In The News

Growing a green legacy: Interview with YTL Group's Ruth Yeoh

Green Prospects Asia    10 April 2013


Green Prospects Asia, April 10, 2013

As a child, Ruth Yeoh learned the importance of tree planting from her business-tycoon father, Tan Sri Dr Francis Yeoh. The seed of that lesson has since grown into her own leadership of the YTL Group’s sustainability agenda. Ruth talks to Linda Archibald about this ongoing journey.

While it may be common to find business tycoons bringing their offspring on board their business operations, it not so often the case that their children chose to focus on the organisation’s environmental agenda. One such example is 29-year-old Ruth Yeoh, executive director at YTL Singapore Pte Ltd and director at YTL-SV Carbon, YTL’s in-house carbon credit and CDM consultancy.

How and when did sustainability become a part of YTL’s agenda?

YTL’s sustainability initiatives have been at the core of our business for over a decade, before popular green business practices and terms like “sustainability” and “corporate social responsibility” became mainstream corporate jargon. Starting out our business in 1955 as a construction company, building low-cost housing and hospitals, we have since become a global infrastructure conglomerate that continues advocating genuine sustainable practices.

When I joined the company upon graduating with a postgraduate degree in 2005, my ideas to further integrate our sustainability roadmap into the group’s businesses were embraced by the company. I was blessed to have had mentors across the company who generously shared their knowledge about energy savings in operations, and who valued sustainability, as well as the need for setting up a sustainability division committed to looking at important environmental matters from energy efficiency to carbon mapping and overall stewardship of sustainability within our diversified organisation. A year later, I took on the responsibility of heading a full-fledged sustainability unit to perform these functions at YTL.

In 2007, we set up an in-house clean development mechanism (CDM) consultancy, YTL-SV Carbon, which helps YTL’s stable of businesses go clean and green, but also provides services to other companies in Malaysia and the region interested in doing the same. Prior to Malaysian stock exchange Bursa Malaysia's requirement for all listed companies to do sustainability reporting, YTL had begun producing our Sustainability Reports annually from 2006.

When did you first become passionate about the environmental cause?

My family, particularly my father, Tan Sri Francis Yeoh, played a big part in inspiring my passion for protecting the environment and growing my commitment to the cause. I recall a few experiences from my childhood that were particularly influential in instilling such values within me. One of my earliest memories was as a child planting trees and shrubs together with my father on our private island, Pangkor Laut. My father explained that as I grew, so would the seeds grow to become tall and towering trees in the future.

Throughout my childhood, I was blessed to accompany him on his business trips to New Zealand where I witnessed nature’s beauty first-hand and how communities play an active role in protecting the environment. It was then that I learnt to appreciate nature and the environment.

Tell us about YTL’s carbon footprint and efforts that have been made to reduce it over the years.

Every aspect of the YTL Group has undergone stringent efforts to minimise and eliminate the impact to the environment. Through our many major initiatives, we have successfully reduced our carbon footprint – mainly through increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption where possible, with some business units having set environmentally-linked performance targets.

> Over the past two years, YTL Power Seraya has fulfilled its 10% carbon foot print reduction target through the use of state-of-the-art technology as well as improvements in overall plant efficiency and a switch to less carbon-intensive fuels.

> Our PT Jawa Power plant in East Java, Indonesia, has successfully implemented energy conservation programmes reduced carbon emissions per MWh of electricity generated.

> YTL Corporation – a major shareholder of railway development company, Express Rail Link (ERL), which operates the high-speed rail service KLIA Ekspres from KL International Airport to Kuala Lumpur – has installed energy meters to monitor equipment and driver performance, which has resulted in a 5.3% reduction in energy cost per trip. On top of this, energy saving initiatives at its office building have resulted in an average saving of RM800,000 (US$257,000), equivalent to around 2.5 million kWh per year.

Tell us about YTL’s monitoring system to measure and track (and manage) energy usage. Are there similar tools measuring others such as water usage, waste generation etc? Has YTL adopted the Low-Carbon City Framework (LCCF) for its township development projects yet?

