KUALA LUMPUR, 19 August 2022 – Malaysian Rubber Council (MRC) was selected as the Council of the Year for the Sustainability & CSR Malaysia Awards 2022 under the Excellence in Sustainability Reporting & CSR Initiatives category, organised by CSR Malaysia.
CSR Malaysia, a publication on social projects approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs aimed to share constant commitment of corporations in Malaysia towards the community at large and their inherent roles as change agents in the socio- economic transformation of the country. CSR Malaysia endeavours to promote sustainable economies by featuring Sustainability & CSR initiatives of corporations in Malaysia.
Selected by a panel of high-calibre judges represented by corporate and social bodies, MRC together with 49 Malaysian corporations namely Bank Rakyat, Astro Malaysia, Top Glove and Mah Sing to name a few, were honoured and recognised for their commitment to engage in sustainability efforts and at the same time reaching out to the underprivileged communities for the betterment of all Malaysians.
With the theme ‘Embracing Sustainability - Supporting Rural Community Development’, the judging criteria for this award included clear purpose and goals of the CSR programmes initiated as well as their impacts towards the community. The judges also took into considerations the number of sustainability and CSR activities held including the total amount of contributions given, transparency in reporting initiatives, creative implementation of the activities, strength of the team as well as the sincerity and effectiveness of each initiative.
“I am delighted to learn that MRC has been awarded as the Council of the Year and became amongst the organisations that were honoured for the incredible efforts in corporate sustainability and social responsibility arena to boost the socio-economic and environmental transformation for a better nation”, said Nor Hizwan Ahmad, CEO of MRC.
Since its establishment in 2021, MRC’s Sustainability Division was tasked to drive and advocate sustainability practices in the industry through various programmes and initiatives whichnot only focussing on COVID-19 assistance and helping the community to survive the pandemic safely, but also on balancing the sustainability impacts amongst all sectors, from upstream to downstream that led to a paradigm shift in the economy that challenged business progress and value creation.
Under the Sustainability Division, MRC’s sustainability and CSR initiatives were targeted not only to the community and the smallholders but to the industry players too, by focussing on gaps, issues, and challenges across Economic, Environmental, Social and Governance (EESG) aspects in the rubber industry value chain.
Amongst the programmes organised in providing assistance for the industry as well as the underprivileged community and families under the B40 category are Vaccination Programme for Agricommodity Sector, Bantuan Prihatin MRC, E- Learning Programme, Back to School Programme, Circular Economy Programme, MeRCu Character Building Programme and Women Empowerment Programme.
“As an agency under the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC), MRC always focusses on holistic and impactful sustainability initiatives, in line with the mission and objectives of MPIC as well as the rubber industry, in positioning Malaysia as a competitive agricommodity leader with high value and sustainable agricultural products in the global market,” added Nor Hizwan.
