HERA 2020 – Winners Series – VTech Holdings Limited
The Hong Kong ESG Reporting Awards (HERA) is a not-for-profit initiative, aiming to build trust among stakeholders and escalate the ESG reporting standards in Hong Kong, Macau, and Greater China. The HERA 2020 Forum cum Awards Presentation Ceremony was successfully held on 8th December 2020; ESGN is honored to have invited Ms. Shereen Tong, Group Chief Financial Officer at VTech Holdings Limited, winner of the Best ESG Report – Mid-cap, Excellence in GRI Report, Excellence in Environmental Disclosure, and Excellence in Social Disclosure, to share their experience with and future plans on promoting corporate sustainability.
Q: Congratulations on winning at HERA 2020. Please share your thoughts and what does that mean to the company?
A: VTech’s sustainability vision is to create sustainable value for the lives of people and protect the planet for the future generations. As for the sustainability reporting, it not only helps us to communicate with our stakeholders and address their concerns in an effective manner, but also enables us to keep track of our sustainability progress and achievements, and to identify any areas for further improvement.
Winning the Hong Kong ESG Reporting Awards at HERA 2020 is a great recognition of our relentless sustainability efforts to achieve our sustainability vision.
Q: Your company has won consecutively on HERA, please share with us one thing you want to highlight in your ESG that makes you win the award, and how challenges have been overcome.
A: The implementation of a comprehensive corporate governance structure for the execution of our various sustainability strategies throughout the company under five sustainability pillars including Governance and Business Ethics, Product Responsibilities and Value Chain Management, Environment, Our People and Society has made us win the award.
Since 2020, we have confronted the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19. With the well-established Business Continuity Management system incorporating a risk management framework, we are able to rapidly respond to the unpredictable changes in the global environment and mitigate the suffering of our businesses.
We have also leveraged our technological expertise, market leadership positions and financial resources to support the communities to fight against the pandemic. In order to support the front-line medical staff for their tireless contributions to the societies, VTech has donated our baby monitors to the hospitals in the North America, and sourced surgical masks for the hospital in China. In addition, we have given financial support for global philanthropies such as COVID-19 Disaster Relief Fund of AdoptAClassroom.org in the US and Canada to facilitate the teachers to provide online training classes for the students, and launched “#VTechEnsemble” programme in France to make donations to the hospitals and help the children and the families in need during this difficult time.
Q: What are your thoughts and company’s future plans in promoting corporate sustainability within your industry?
A: VTech’s Sustainability Report 2020 is our 7th annual Sustainability Report and is also the final year of our first 5-year Sustainability Plan 2020. Following the successful implementation of the first 5-year sustainability plan, VTech has developed our second 5-year Sustainability Plan 2025 with sustainability strategies and programmes built under five pillars including Governance and Business Ethics, Product Responsibilities and Value Chain Management, Environment, Our People, and Society.
The key initiatives in our new long-term plan will be focusing on increasing the use of sustainable materials in our products, recycling our products in a responsible way, increasing the use of renewable energy, reducing the natural resources consumption in our production process, as well as using more eco-friendly transportation modes in our supply chain management.
With our strong sustainability commitment and dedicated resources, we strive to promote corporate sustainability not just within our company, but also the industry in which we operate.