One Meralco has marked a significant milestone in its sustainability journey with the successful planting of over two million trees across the country as the world celebrates Earth Day 2023.
A total of 2,037,450 trees have been planted and nurtured in different parts of the country under the One for Trees environmental advocacy program led by One Meralco Foundation (OMF), the corporate social responsibility arm of Meralco.
According to OMF President and Meralco Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer Jeffrey O. Tarayao, the successful planting and nurturing of over two million trees are a testament to the power of grassroots partnerships to impact lasting change.
“One for Trees goes beyond reforestation and embraces sustainability by working with communities to ensure that the trees they plant will also benefit their own families,” Tarayao said.
The One for Trees program, Tarayao explained, advocates multi-dimensional sustainable solutions to address reforestation and environmental protection, and conservation in the Philippines while empowering communities through economic and social development.
RAISING AWARENESS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. Meralco employees join a tree planting activity in Siniloan, Laguna as part of the One for Trees program of the One Meralco Foundation. The One for Trees program recently marked a significant milestone with two million trees planted across the country.
Since its launch in 2019, One for Trees has contributed to a greener future in different parts of the country including Bohol, Bukidnon, Aklan, Agusan del Norte, Pampanga, Bulacan, Laguna, Quezon City, as well as Panay, and Cebu, where reforestation sites of Global Business Power Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meralco PowerGen Corporation, are located.
One for Trees also provides new sources of income for tree-farming families through partnerships with people’s organizations. These strategically contribute to the program’s aim to plant five million new trees by 2026 in biodiverse landscapes in the Philippines.
“Our reforestation efforts are in line with One Meralco’s holistic approach to embed sustainability not just in our business operations, but also in the development of the communities we serve. As we continue to engage more stakeholders in environmental protection and conservation, we remain committed to helping ensure that the responsibility and benefits of investing in our planet are shared by all,” Meralco President and Chief Executive Officer and OMF Vice Chairman Atty. Ray C. Espinosa said.
Centered on preserving and protecting the planet, One for Trees is a key initiative under One Meralco’s sustainability agenda called “Powering the Good Life” which is deeply rooted in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The Manila Electric Company (Meralco) emerged as one of the top companies at the recently concluded 19th Philippine Quill Awards after the power distributor bagged 22 wins and the Company of the Year 1st Runner-up award.
Recognized for its internal and external communication programs, the Meralco Group won eight Excellence Awards and 14 Merit Awards for various programs and initiatives on pandemic response centered on health and safety, customer-centricity, service excellence, and stakeholder engagement.
Joe R. Zaldarriaga, Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications
“We have always been committed to creating communication plans and programs that help empower our customers and the public, most especially since the pandemic continues to pose challenges in our way of life. These said challenges invigorate us to strive harder because we firmly understand how crucial stable and reliable electricity service is in enabling work-from-home and online distance learning arrangements and in getting our responsibilities done,” said Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga.
“To be recognized as one of the top companies in communications is truly an honor and it pushes us to develop and implement more programs that will benefit our customers, our communities, and our country,” he added.
Among Meralco’s campaigns that received the highest awards include those that ensured customers, stakeholders, and employees were protected, healthy, and equipped with helpful information against the COVID-19 pandemic. “#AyokoMagViral: A Meralco internal campaign against COVID-19” under the Internal Communication category and “Safety First: Empowering Enterprises to Fight an Invisible Enemy” under the Safety Communication category received Excellence Awards in Communication Management.
Meralco’s initiative to make the customer payment process more convenient via the “Fitting the Bill: Meralco makes paying bills easier with the Customer Account Number”, and its relentless efforts to ensure its external stakeholders remain safe and informed despite the pandemic through the “Meralco Power Up Live: Empowering Business Customers Amidst the Pandemic” both won Excellence Awards in the Customer Relations category.
Also recognized with an Excellence Award under the Customer Relations category was the “Safeguard the Economy at All Costs by Waiving Energy Demand Charge” program, which demonstrated Meralco’s efforts to support its business customers amid the global health crisis.
The Company’s push towards sustainable transportation through the “Electric Motorcycle Deployment for Meralco Business Center Field Representatives” campaign likewise earned an Excellence Award in the Change Communication category.
Meralco PowerGen Corporation subsidiary Atimonan One Energy, Inc. (A1E), meanwhile, received two (2) Excellence Awards under the Corporate Social Responsibility category:
“Kaisa sa Kabuhayan: Aplaya Sardines Enterprise with Atimonan Fisherfolks”
“Kaisa sa Kalusugan radio health program”
Both are pandemic response programs that benefitted A1E’s host communities in Quezon province.
