Sustainability for Business Forum Highlights
The 3rd Multi-Chamber Sustainability for Business Forum was held on Thursday 30th May at the newly opened Mövenpick BDMS Wellness Resort.
Over 200 participants attended the half day event designed to engage and empower businesses in integrating sustainability in their organizations, infrastructure, supply chains and operations.
The Sustainability for Business Forum offered participants discussions and presentations arranged in 5 tracks on the topics of Green Energy Transition, Pollution & Waste Management, Education at the Workplace, Health & Well-being and Sustainable Events and Marketing.
The event was co-presided by Ambassador of the French Republic, H.E. Mr. Jacques Lapouge and Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, H.E. Mr. Kees Rade, who delivered a compelling speech on the need for climate action in the opening ceremony.
In her opening speech, Armelle Le Bihan, co-chair of The Multi Chamber Sustainability Committee and director of the Sustainability for Business Forum, expressed her enthusiasm to see a growing number of participants year on year.
"We are gathered here because we recognize that sustainability creates business value."
Indeed, an increasing number of executives are vouching for responsible businesses and driven by purposes to solve local and global issues within the core of their business.Speakers, exhibitors and attendees from diverse industries came together to share valuable insights and expertise of some of the hottest business sustainability topics of our time. We talked circular economy, renewable energy, waste to wealth, plastic pollution, healthy workplaces, smart cities, green buildings, digital transition, air quality and many more. Topics were adressed tranversally, from operations, supply chains and infrastruture to governance, shareholder impact and human resources.
"The sustainability for business forum is designed as a platform to create a business case for sustainability and demonstrate that managing our impact on the planet and people is everything but a trade-off for business performance."
The projects and initiatives showcased have once again demonstrated the undeniable business case for sustainability.
Green Energy
The first track focused on #green #energy and explored innovative strategies and technology advances for renewable energy generation, energy efficiency solutions, low carbon and smart technologies.
The session started with a panel discussion on Green Energy Transition in ASEAN which was joined by Hein Oomen, Head of APAC Solar at Engie, Ugo Bernal, Senior Business Development Manager at Symbior Solar and Anuluk Janyao, EHS Superviser at SIG Combibloc.
"How to conserve economic growth of an industry and comply with sustainability? Solar."
- Ugo Bernal, Senior Business Development Manager at Symbior Solar
The session was followed by two duo presentations:
Responsible Innovations by Proud Limpongpan, Chief Strategy Officer of Ennovie and Mr. Seow Boon Cheng from Genisys.
Smart Factory Estates by Mr. Pongsakorn Limpakarnwech, Business Development Section Manager at Amata Corporation PCLA and Jotaro IGARASHI, GM, Business Development Department at Hitachi High-tech.
Pollution & Waste
The second track put the light on #pollution and #waste management. The track highlighted successful stories for responsible sourcing, reduced embodied energy and water use of products, resource efficient manufacturing processes, sustainable packaging and distribution, pollution prevention and waste to wealth innovations.
To start off the session, a discussion was led on Plastic Pollution Prevention Across the Value Chain which was animated by Johanna Hector, Sustainability Communications from Starboard, Dr. Vincent Aloysius CEO of Ecocycle - SCC and Maggie Lee, Business Engagement at WWF.
This was followed by a duo presentation on Air Pollution Monitoring and Management by Patrice Pischeda, Asia Managing Director of ACOEM and Mr. Thalearngsak Petchsuwan, Deputy Director of the Pollution Control Department (PCD).
Education at the Workplace
The third room looked at how companies successfully supported their employees facing new challenges like digital and sustainability transitions, the need of being innovative and difficulties to acquire professional knowledge.
The track was initiated by a discussion on Digital and Sustainable Transition which was joined by Tithaphong Phongsphetrarat, Head of strategy and Sustainability of Somboon Advance Technology and Ines Caldeira , Managing Director of L'Oreal Thailand.
The session was followed by two duo presentations:
- Employees learning by playing by Maik Fuellmann, CEO of QuizzBizz and David Perrot, CEO of Crepes & Co.
- A culture of innovations by Jean-Francois Cousin, Global Executive Coach of 1-2-WIN and Patrick Epler, CEO of North Star Digital.
Health & Wellbeing
Track 4 looked at employees' #health and #wellbeing and addressed how companies can improve dramatically the #physical #environment of their #employees, create a #culture of well being and help employees monitor their #health and stress.
