10 corporate responsibility initiatives

100 Days of Christmas

_{71 days  to 100 years}

Some can’t choose what they eat — sometimes they have nothing to eat.

As a community of solvers, our partners and managers decided that we should give life to 100 days of Christmas via 100 feeding programs, especially for children in abject poverty.

Through 100 Days of Christmas, our firm, through our Corporate Responsibility volunteers and Isla Lipana & Co. Foundation, served over 100 communities (or more than 10,400 individuals) from October 2021 to January 2022.

We also extended help in the Visayas, which was ravaged by Typhoon Odette just before Christmas.

Their thank yous were both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Because we know we can do so much more. Because no one should go hungry.

Living and operating sustainably

_{72 days  to 100 years}

Taking care of the environment is a business imperative and the business community has a responsibility to act.

• Less paper, save trees: Tree planting, reduced paper usage through digital technology, buying paper made of responsibly sourced wood fiber and migrating hard copy publications to digital formats.
• Conserving energy: Earth Hour, lights turned off daily at the office for an hour at noon, use of natural light as much as possible, and unplugging and shutting down our laptops.
• Green Week every April leading to Earth Day, before the pandemic: Salad Fridays (climate change film showing over plant-based meals), upcycle workshops and Green Quiz to promote environmental awareness.
• Green Challenge (gamified eco-friendly habits) during the pandemic: conserving water during handwashing, one meatless meal a day, reusable cloth mask, reusable utensils and straws, repair and repurpose items, and reusing old bags for shopping.

In 2020, we joined the PwC network in its commitment to Net Zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030.

As the Dalai Lama said, “It is our collective and individual responsibility to preserve and tend to the world in which we all live.’

Battling the persistence of plastic

_{73 days  to 100 years}

The plastic bags that we use everyday take 10 – 20 years to break down, while plastic bottles take 450 years. They don’t biodegrade; rather, they break into increasingly smaller pieces that end up in oceans as microplastics. These are ingested by marine life and humans.

Knowing that, and with the Philippines as the third largest contributor of mismanaged plastic entering the ocean every year (approximately 750,000 metric tons), we committed to do something about it.

In 2020, we partnered with the Plastic Credit Exchange (PCX) to validate their processes and help companies in buying certified plastic credit to offset their plastic wastes.

PwC Philippines is also the Knowledge Partner of SM and PCX’s Plastic Waste Collection as part of our collective goal to promote sustainability, responsible solid waste management and the proper disposal of plastic waste among consumers and communities.

Plastic outlives us, and we must give the next generations a less polluted planet. Thus, we advocate plastic waste management.

To quote English broadcaster, writer and naturalist David Attenborough,“It’s surely our responsibility to do everything within our power to create a planet that provides a home not just for us, but for all life on Earth.”

Aiding communities to EMERGE from poverty

_{74 days  to 100 years}

Under the Management Association of the Philippines' (MAP) Inclusive Growth Committee is the Sub-Committee on EMERGE (Educated Marginalized Entrepreneurs Resource GEneration), a mentoring and financing program. It helps create new entrepreneurs out of educated individuals with financial challenges by guiding them towards realizing their entrepreneurial aspirations.

Through PwC Philippines, two notable social enterprises benefited from EMERGE:

• Ecosystems Works for Essential Benefits (ECOWEB) was able to buy more abaca fibers from their partner farmers, resulting in increased production and income by 300%. The enterprise’s area of coverage also grew from two to eight communities.
• Sentro ha Pagpauswag ha Panginabuhi, Inc. (SPPI) is a Samar-based social enterprise engaged in seaweed production, and in empowering Typhoon Haiyan-stricken communities through livelihood activities. It received a grant to construct two seaweed-drying facilities and buy six boats for seaweed farming. They were then able to sell more seaweed produce to a processing plant in Cebu.

We continue our advocacy to make social enterprises viable and impactful while being committed to their social objectives. We worked with the Singapore Management University for a design thinking activity with SEs, Ateneo Center for Social Enterprise (ACSEnt) for social enterprise roadshow in Cebu, Davao and Manila, and PhilDev for the Innovation for Social Impact Partnership (ISIP).

