Central Retail, Thailand’s leading retail company with global standard has been committed to advance our business to become an organization that progresses with sustainability, in line with the theme “The Next Frontier of Growth” and the context of generating value together with all stakeholders to drive the business with all relevant sectors to grow stronger together in the same direction, considering the dimensions of ESG, namely Environment, Social, and Governance and Economic. These three aspects have been incorporated harmoniously into the principles of business management that the Company has always adhered to.
The result of our commitment in operating our business on the path towards sustainable development, fostering strong corporate culture, building firm mindset in being aware of the impact in all dimensions, as well as laying down the strategy to promote and initiate various work directions that are beneficial in pursuing sustainability in every step of our work, is the CRC ReNEW strategy. The strategy aims to stipulate the net zero emissions target for greenhouse gas emission by 2050. In the past year, CRC aimed to reduce greenhouse gases through the use of renewable energy such as installation of solar cells on the roofs of over 80 department stores, and the use of electric vehicles in our logistics system, as well as installation of EV charging stations to facilitate and promote the use of EVs among customers. Besides these, the Company has put a lot of emphasis on waste management through the application of circular economy principles in the Journey to Zero project that aims at supporting activities to reduce waste by installing food waste digester which compost food waste into fertilizer and biogas, upcycling products to reduce waste and create values, as well as promoting and changing the behavior of all stakeholders in a positive way.
In terms of society, the Company emphasizes equality by being committed to reduce inequality in various aspects, focusing on creating and spreading revenue to communities, especially communities around our businesses. This is in accordance with our intention to develop every communities that we conduct businesses in a sustainable manner together with the Company. We also aim to uplift the wellbeing of persons with disabilities through enabling the disabled to earn income which will in turn allow them to live happy life. With this commitment, the Company has received an Award of Excellence for Supporting People with Disabilities from the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, for three consecutive years. Central Retail also received an Award of Excellence as a model organization in the Thai capital market on support people with disabilities, given for the first year, from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In terms of governance, the Company values good management and good corporate governance. The Company has been operating with transparency, accountability, and measures to prevent corruption and robust punishments for offenders. These are aimed at maintaining the confidence and trust that all stakeholders have given to the Company. To this end, the Company has been endorsed as a member of the Thai Private Sector Collective Action Against Corruption: CAC and in 2022, received several prizes in good corporate governance. These include receiving “Excellent” ranking or “5 Stars” rating for two consecutive years, being in the Top Quartile of the listed companies with market capitalization of higher than 10,000 million baht from the Corporate Governance Report for Thai Listed Companies (CGR), receiving an ASEAN CG Scorecard with the type ASEAN Asset Class PLCs which was given to the listed companies with the score of 97.50 and above from the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard project in 2021 in which the announcement was made in the late 2022. Moreover, the Company is still committed to manage risks from various factors that may challenge the Company in line with the changing situations in order to protect the highest interest of all stakeholders to its full potential.
Given our approach and principles that have stressed sustainable development, Central Retail has been selected to become a member of DJSI in the Emerging Markets group. This is considered an expansion of success in being the first model organization for retail trading on Green & Sustainable Retail, based on its work that has sought to balance the three dimensions namely the Environment, Social, and Governance and Economic (ESG) and the CRC ReNEW which seeks to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 through fostering the organizational culture and mindset on sustainable development among every level of employees.
All of these form an important set of context in conducting businesses under the overall integration of the strategy for sustainable development, by growing together with all stakeholders.