YTL has implemented internal monitoring systems across all our divisions, associations and subsidiaries, while in our hotels, water plant, power generation and cement businesses, we also monitor energy, water, waste effluent, solid waste and consumables.

For now, we have yet to adopt the LCCF as it is still new in Malaysia. That being said, the objectives of this framework to promote the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) within cities are aligned with our environmental preservation aims, and we would definitely consider the framework for future developments.

What do you think are YTL’s most significant achievements in sustainability thus far?

There are two key examples I would highlight. The first is YTL Cement’s pioneering efforts in the use of slag cement in Malaysia in 2007. Rooted in construction industry, and in response to the rapidly changing industry landscape, YTL embarked on significant research into the use of waste slag from steel mills. This enabled massive savings of Portland cement production and the preservation of limestone reserves. This important step also developed the markets extensively such that our industry peers across the region have followed suit and developed such sustainably focused products.

Another notable achievement would certainly be YTL’s subsidiary, Wessex Water, our utilities company in the UK, which has been recognised by the UK water industry regulator, Ofwat, as the most efficient operator in England and Wales for three years running. Wessex Water aims to be carbon-neutral by 2020.

What are YTL’s green targets for 2013?

Our sustainability roadmap targets for the next five years include adopting Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for our sustainability report, achieving ISO26000, responding to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and eventually moving towards integrated reporting beyond 2014.

In 2013, we are looking at further progress in fuel-switching in cement, power generation and water treatment. With cement production being one of the most natural resource intensive industries, we have, for instance, embarked on using industrial gypsum to replace a substantial part of the natural gypsum used for cement production. We will also move forward with research to identify alternative fuels and continue to develop blended cement products for further applications in many civil and other construction areas.

Advocacy initiatives in the region will also remain a top priority for 2013.

How has motherhood affected your view of sustainability?

I have always been passionate about environment protection and giving back to the community on a personal and professional level. I believe this will not change but in fact be strengthened as we enter into various stages of our lives – and like I always believe, one is an environmentalist whether one likes it or not. Our attitude towards the earth and the environment will ultimately decide the fate of our future – it is our responsibility to be good stewards of this earth we have inherited from God Almighty, and as reflected by YTL’s environmental tagline, “A Steward of Our Good Earth”.

The core of our sustainability mission is to conserve and protect the environment we have been blessed with for generations to come. This should touch the lives of all communities and not just our own children; they deserve to inherit a healthier earth from us.

Imagine a future where our children will not be given the chance to know the various species of wildlife that were present in our generation – because they became extinct before they were born. It is unthinkable.

BIO BOX

Director of investment, YTL Corporation
Executive director, YTL Singapore Pte Ltd
Author and co-editor of Cut Carbon, Grow Profits: Business Strategies for Managing Climate Change and Sustainability (2007) with Oxbridge Climate Capital founder and CEO Dr Kenny Tang
Board member of Reef Check Malaysia
Board member (governance committee) of RARE Conservation
YTL Group green highlights

In 2011 and 2012, YTL Power Seraya achieved a 10% carbon footprint reduction through improvements in overall plant efficiency and a switch to less carbon-intensive fuels.

The energy efficient operation of the KLIA Ekspres railway service (of which YTL is a major shareholder) from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the city centre has resulted in a 5.3% reduction in energy cost per trip.

YTL subsidiary GENeco’s VW Beetle vehicle, the Bio-Bug, is powered by methane gas derived from human waste – the first such successful trial done in the UK.
Green Accolades

2012: YTL won Singapore Environment Council's Singapore Environmental Achievement Award (Regional).

2012: YTL PowerSeraya, Starhill Global REIT & Starhill Global Property Management awarded Eco Office Label certification, Singapore Environmental Council

2011 : YTL SV-Carbon (in-house Clean Development consultancy) won Best Carbon Markets Brokerage, Asia, World Finance Carbon Markets Awards

2007: YTL won Best Social Reporting in an Annual Report in 2006 and Commendation for Social Reporting, ACCA Malaysia’s Environmental and Social Reporting Awards (MESRA)

2008:  YTL subsidiary Wessex Water (UK) won the “Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development”, and was the first water company to do so.