progress of EDC’s BINHI greening legacy and its CSR program named HELEn (Health, Education, Livelihood, and Environment). Through BINHI, EDC reforests 1,000 hectares each year and brings back to abundance vanishing indigenous tree species. Just last year, EDC was able to identify and rescue all of its 96 flagship premium, endangered native tree species under its BINHI Tree for the Future program. Meanwhile, EDC continuously empowers its primary partner barangays through HELEn to ensure that they grow in pace with the company.
The BINHI Tree for the Future project also bagged a Gold Anvil in this year’s Anvil Awards under the Specialized PR Program category.
Organized by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP), the Anvil Awards is considered the Oscars of public relations (PR) in the country. The Gold Anvil is given to outstanding public relations programs and tools that meet the highest standards set in its category. PR programs and tools that have won five Gold Anvil Awards for the same category are elevated to the Hall of Fame.
EDC CFO Nestor Vasay and EDC VP for Finance Erwin Avante (3rd and 4th from left) receive the Anvil Hall of Fame for the EDC annual reports and Anvil Gold Award BINHI Tree for the Future project. L-R: Anvil chair Rochelle Gamboa, EDC Corporate Communications Specialist Frances Ariola, Nestor Vasay, Erwin Avante, EDC CSR Program Specialist Ronino Gibe, EDC CSR Head Tracy Peralta, EDC Corporate Communications Specialist Ivy Henson, EDC Corporate Communications Head Toni Nieva and PRSP President Ron Jabal.
The Energy Development Corporation (EDC) is a pioneer in generating 100% clean, renewable, and reliable power as an electricity supplier in the Philippines for over 40 years. With power plants all over Visayas and Mindanao, the company is one of the biggest producers of geothermal energy in Asia and is expanding its reach in the international market, allowing it to offer customers affordable energy rates. EDC also strives to provide the best customer service it can to all its clients by having helpful salespeople and easy to understand contracts. Because of all of this, it is poised to become the premier supplier of electricity for the Philippines’ Green Energy Option Program. EDC takes its mission as a renewable energy provider seriously and goes beyond sustainability by investing in programs that enhance the environment and empower its partner communities, thereby fostering regenerative development. The company has also been working toward being carbon-neutral by improving its energy efficiency, as well as implementing various greening projects to ensure that its mission to provide future generations with a better life remains intact.