Sunway Group, Mah Sing, Mondelez International and Canon Marketing Sdn Bhd share how they aided and benefited communities with community improvement projects.
Though Sunway Group’s main core of business has always been education and healthcare, yet in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, it has step up its community enrichment programmes in order to aid those badly affected by the pandemic.
In an interview with CSR Malaysia, Bernard Paul Netto, General Manager of Sunway Group said that they have heighten their community initiative as they found out many are facing hardships as many have found themselves retrenched.
“One of the biggest programmes this year is ‘Sunway Food Bank’ where we encourage our staffs, our stakeholders to come forward to donate groceries to our malls so that we can distribute them to the needy through NGOs.”
Bernard added that by doing this, people have an avenue where those who wish to donate groceries can have a platform to do so and vice versa.
Similarly, Mah Sing organises programmes that will yield long-term benefits for the community by building infrastructure for poor villages.
According to Lyanna Tew, Sr. General Manager for Strategic Communications, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability for Mah Sing said that they do not provide monetary donations to poor villages, but instead create sustainable projects where people can benefit from.
“We have been helping some village communities in Sabah where they do not have the means to earn a stable income. So in 2019, we worked with an NGO to start a mushroom farming and the monies are channelled to the project.”
“We also helped 5 villages in Sabah to get running water. These kinds of projects can only be done in certain areas where the water is source from a higher ground to a lower ground and is situated in a hilly area,” Tew added.
In addition, Raja Zalina Raja Safran of Mondelez International told CSR Malaysia that they have been innovating their products, making sure that it is right for people as well as the planet.
The Head of Corporate and Government Affairs said that their CSR’s sustainability initiatives have been focusing on the environment, sustainable ingredient, sustainable packaging and social impact.
“We must be responsible for our brands, which include Cadbury, Oreo, Toblerone, and Jacobs.”
“Consumers will be looking for brands, not only for the quality but also where and how the products are being produced.” Zalina told CSR during the Sustainability and CSR Malaysia Awards 2020.
Sharing the same sentiments, Andrew Koh, President and CEO of Canon Marketing Sdn Bhd said that Canon does not only focus on reaping profits, but also to ensure that they contribute back to the society.
“We want to make sure that not just our employees, but also the societies get something in return, be it in education, environment and so on.”
