Taylor’s Education Group is leveraging its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Festival 6.0 to move sustainability conversations beyond the boardroom and into a more experiential format designed to encourage wider engagement and reflection.
Held under the theme “Food for Thought”, the event combined dialogue, dining and immersive storytelling, anchored by a central question: “Are we solving the right problem?”
The platform brought together leaders from governance, finance, urban development, sustainability, and social impact sectors to examine how ESG is being translated into practice across industries. Among the speakers were Ong Jee Lian, Group Chief Sustainability & Communications Officer of Gamuda Berhad, Datin Seri Sunita Rajakumar, Founder and Chairperson of Climate Governance Malaysia, Anita Ahmad, Chief Executive Officer of Yayasan MySDG, and Bea Camacho, Director of IDEO Consulting Southeast Asia, with Professor Dr Ong Kian Ming moderating the session.
A key theme that emerged throughout the discussion was the gap between reporting and impact. Panellists explored whether sustainability is genuinely integrated into business models and community development, the role of developers in shaping sustainable communities, and the importance of board-level accountability in driving real ESG outcomes.
Building on previous ESG Festivals, this year’s edition also served as a progress checkpoint on the Group’s sustainability journey, highlighting how earlier commitments are being translated into action.
The focus has shifted from discussion to implementation — from strengthening governance and data capabilities to understanding how different institutions are aligning sustainability efforts in real time.
Against this backdrop, Dr May Wong, Head of Group Sustainability Office at Taylor’s Education Group, and Karl Engkvist, President of Taylor’s Education Pte Ltd and Co-Chair of ESG at Taylor’s Education Group, sat down with BusinessToday to share an update on the progress since the last festival, particularly in measurement, coordination and student engagement.
On the institutional side, Dr Wong said the Group has already rolled out an ESG dashboard across its institutions and is now focused on establishing a reliable baseline.
“We are very close to completing that process. Once we do, we will begin discussing areas such as our decarbonisation pathway plans,” she said.
She added that they are deliberately pacing targets.
“We are focusing over the next two years on strengthening our ESG governance, data capabilities and reporting foundations across the Group as we prepare for Malaysia’s National Sustainability Reporting Framework requirements in 2027,” she said. “It is important that any targets or commitments we set are tangible, authentic and supported by credible data.”
Karl said one of the ongoing challenges is alignment across a diverse group of institutions.
“As each institution operates with a significant degree of autonomy, aligning priorities and perspectives naturally require times and coordination,” he said, noting that this structure also allows campuses to test sustainability ideas that are relevant to their own communities.
He added that student interest is becoming a stronger driver of ESG efforts, with younger learners wanting to understand how their actions and their schools can positively impact the climate, while university students are paying closer attention to how sustainability connects to future careers.
Karl also pointed to the Group’s collaboration with Gamuda Land through Lexel International School as an example of how sustainability can be reflected through community development and expanded access to affordable, future-focused international education. A second Lexel campus is scheduled to open at Gamuda Cove this September following strong demand at its inaugural campus in Gamuda Gardens.
Beyond the discussions, the festival also featured hands-on sustainability experiences, including an upcycled dining collaboration with Saving Graze, a youth dialogue on climate anxiety and career uncertainty, an Impact Bazaar highlighting community-led sustainability initiatives, as well as creative showcases such as immersive storytelling and music performance and a waste-to-fashion showcase developed under the Denim Project in collaboration with refugee participants and Taylor’s University.
Group Executive Chairman Dato’ Loy Teik Ngan said the ESG Festival reflects a broader effort to embed sustainability into everyday practice rather than treating it as a standalone initiative.
“Sustainability and responsible practices cannot exist as parallel initiatives, but must instead be reflected through everyday decisions, institutional culture, and the experiences we create across our campuses and communities.
We recognise meaningful progress requires long-term commitment, collective responsibility, and a willingness to continuously evaluate if the systems we build today will create lasting impact for tomorrow,” he said.
For Taylor’s Education Group, the focus is no longer solely on raising awareness, but on embedding sustainability into decision-making, operations and institutional culture across its 11 operating divisions in Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, spanning higher education, K-12 schools and properties.