One Meralco Foundation (OMF), the company’s social development arm, bagged four (4) Merit awards for
“Household Electrification Program: Powering-Up Communities Amidst the Pandemic”
“Meralco One for Trees: Helping Farmers Survive the Pandemic through Sustainable Reforestation”
COVIDCOMMS 2021: Farmers to Frontliners and Marginalized (F2FM) Project: Invigorating the Livelihood of Farmers”
Other Meralco initiatives that received Merit citations were the following campaigns:
“Unwavering Service and Malasakit amid the Pandemic and May-June 2021 Power Shortage”
“Providing Consumers the Power During Summer”
“Meralco Corporate Partners Viber Community – Engagement When Connectivity is a Must”
“Ensuring our Stakeholders are Informed Despite Social Distancing: Quarterly Operating and Financial Media Briefings”
“Putting Things in Perspective: Meralco Communicates the Upward Trend of Power Rates 2021”
“Meralco’s 2020 Corporate Reports (Power On, Live Life and Give Hope)”
“Biyaheng Meralco: A Virtual Townhall with our CEO”
“Customer Experience Index (CXI): The Case of Meralco Business Centers”
“COVIDCOMMS2021: Meralco’s Facebook Page Keeping the Lights On in the New Normal”
“MVP: The Man and His Art – A Visual Inventory of Filipino Artistry Gracing the Halls of Philippines’ Major Companies”.
Organized by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Philippines, the Philippine Quill Awards is considered the country’s most prestigious awards program in the field of business communication – emphasizing the excellent use of communication in achieving goals and in making a difference in society.
Bel Tiongco, IAC President
IABC President Belle Tiongco lauded Meralco on its performance, saying: “For as long as I have been involved with the Quills, Meralco has always been a beacon of communications excellence. Meralco is a communicator that prioritizes its role as a mover, a force for good, in Philippine society. That’s a mindset, I believe, that organizations should emulate so that communications can really be a platform for national development. Mabuhay Meralco, for your performance in this year’s Quills.”
This year’s awardees came from a crop of more than 800 entries – the highest in Quill history, according to the IABC, an association of top business, industrial and organization communicators, and professionals that support the highest professional standards and practice of exceptional quality and innovation in organization and business communication.
JobStreet.com, the no. 1 job site in the Philippines, has just released the results of its Top Companies 2017 survey. This year, there are new entrants in the top 10, changing the face of the annual list.
Utilities firms, for the first time, have broken into the list, with electric distribution company Meralco as the overall top preferred company of jobseekers and telecommunications company PLDT Inc. at number nine.
Food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC) takes second place while tech giant Google Philippines leapfrogs to third place from last year’s eighth. As for the rest of the previously unmovable top 3, wellness multinational Nestlé Philippines takes the fourth place while the foremost business process outsourcing in the country, Accenture, is in fifth.
The only Henry Sy-led company on the list this year and the lone financial institution in the top ten, BDO Unibank, is sixth this 2017. Consumer goods giant Procter and Gamble rises and is this year’s seventh and ABS-CBN Corporation, one of the Philippines’ leading media and entertainment company, is eighth this year.
Rounding up the top companies most of the Filipino workforce prefer to work is consumer goods multinational Unilever, which was last seen in the 2015 list now takes the tenth place this year.
Recognition expands to other strong employer brands
The Top Companies Report, now on its fourth edition, is expanding to give out special awards to category and regional winners. These companies, are bring recognized for their strong performance in their respective categories and areas.
Part of Jobstreet.com’s survey on which companies they aspire to be a part of is the question why they want to work in these firms.
Last year’s survey showed that a competitive basic salary is the primary reason when choosing a firm to work for whereas the candidates asked this year indicated that job security is the foremost reason for their consideration.
These choices indicate that professional Filipinos are more interested in the long-term gains, as factors that directly affect their professional lives such as career growth offerings and promotion, and career-enhancing training and development opportunities.
A strong leadership team that can mentor them in their professional trajectory are now more preferred, making it in the top 5 attributes of an aspirational company.
A total of 3,658 respondents participated in this year’s series of surveys that were sent out in May 2017. The respondents came from different position levels (predominantly junior executives and fresh graduates) and represented various specializations.
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Utilities firms, for the first time, have broken into the list, with electric distribution company 
Part of Jobstreet.com’s survey on which companies they aspire to be a part of is the question why they want to work in these firms.
JobStreet.com is a leading online job board presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. JobStreet.com currently services over 230,000 corporate hirers and over 15 million jobseekers in its database.
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