In the face of a potential climate disaster, businesses today have no choice but to respond to the need for greater sustainability, says Tengku Muhammad Taufik, chairperson of the Steering Committee of the CEO Action Network (CAN) and President and Group CEO of PETRONAS.
“This unprecedented period presents many untapped opportunities to develop and offer new solutions to the market that will contribute positively to society and the environment. Progress in this area will require collective and transformative action from all stakeholders.
“These must be actions that enable the shaping of a policy-driven environment that prompts collective efforts to develop solutions towards a more sustainable future. This is where CAN hopes to play a role. CAN offers a unique platform for CEOs to deliberate on the material issues shaping the future survival and growth of their businesses, while providing motivation to take definitive action to combat systemic issues.
“The immediate outcomes of the collective commitments should lead the way in orchestrated action towards positive change,” he says.
CAN is the first sustainability-focused informal coalition of leading CEOs and senior decision-makers in the country. It announced today its collective environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) commitments will be achieved by 2023 ahead of the global COP26 meeting in Glasgow in November.
The commitments which were made official during CAN’s first-anniversary event will be critical to enabling the country to achieve a Net Zero future, and will also be pivotal to accomplishing the aspirations of Malaysia’s Shared Prosperity Vision by 2030.
With close to 50 CEOs and senior decision-makers representing over 20 sectors in Malaysia, CAN members have made 14 commitments to be achieved by the member organisations under three categories, namely environment, people and governance, with three progressive levels of commitment for each category.
