On September 12, 2023, GELEX Group cooperated with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) to organize a seminar on the topic “Sustainable Development”, which suggested many new perspectives on the concept of Sustainable Development – ESG as well as how to implement and measure ESG.

The seminar was held in both face-to-face and online formality, with the participation of representatives of GELEX Group, Directors of specialized departments, leaders of affiliated companies, employees of GELEX Group and subsidiaries, and representatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). The seminar also had the presence of speaker Vandana Saxena Poria, who was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) medal by the Queen of England, Mindset Expert, Social Activist, Senior Advisor of ICAEW and is in the Top 100 people with the greatest influence on the relationship between the UK and India.

Representatives of GELEX Group Directors and ICAEW at the Seminar

A new perspective on ESG: Is it a carrot or a stick?

Speaking at the Seminar, Mr. Dau Minh Lam – Independent Member of the Board of Directors, Chairman of the Audit Committee of GELEX Group said: “The implementation of ESG has received high support from all members of the Board of Directors of GELEX Group. At the same time, GELEX plans to establish the Group’s ESG Committee to propose strategies, methods and implementation roadmap. GELEX’s recent conference held in Vinh Phuc also presented an overview of ESG with basic content. In this seminar, GELEX expects to share lessons learned from countries around the world, so that GELEX’s employees can have a deeper understanding of ESG.”

Mr. Lam also emphasized that GELEX Group’s Board of Directors are always very interested in spreading and inspiring ESG ideas as well as the spirit and essence of ESG related to environment, society, and administration, which will be deployed throughout the system.

Ms. Vandana Saxena Poria affirmed that sustainability is a matter of thinking and awareness. If we do not instill this, it will be difficult for the next generations to have a good future. “Sustainability is not just about the environment or environmental protection but also about sustainable jobs and sustainable economic growth,” according to Ms. Vandana Saxena Poria.

This expert also briefly introduced the 17 sustainable development criteria and said that each field will have its own requirements and framework, but in general, the main characteristics of ESG are activities that impact to environmental, social, governance, and more broadly, human capital (human rights), social capital.

In fact, ESG has a huge impact on businesses and affects business rankings. Businesses with good ESG are able to access more opportunities in terms of capital, investors, and competitive advantage on the market. That is why large businesses and corporations in the world are very interested in implementing ESG and have extremely effective ESG activities.

Ms. Vandana Saxena Poria – Mindset Expert, Social Activist, Senior Advisor of ICAEW is the main speaker of the seminar

In Vietnam, Ms. Vandana Saxena Poria stated that implementing ESG is a big challenge because ESG is still quite new. That is also a common challenge for Vietnamese businesses; however, lessons from other countries have shown that businesses pursuing sustainable development models have done quite well in this field.

“We have two approaches to ESG. The first way is to consider ESG as a motivation for implementation, which includes development steps to ensure the future of next generations. At that time, ESG was considered as a carrot. And the second way is to consider ESG as a stick. At some point, ESG will be included in the Government’s mandatory regulations, and then whether we like it or not, we will have to do it.” – emphasized by the expert.

Implementing ESG from the smallest actions

Sharing at the seminar, Mr. Dau Minh Lam expressed that, if we approach ESG, we can see that ESG is not a “hot trend” or a “hot topic” but a long-term strategy, a long way to go, which require changes from the smallest things. The small actions of each person and all GELEX employees will help to build a better environment, create a more sustainable business, thereby creating a more sustainable world.

Mr. Lam gave an example that: in order to keep Vietnam to be clean and beautiful, we had to get used to and practice not littering for a decade or a century, so that today’s generations have formed the mindset of environment protection from a very young age.

“To be able to create changes, we must start with small things first. I hope that after this seminar, GELEX employees will create messages and small changes from their own subconscious, and then come up with ideas to contribute to leaders and the organization. The Group is extremely committed to implementation,” Mr. Lam affirmed.

Representatives of GELEX Group and ICAEW giving commemorate gifts at the end of the seminar.

Sharing the same opinion, Ms. Vandana Saxena Poria also gave the message: Implementing ESG requires the participation of all levels of employees in the organization. However, each individual will not be alone on this journey but will have the cooperation between individuals, communities, businesses and the Government.

This expert also recommended that GELEX Group’s Board of Directors should not consider ESG as a separate issue but should be associated with the entire production and business activities. “You can start with the simplest ways such as measuring the health and life of employees once a month; or paying attention to the amount of industrial waste to consider measures to reduce the amount of waste…”

Finally, Ms. Vandana Saxena Poria affirmed that ESG is not just a matter of compliance but must be about the right activities, the right work, and doing the right things for the ESG implementation process to be truly effective.

At the end of the seminar, the representative of GELEX Group thanked speakers Vandana Saxena Poria and ICAEW for providing a lot of useful information as well as suggesting new perspectives on the definition, recommendations, and implementation methods of ESG for GELEX. Through this seminar, GELEX Group’s Board of Directors hopes that GELEX’s employees and subsidiaries will understand ESG correctly and sufficiently to take practical actions and jointly build a sustainable developing GELEX. The Group also expects that ICAEW will continue to accompany GELEX to build a roadmap to implement ESG commitments in a synchronous and effective way.

PR Department, GELEX Group