Having long recognized that the way forward depends on taking charge of the present, multinational BPO player SYKES incorporates sustainability into business development, creating a culture of environmental stewardship across all its sites in 23 countries around the globe. The company aims to do its part for a greener world, one caring interaction at a time.
“As a human capital organization with thousands of employees around the world, we respond to our responsibility to the planet the same way we do to our employees, clients, and shareholders — with a heightened consciousness of our impact on it. Our effort towards sustainability advancement is a multi-pronged approach, where environmental sustainability goes hand in hand with our economic and social sustainability programs. This way, we are able to ensure that our business not only benefits the present but also the future generations,” said Cecile Venancio, Senior Director, Branding & Communications, APAC.
ENERCON
In the Philippines, SYKES established the Energy Conservation (ENERCON) Program, which serves as a comprehensive approach to conserving energy on-site. Under this program, the Philippine BPO industry pioneer manages a water catchment and filtration system which collects, stores, and filters rainwater to be reused within the building. It was also able to switch to renewable energy, relying on windmills and solar farms to be its source of energy, which helped generate a savings of about PHP9.4M in electric bills from September 2019 to August 2020.
The ENERCON Program also invites employees to fully adopt sustainable living through improved equipment, enhanced work conditions, and education on their environmental footprints. SYKES also actively promotes and distributes eco-friendly products to its workforce and clients or in its CSR activities.
“At SYKES, every employee plays an integral role in the company’s responsibility to save energy and reduce costs. Through ENERCON, we encourage SYKESers to be environmentally conscious and responsible, which has resulted to them initiating their own projects directed towards sustainability through their respective interest clubs. They initiate programs on coastal and community clean-ups, reforestation, site-specific recycling, and carbon reduction, among others,” said Rochelle Matematico, Director, Regional Support, APAC.
When the pandemic struck, SYKES has implemented stringent sanitary protocols within its sites, while still focusing on sustainability. It installed dividers as well as tissue and alcohol holders made from recyclable and reused materials. It also distributed refillable alcohol bottles to its employees to ensure the reduction of plastic use. SYKES also considered the additional waste that came with the sanitary protocols and has dedicated trash bins specifically for used masks and gloves to segregate waste. Additionally, SYKES also makes sure that even its cleaning products are sustainable, complying with the approved lists provided by the government.
While part of its pandemic response involved deploying free shuttle services to employees living nearby or those staying in the provided temporary lodging sites, SYKES reduced carbon emissions by cutting down trips. It consolidated pick-up points and promoted carpooling within its workforce while still complying with social distancing measures.
Global efforts
For some sites in Latin America and the Asia Pacific, including Cebu, environmental sustainability efforts begin within the office. These sites partially run on renewable energy through the solar panel systems installed in their buildings, which use natural sunlight to generate electricity. The installation of the panels promotes energy efficiency and ultimately reduces each site’s carbon dioxide emissions by hundreds of tons per year.
Moreover, all of SYKES’ sites, with a collective population of over 50,000 employees, have achieved global solidarity in the efforts towards recycling, reducing, and reusing its collective waste. Beginning from its basic resources such as paper, plastic, and ink, the company ensures that it implements in-house recycling, which not only supports environmental sustainability, but also motivates employees to live a life with reduced waste. SYKESers are encouraged to bring their reusable products such as cutleries and water bottles in support of this principle.
In delivering its global environmental policy, the multinational company has implemented a program of continual improvement with set objectives and targets, which ensures that all sites across the globe are able to strengthen efforts in achieving a greener world. Learn more about its programs on environmental sustainability at its website. Work, learn, and grow with SYKES and be a part of its growing environment-conscious workforce.