A panel discussion on healthy working environments elaborated by Andre Young, HR Director Thailand & Laos of Schneider, Electric, Slawomir Szpunar, International Marketing Director at Saint Gobain and Jack Ang, Regional Director of Markant.
"When you look at sustainability, basically it comes down to staying in business and keeping those people employed in your business."
- Richard Jones, Senior Vice President of Indorama Ventures
The session was then articulated in two duo presentations:
-Corporate Wellness Management by Bree Creaser, VP operation of Accor and Jonathan Godot co-founder of Fitdao.
-Monitoring of Employees Health by Priya Ranjan, Director of AIA Vitality and Martine Chaillet, Co-Founder of EARise and Brice Degeyter, General Manager of Power Buy.
Executive Panel on Sustainability as a Corporate Strategy
Did you know that 97% of CEOs believe that sustainability is important to the future success of their business?
"Currently almost 80% of our revenues comes from sustainable products."
- Arnon Kulawongvanich, Managing Director of Signify (Philips)
The day concluded with an Executive Panel which was joined by key industry leaders who are putting sustainability at the forefront of their corporate strategy: Richard Jones, Senior Vice President of Indorama Ventures, Khun Arnon Kulawongvanich, Managing Director of Signify (Philips) and Lars Svensson, Sustainability and Communication Director of IKEA discussed how their companies have integrated sustainability transversally within their organizations and how this corporate strategy translates into tangible business value.
"I just want to say that sustainability is a way to enable good business."
- Lars Svensson, Sustainability and Communication Director of IKEA
Green Services, Products and Business Networking
Exhibitors of sustainability service providers and product suppliers exposed innovative and effective solutions to empower participants' businesses. The event was finalized by a networking cocktail where attendees had the opportunity to connect with relevant sustainability partners and providers.
TCEB, Our Strategic Partner
The Multi-Chamber Sustainability Committee, organiser of the event has collaborated this year with TCEB as a Strategic Partner for Sustainable Event in the objective of showcasing the Forum as sustainable from an event, comunication and logistics perspective as well.
“TCEB is pleased to join hands with FTCC and Foreign Chambers in Thailand to create awareness on sustainable events among international companies in Thailand."
- Ms. Supawan Teerarat, TCEB Senior Vice President
In the Press
Watch Varin Sachdev's piece on the event aired on The Nomad World Today show.
More press features:
· https://youtu.be/J87epLY3qZQ
· https://youtu.be/E4DT2fSozAg
· https://youtu.be/twoRdGoEzi4
To be informed about the next event, inquire speaking, exhibitor or sponsor opportunities, please contact us directly by sending an email at contact.greenbuilding@gmail.com
About the Committee Directors
Henri de Reboul and Armelle Le Bihan are the co-chairs of the Multi Chamber Sustainability Committee and directors of the Sustainability for Business Forum. Together, and in partnership with the FTCC and NTCC, they have created, designed and lead yearly this event, the only business event in Bangkok dedicated to integrating sustainability in business organizations, infrastructure and operations.Their combined expertise on environmental and social sustainability and strong business acumen has been put to work to curate inspiring and empowering content and present key leaders' successful initiatives in the ASEAN region. Their objective is to make the Sustainability for Business Forum a place for companies executives and managers to share and learn from the best innovations and achievements in sustainability which contribute to improving significantly companies image, employee attraction and engagement, productivity and profitability.
About the Sustainability for Business Forum
The mission of this forum is to shed the light on business practitioners who have create business value while improving their impact on people and the planet.
This yearly half day gathering is a real opportunity for business practitioners to get inspired by leading sustainable initiatives and projects in Asia, to connect with relevant sustainability potential partners and service providers and empower their businesses with innovative and effective strategies driven by economic, environmental and social performance.
The event is designed and managed by the Multi-Chamber Sustainability Committee with the support of the Franco-Thai Chamber of Commerce (FTCC) and Netherlands-Thai Chamber of Commerce (NTCC) as organiziers and in partnership with The Belgian-Luxembourg/Thai Chamber of Commerce (BeLuThai), CanCham Thailand, Danish – Thai Chamber of Commerce (DanCham), German-Thai Chamber of Commerce (GTCC) European Association for Business and Commerce (EABC), Thai – Swedish Chamber of Commerce (SweCham), Thai – Finnish Chamber of Commerce (TFCC), Thai-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce (NorCham) and Sasin Sustainability & Entrepreneurship Center (SEC).
Event Website: https://www.connect2sustainability.com
