RGE Chairman Sukanto Tanoto made his New Year address and fielded questions at a recent Townhall gathering with Pangkalan Kerinci-based employees.

At the event which took place a week into the Lunar New Year on 15 Feb 2016, he shared with staff his thoughts on 2015 and 2016. He highlighted the opportunities and challenges ahead, and thanked everyone for their hard work and contribution to the business and industry.

Following his address, he answered questions from staff, and rallied employees and teams across various RGE companies to embrace the 4 Cs in their work and operations - doing what is Good for Community, Good for Country, Good for Climate, and Good for Company.

Here are some snippets:

Climate Commitment

“We want to be committed. We want to be part of the solution.

We are into re-forestry. We don’t just cut forests and run away. We plant forests, create jobs, build up infrastructure, create economic development.

As a company, we have to look at the local (community), national (country) and global (climate). If we serve these 3 domains well, we would have done good for the company.”

Preventing Fires - Learning, improving, collaborating, sharing

“We are for “zero fires”. We are working hard on the ground to make sure there are no fires in our concession areas and around them. We learn from this and we share with other companies and the local government, and hopefully all these areas are fire-free. That is our contribution to society.”

Reputation and Bottom-line

“We want to have a good reputation. In the past, when we did good things, we didn’t talk about it.

We have changed. We are more open and we want to get our stories to be heard, and hopefully people will be more understanding. When more people understand this, we can have better policies and more conducive environment for us to operate in.

Our customers know us for our good reputation. Reputation may not have an immediate impact on bottom-line. But when you have bad reputation, you lose customers and you’re not the preferred supplier.

Reputation is an intangible asset, and all of us have to safeguard it.”