How Philippine companies help themselves with helping the society?

Currently, the Philippines is facing a number of social dilemmas and the major ones are corruption, poverty, poor education system, and low employment rates. According to CNN Philippines, Pulse Asia’s survey shows that the Aquino administration’s highest responsibilities are in calamity response, environmental protection, and defending territorial integrity. This is contradicting to what the Filipinos are highly concerned about which are inflation control, higher pay, and corruption. (Click HERE for the full article from CNN Philippines)

Philippine companies that embraces CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) may not be the permanent solution to these problems but they would be influential to the various aspects of society. Other countries recognize our nation to be one of the most progressing states, however we continue to see homeless, starving, and penniless Filipinos. Worst of all, the number maintains to increase.

Primary companies should be leading programs which promotes the development of our country and its people. Here are my personal suggestions to these companies on how can they benefit both themselves and the society.

1. Innovate on sustainability

One good example would be Petron’s effort to reduce Greenhous Gas emissions and water consumption, which lead to a significant cost savings for the company in 2013. This is the same with Unilever where they developed shampoos and conditioner which consumes less water compared to other brands.

2. Funding education programs

A number of companies nowadays contribute to our public institutions which promotes quality education that can lead to scholarships in prestigious universities. It benefits the company in such a way that these children can be the future business leaders of the company. For instance, Monster Scholar program of the Monster Radio RX 93.1 gives opportunity to a student with great potential to enter college and earn a degree. Since this radio station targets students, particularly college students, this would earn them the publicity so that more students would be listening to their programs.

3. Promoting the environment

Similar to Petron, technology companies come into play when it comes to environment such as Smart Telecommunications. Smart has launched the use of wind and solar energy to power more than a hundred sites nationwide including remote areas. This would benefit Smart in such a way that it has reduced cost and more potential subscribers in rural areas.

There are a lot of ways wherein these local companies can promote the welfare of our country. Someday, it would find a way to influence our government to stop the number one problem - corruption.