Sustainable organization, the most common meaning that people usually think of is being an organization that can stand for a long time because it reflects stability or continuity.
In our country, there are many organizations that are sustainable organizations , such as Thai Oil Public Company Limited. In the past, the admin had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Wirat Euanrumit, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Thai Oil Public Company Limited.
Mr. Wirat said that in 2021, Thaioil celebrates its 60th anniversary of working for the country’s energy security and the well-being of Thai communities and society. It is also a Thai company that has been ranked as a Global Industrial Leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) in the oil and gas marketing and refining industry for the 6th year.
This is a source of pride that comes from the commitment and vision of the executives, both in the past and present, to maintain the organization for a long time and make Thaioil a long-lasting, stable, and continuous organization into the future for 100 years.
Sustainability Goals of Thaioil
When asked about the definition of “sustainability” from Thaioil’s perspective, Mr. Wirat said that he personally sees sustainability as covering three words:
“Stable, prosperous and sustainable”
And he went on to explain that stability means the company must be able to operate and grow no matter what the situation is, or what is called Sustainable Growth. Wealthy means the business must operate well, have good profits and return them to stakeholders including trading partners, customers, employees, communities, and the government, by trying to maintain the balance of happiness or benefits of all stakeholders, and sustainable means being an organization that can exist in the long term.
Sustainability in Thai Oil style
Thaioil’s sustainable business operations can be divided into 3 types:
1) Business process operations: In the case of Thai Oil, which is a refining business, it will give importance to the efficient use of energy, whether it be electricity, oil, gas or water, in the form of 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) in order to achieve maximum efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions as little as possible.
2) Expanding the business with ESG in mind: Environment, Society and Governance. Currently, Thaioil has made a large investment called the Clean Fuel Project (CFP) to reduce the production of products that emit greenhouse gases, such as cancelling the production of fuel oil and changing to diesel, which is a product that meets the needs and is more environmentally friendly, or using more waste to produce electricity.
3) Applying various knowledge about energy from Thaioil to create value for society, focusing on developing the quality of life (Quality of Life) of communities and society, for example, the Sustainable Energy for Health Care project, which uses energy to help address quality of life issues, such as installing solar cells in hospitals in Laem Chabang and Koh Sichang, Chonburi Province, which are the locations of Thaioil’s refinery and hospitals in remote areas in Mae Hong Son Province, with a combined capacity of approximately 200 kilowatts.
Overcoming the crisis to maintain sustainability
The past 60 years of Thaioil is not a short period of time. Mr. Wirat said that since the establishment of the business, even though Thaioil is considered the largest and most capable oil refinery in the country, there have always been business fluctuations, or what the energy industry calls Energy Disruption, making Thaioil unable to do only refinery business. Or even the COVID-19 situation that has affected the organization has caused the company to have to adapt, namely:
1) Must be agile .
2) Must have flexibility .
3) Must have patience to market changes ( Resilience )
This leads to Thaioil’s latest vision: Empowering Human Life through Sustainable Energy and Chemicals.
And the strategy to accelerate organizational change called Accelerate the reform is to diversify sources of profits, meaning that Thaioil will not be in a single business like in the past. It has set up an agency or fund called Venture Cap, allocating a certain budget to find new businesses to improve its own business, such as investing in Start-ups to observe developments in technology and energy, and then bring them back to adjust the direction of the business.
Thai Oil is interested in 3 things: one is a business that improves production efficiency; two is a business that is Green and Human, which is environmentally friendly (Environmental Friendly) or is related to humans, such as food and medicine; and three is a business that is Hydrocarbon Disruption or a business that may come back to disrupt Thai Oil’s business in the future.
Crisis is an opportunity to move forward.
Mr. Wirat said that we cannot wait for the need to change. We need to rely on strong times to prepare ourselves to support the changes first. If we can do this, when we face a crisis, that is an opportunity to move forward, just like Thaioil has always prepared. Today, when expanding the business, many other businesses have invited Thaioil to be a partner. That means an opportunity to expand the base or develop the organization’s business because in developing the organization, there are always some things that we need to change, which we should do quickly during the crisis to turn the crisis into an opportunity in the future.
Importantly, a sustainable organization must take into account the participation of all stakeholders (Stakeholder Engagement), not just employees or as Mr. Wirat used the word “the whole organization” by giving importance to Balancing Stakeholder Interest, which must start from clearly defining stakeholders, communicating to stakeholders about the direction of the organization consistently, and creating participation with stakeholders to participate in the direction of the business, including the environmental and social operations of the organization.
Nowadays, situations are changing very quickly. For example, something we never imagined would have such a wide and profound impact, such as the COVID situation that we are all facing. So whether it’s a large, medium or small business, or even in our individual work,
If you are agile, flexible and resilient, and also give importance to the environment, society and community, because these are the elements that will make the business continue sustainably.
And most importantly, working with transparency, accountability, good governance, being an organization that has lasted for sixty years like Thai Oil and is committed to lasting for a hundred years… is probably not an unrealistic goal.
Video Interview with Mr. Wirat Euanrumit, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Thai Oil Public Company Limited
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