KUCHING, Nov 30: The Covid-19 pandemic has sped up Sarawak Energy Bhd’s (SEB) aspiration to become a digital utility player by 2025.
SEB group’s chief executive officer (CEO) Datu Sharbini Suhaili believed that it is crucial for businesses to transform and adapt fast to the changes which happened around the world especially during the Covid-19 health crisis.
Sharbini in a press statement said, “It is important to be agile and be able to quickly adapt to crisis situations.
“Our main focus is keeping the lights on for Sarawak throughout the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our fundamental ambition to grow regionally as a provider and developer of renewable energy has not changed, although our delivery mechanisms and methods have transformed due to the restrictions in movement.
“The pandemic also catalysed change in the way we run our business – it accelerated our aspiration to be a digital utility by 2025 as well as our transition into flexible work arrangements.
“We took transformative steps in changing the way we work to remain efficient by learning to achieve a lot more with the same level of resources.
We leveraged on technology to improve the efficiency of our business operations whilst reducing the number of staff on site.
“The latter has yielded some secondary benefits – our estimates show that the average reduction in carbon emission is 40 kilogramme per day for our headquarters alone from the reduced commuting,” he said.
Sharbini added, “The development of renewable and affordable hydropower in Sarawak supports the diverse application of alternative renewables like solar and hydrogen.
“We are investing in Sarawak’s first large scale floating solar plant at our Batang Ai Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Meanwhile, our research into hydrogen and our collaboration with Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) will enable us to participate in future hydrogen value chain activities and contribute to a sustainable energy future, decarbonise our energy system, and augment what we are already doing via hydropower to provide clean, renewable and affordable energy for Sarawak,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, SEB recently shared its response to the impact of Covid-19 on its business operations at the GO Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Asean Corporate Sustainability Virtual Summit 2020.
Sharbini was speaking at a panel session which entitled “Corporate Leadership for the Asean We Want”, and moderated by Bloomberg Asia Pacific’s head of government affairs and strategic relations Nitin Jaiswal.
At the same time, SEB’s senior manager for sustainability, Mohamad Irwan Aman also spoke at a panel session which is entitled “Sustainable Business Strategies the Asean Way.
He said, “Our commitment to sustainability grew stronger in the midst of the pandemic, and it could be seen throughout the entire organisation.
“Every organisation runs into different issues in their sustainability journey.
“We believe the way forward is through reliance on the sustainability community, where sharing good practices and developing strategic alliances amongst organisations will go a long way to help progress sustainability agendas,” he said.
SEB said the two-day summit, themed ‘The Business of Recovering Better – A Resilient and Sustainable Asean by Design’, aims to promote sustainability thinking and strategies as part of Asean’s economic reset post Covid-19 by accelerating the adoption of ESG considerations among businesses. —DayakDaily
