Sustainability – The Business Imperative

On July 5, AMCHAM kicked off its Sustainability Week with the webinar on Sustainability – The Business Imperative. This first entry featured two panel discussions Corporate Governance, Compliance & Business Ethics and Sustainability – It Starts with Company Culture both going into what companies can and are doing in regards to practice of sustainable business.

Naeem Shahab Khan, Managing Director of Philip Morris (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and provided the opening address and spoke about the how the corporate culture has changed and the role of sustainable corporate culture came into effect.

The first panel featured Mohd. Zaki Jalil, Senior Facilities Manager, STMicroelectronics, Sujatha Sekhar Naik, Managing Partner & Principal, SSN Consult Plt. Avinash Satwalekar, Country Head/ CEO, Franklin Templeton Malaysia, moderated by Tunku Alina Alias, Council Member, Climate Governance Malaysia. In this discussion, the panelists shared their experiences on what the nature of corporate sustainability is and the role of governance and compliance leads to the sustainable outcome.

The second panel featured Balan Shanmuganathan, Senior Director – Sustainability, Seagate Technology Malaysia, Antony Lee, Chief Executive Officer, AIG Malaysia, Datin Mina Cheah-Foong, Managing Director, The Body Shop, moderated by Chitra Hepburn, Head of ESG, APAC, MSCI Inc. In this session, panelists shared their journeys on how their respective companies worked towards achieving sustainable corporate practices and the challenges faced along the way.

The first entry in AMCHAM’s Sustainability Week was a great start, special thanks to all our event partners Philip Morris Malaysia, Accenture and First Solar for supporting this week and to our speakers and moderators for an insightful discussion. Look forward to more of these events throughout this week.