The FINANCIAL — BP, one of the world’s largest energy companies operating in Georgia, is starting a new initiative of promoting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the country.
For almost a decade BP has been implementing vast corporate social responsibility programmes in Georgia in two main directions. One, which is referred to as Community Development Initiative (CDI), supporting sustainable developmentin the communities living adjacent to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil , South Caucasus gas and Baku-Supsa oil pipeline routes, and the other programme,called Sustainable Development Initiative (SDI), supportsnationwide programmes. The SDI basically works in three main areas: enterprise development, energy efficiency and education targetingprimarily professional and vocational education.
“There is no legal requirement in the country that wouldencourage companies to think and develop corporate social responsibility strategies. We are going to launch abaseline studyfor CSR activities in Georgia, which means that majority of large companies need to be interviewed. We very much want the top managers to be reached out, because they are the ones who decide whether they would like to continue investing in one-off, charitable eventsand sponsorships, or to start thinking in a sustainable way. The problem sometimes lies in human resources, because the companies may think – why should they invest in developing something more sophisticated, when there is an opportunity to give a one-offsupport? When a company comes into a person’s life, the company needs to build trust, and it is mucheasier to gaintrust by being socially responsible,” said Giorgi Gongliashvili, Sustainable Development Initiative program coordinator for BP in Georgia.
“In order to achieve tangible results, we are thinking about a long-term project, something between five to eight years, and hopefully we will raise the awareness about CSR issuesand promote Georgian companies to consider supporting sustainable initiatives.We arecurrentlyin the process of selecting a consultant, that would carry out the baseline assessment and prepare some concrete recommendations for us, based on which we will launch the CSR project. We hope that in about a month’s time from now, the consultant will start itswork with the idea that towardsthe end of this year we will have the final project proposal, which we will be tendering out. The private sector has quite a lot of responsibility, as well opportunity to develop responsible Business in the country,” Gongliashviliadded.
Q. Out of the projects that BP has implemented in CSR and Green Business activities, which have been the most significant ones?
From our perspective CSR projects are of more or less equal significance as they target long-term sustainable development.
Our partners in various projects have been such international institutions asthe European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), GIZ (German International Cooperation Agency), USAID, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), etc.
Q. Could you please discuss the ongoing projects?
A. Out of the current ongoing projects I would focus on the Project Management College (PMC) and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project for Communities.
We have started The Project Management College (PMC) at the Free University of Tbilisi with a gap analysis, interviewing more than 50 large Georgian companies, to determine where was the biggest gap that the companies felt during their day-to-day operations.
The biggest majority of interviewed businesses named one particular area – project management,which was described as one of the weakest links. We then carried out a desktop research and found out that there is a company – ESI International Ltd., which isthe world's leading project management solutions' company, which has been providing trainings for BP all over the world for a number of years. We invited this company and also identified a local partner – the Free University of Tbilisi – which is supporting this project through hosting the Project Management College at its premises, as well as through co-funding certain components of the project. As of today, more than 200 students have graduated from PMC during initial three years, receiving Master’sCertificates in project managementfrom The George Washington University School of Business. This is a highly popular project in Georgia. Another stream of students are currently studying there. The graduates have also the opportunity to undertake an exam to become Project Management Professionals (PMP®), accredited by the world's largest professional association of project managers – the Project Management Institute (PMI®).
The second projectas I said is related to the renewable energy and energy efficiency sphere.It all started back in 2008 with the so-called "Energy Bus" Project. The idea wasthat there wasa big truck, which hadinside it a mobile exhibition of energy efficient devices, and this truck hadbeen travelling across Georgia. It made two full rounds,wherever it could physically reach due to itsvery large dimensions. As a result of this project, some 63 thousand people have visited the bus and become aware ofthe energy efficiency issues. We went further, and together with the EBRD, we have made a loan programme,consisting of a 6.6 million USD concessional credit line from EBRD fortwo commercial banks, TBC and Bank of Georgia, and of USD 1 million grant from BP and its Oil and Gas Partners, which was used tosubsidize the interest ratesforthe borrower. Wherever the Energy Bus was travelling, it was advertising this loan programme and the grant mechanism, which was in the range of 15 percent of the face value of any of the energy efficient device that a residential customer would install at his or her house.
The Energy Bus project finished last year, however, we decided to continue our engagement in the energy efficiency sphere, and we initiated a new project – Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project for Communities, under which we plan to implement about 20 demo projects across Georgia. We select community type of buildings, like kindergartens, schools, shelters for disabled persons, national protected areas, etc., and implement small-scale energy efficient measures, e.g. we change old windows with double-glazed ones, we insulate the space, replace ordinary old stoves with modern and energy efficient ones, replace old ordinary bulbs with fluorescent ones, etc. These measures significantly improve the living conditions of the mentioned community buildings, providing substantial savings on energy-related bills, and also reducing CO2 emissions for the benefit of our environment. So far, we have implementedeight projects in the eastern part of Georgia. In the nearest future, we will select the community buildings for the western Georgia as well. These are tangible demo projects that could be easily replicated in any other communities, should there be enough resources. Maybe a food for thought for the possible CSR activities for Georgian companies?
Q. What are the fundaments to BP’s sustainability as a business in Georgia?
A. People and their capabilities are fundamental to BP’s sustainability as a business. To build an enduring business in Georgia, the company recognizes the need to develop the skills and experience of local people, creating an environment, which provides opportunity for all staff.
We aim to ensure that our presence in Georgia, and wherever we operate, creates mutual advantages for us and for those with whom we come into interaction. In Georgia, our focus will be to help protect our partners' asset base and overall investment by retaining the goodwill and supporting the work of key stakeholders – communities adjacent to ourfacilities, government and NGO sectors,as well asthe local business community.
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