Under the global community’s promise to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), many initiatives have been developed that over the long-term aim to make the world a better place. Even small steps can evolve to shape the new world.
Asset World Corp Public Company Limited (AWC), Thailand’s leading integrated lifestyle real-estate group, has developed initiatives which may be small in scale but their impacts are immense.
AWC is committed to sustainable business operations that follow both national and international frameworks and adhere to creating value in all dimensions and prioritise every step of the business from the start to delivering value to its stakeholders. It formulates and describes sustainability strategies utilising AWC’s sustainability policy as a guideline and material issues as comprehensive information of the corporate risks and opportunities.
The company has developed a 2020-2025 strategic plan to outline three clear operational frameworks to foster AWC’s sustainable development.
The Sustainability Framework and Goals have been acquired with a comprehensive concept to navigate the company’s engagement in the three pillars and six dimensions of sustainability: climate strategy, circular economy, human capital development, occupational health and safety, social and community integration, and value creation.
Mrs. Wallapa Traisorat, Chief Executive Officer and President of AWC, said that the efforts to achieve the sustainable development framework are done under the inspiration of 3BETTERs, which are Better Planet, Better People and Better Prosperity, with a mission to “Build a Better Future”.
BETTER PLANET aims to transition toward carbon neutrality and circular economy business operations from planning, construction, management, and administration processes. It collaborates with partners to integrate the international framework into the project development in accordance with green building standards.
Secondly, BETTER PEOPLE includes the development to enhance occupational health and safety operations in the organisation. It also involves cooperation with local communities to enhance knowledge and career development to generate sustainable income through “The GALLERY”, a project that provides a marketplace to feature products created by Thai artists in the local community. AWC intends to invite partners and communities to contact “The GALLERY” to feature more artistic creations as a distribution channel, reaching customers around the world.
And finally, BETTER PROSPERITY plans corporate strategies in line with the National Economic and Social Development Plan. Through investment and management of various real estate projects of AWC, building more careers for people, generating income for communities and local businesses, creating more value and strong ecosystems to elevate Thailand as a global sustainable tourism destination and promote the country’s exponential economic growth.
Under the mission of “Build a Better Future”, Mrs. Wallapa said that another step the company has taken is to join hands with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) to drive sustainable tourism and empower the country as a “Global Sustainable Tourism Destination”.
TAT is in the process of establishing a new standard framework to support sustainable tourism and aims to invite and support entrepreneurs in the Thai tourism industry to join this collaboration in accordance with the framework of sustainable tourism development. This will be the foundation for Thailand to become a global sustainable tourism destination in a concrete and quality way in accordance with international standards in the future.
“AWC recognises the importance of sustainable tourism and is pleased to join forces with TAT and partners across the value chain to drive sustainable tourism, elevating Thailand as a global sustainable travel destination, and ‘Building a Better Future‘ for the country. AWC, working with partners from all sectors and international hotel chains, aims to bring all properties to TAT’s new standard certification in the sustainable tourism category,” she said.
She noted that AWC has cooperated with TAT in driving and being a centre for all entrepreneurs to build sustainable value in tourism together.
It also shares sustainability goals with private sector partners, leading financial institutions and international hotel chains such as Marriott, Banyan Tree, Okura, Hilton, IHG and Melia.
They all emphasise the importance of sustainable tourism to drive Thailand’s sustainable economic growth alongside its ongoing projects for long-term sustainability.
Meanwhile, TAT is confident that the mutual cooperation can drive sustainable tourism, especially an effort to enhance the “sustainable tourism” standard. It has aimed to be a synergy centre to support Thai entrepreneurs to operate sustainably and set new standards for them in line with the SDGs. Such a sustainable development framework has put a focus on the environmental dimension, community economy and local culture to promote Thailand as a global sustainable tourism destination.
To strengthen its strong position of the 3BETTERs, AWC has recently launched the “AWC Alliances for Better Future” project to drive its mission of “Building a Better Future”, under close cooperation with its two key partners: Ikigai, an expert in food chain sustainability with a creative business model from upstream to downstream, and Scholars of Sustenance Foundation (SOS Thailand), the first food rescue foundation to manage and reduce food waste through the donation of quality surplus food to the community.
The project is under the circular economy concept to drive food and surplus food management to maximise the benefits while creating holistic value for the environment, society and local communities.
Mrs. Wallapa said that the company would like to enhance the strength of, and comprehensively expand, the food chain management of the company’s hospitality business, which includes aims to move forward to long-term sustainable growth and to elevate Thailand to become a global sustainability destination.
She added that food waste has long been an issue in the community, which the company is committed to improving through the development of food management projects in AWC affiliated hotels. This includes The Athenee Hotel, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Bangkok, which was the first hotel in the world to receive the 100 percent All-Star award from The PLEDGE on Food Waste after it reduced food waste in accordance with UN standards. In addition, Hilton Sukhumvit Bangkok received the Food Waste Hero Excellence Award 2021 from SOS Thailand.
“We would like to invite partners who share the same values to join together for ‘Building a Better future’ under the project as we do believe in the alliances’ power in creating robust sustainability management. Through this, they are helping tackle the problems caused by discarding large amounts of food waste. The project has also underlined the company’s commitment to reduce waste-to-landfill from its operations to zero by 2030,” she said.
Quality surplus food will be donated to communities and underprivileged groups in Bangkok, Phuket, Hua Hin, and Chiang Mai, while other food waste will be used as animal feed and composting.
In cooperation with AWC, SOS Thailand has delivered surplus food to 178 local communities, with 158,580 meals to create equal access to quality food for people. Meanwhile, by 2025, SOS Thailand aims to deliver 40 million meals from surplus food to local communities, supported by AWC, which is committed to expanding their food management operations to all hotels under AWC located in Bangkok and expanding to their retail properties.
AWC has also committed to implementing its sustainable development strategy throughout its operations and projects. The Athenee Hotel Bangkok, for example, is the first hotel in the world to be certificated ISO 20121, a sustainable management standard.
Currently, AWC’s portfolio consists of 19 hospitality, 9 retail, 4 commercial and 2 wholesale businesses, totalling 34 projects. There are 15 new projects under development, including the InterContinental Chiang Mai Mae Ping Hotel and INNSIDE Bangkok Sukhumvit. These projects are being constructed under green building standards and have received EDGE certification. They will be open by first half of 2023.
AWC’s other projects that will meet the green building standard include Aquatique the Beachfront Pattaya that aims to achieve LEED certification by 2026, while the extension of Asiatique The Riverfront Destination aims to achieve LEED & WELL certification by 2029.
AWC continues to operate under the framework of sustainable development and has been involved in Sustainability Indexes at both national and international levels, listed on the Thailand Sustainability Investment (THSI) of The Stock Exchange of Thailand for a second consecutive year, rated AA in the MSCI ESG Ratings and listed in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2022 as a member in the Hotels, Resorts & Cruise Lines subindustry index, rated “Excellence CG Scoring” in the Corporate Governance Report and certified by the Thai Private Sector Collective Action Against Corruption (CAC).