As the best-selling author Robert Kiyosaki said, “When times are bad is when the real entrepreneurs emerge.”

An unprecedented response to an unprecedented crisis

_{75 days  to 100 years}

The sustained impact of COVID-19 brought to fore our ability to respond to challenges and opportunities.

When the lockdowns started, we immediately distributed food packs, face masks, face shields and PPE sets to 13 hospitals across Metro Manila and Cavite. Donations were extended to other frontliners in other parts of the country.

We adopted a business unusual model where 30 special teams were assigned special functions to take care of our clients and exceed their expectations. With data subsidy and health tracker app, our teams were readily accessible by clients. And our digital transformation allowed us to go 100% work from home.

We took care of our PwC family. Since January 2020, we tracked cases in our firm, provided teleconsultation through our dedicated physician and HMO, helped secure vaccinations and testing services, created a healthy and safer workplace, and educated everyone on COVID-19.

We learned to be thankful for the gift of life and treat each day as a chance to inspire others to never give up on life.

It takes a village to build the “PwC Village”

_{76 days  to 100 years}

The widespread destruction brought about by typhoon ‘Haiyan’ in 2013 moved our firm to partner with Gawad Kalinga. We built the Isla Lipana Village for 20 families at Lawaan, Eastern Samar, a town that received very little help.

Donations for the shelter project poured in from our people and PwC offices abroad, enough to fund the housing and repair of schools in the area.

Our staff members and the local residents worked together to build houses that can withstand storms.

We crossed 770 kilometers from where we sit… to bring a village in Manila to build another village in Samar.

Stepping up during disasters

_{77 days  to 100 years}

Disaster response is an integral part of the firm’s CSR.

• When Typhoon Haiyan (Super Typhoon Yolanda) hit the country in 2013, we promptly mobilized our CSR team for relief operations with the massive support from our people and from the PwC network.
• In partnership with Philam Foundation, we helped rehabilitate more than 20 schools in typhoon-affected areas. They were given school chairs as well.
• In 2020, our people continued to be active in helping and sharing their resources during the Taal Volcano eruption, twin typhoons Rolly and Ulysses, and the health crisis.
• We are also a member of ARISE-Philippines and the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (PDRF). Both organizations promote disaster response and risk mitigation during calamities.

At PwC, we do whatever we can to help people and communities affected by catastrophic events, natural disasters and humanitarian crises.

Module of Hope for schoolers at home

_{78 days  to 100 years}

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Isla Lipana & Co. Foundation (Isla Lipana & Co.’s CSR arm) immediately pivoted from its flagship initiative, Seat of Hope, as the government implemented blended learning in schools. With students suddenly away from classrooms, the school chairs that we used to donate became less needed.

A lot of schools chose to implement printing modular distance learning, especially for those located in areas that have limited access to the internet and gadgets.

Through our Module of Hope project, we donate printers, toners and paper. To date, we have helped more than 50 public schools across the country in producing printed modules.

Not all can go digital at home. Thus, the Module of Hope.

Bringing hope, one chair at a time

_{79 days  to 100 years}

According to a Department of Education study, one of four (or 4.5 million) public school students nationwide has no chair to use at school.

To help students achieve a conducive learning environment in school, the Isla Lipana & Co. Foundation launched the Seat of Hope in 2010.

To date, we have donated more than 6,500 school chairs to public schools nationwide.

Isla Lipana & Co. Foundation is the CSR arm of Isla Lipana & Co./PwC Philippines.

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Nurturing future CPAs

_{80 days  to 100 years}

With the high rate of college dropouts, we responded by giving scholarships to less privileged but deserving Accountancy students.

The grant helps students with their school expenses, like books, transportation, boarding and review school enrolment fees.

The firm has been providing scholarships since 2007. This year, while still in the pandemic, we have admitted a roster of over 100 new scholars.

We also expanded the program to cover senior high school students.

Every child deserves a future.

Apply for scholarship