Grab, Southeast Asia’s leading superapp, unveiled the company’s  Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) report 2022 as part of its commitment to building sustainable business growth and uplifting the quality of life of communities, while minimising its environmental impact. The report outlines Grab’s sustainability philosophy, approach and performance in Southeast Asia, focusing on three key priorities: Building Sustainable Partner Livelihoods, Ensuring a Safe & Trusted Platform, and Fostering a Lasting Planet. Besides, Grab Thailand announced the positive progress of the Carbon Offset Programme in collaboration with EcoMatcher and Conserve Natural Forests (CNF). Through a carbon offset feature, users contributed to the planting of 50,000 trees in 2022 alone. In celebration of World Environment Day, the company also raised awareness in environmental conservation among its employees by organizing the ‘Grab Go Green’ activity allowing them to learn about biodiversity and participate in the  planting of trees.

Worachat Luxkanalode, Country Head of Grab Thailand, said, “We have made it our mission to economically empower people in Southeast Asia through our platform and technology in the past 10 years. This commitment remains, and we believe that for our business to grow sustainably, good quality of life for our communities and care for the environment need to be looked after simultaneously. This is why we have focused on ensuring sustainable livelihoods for our partners; ensuring our platform is safe for our users and one that they could trust and rely on; as well as managing our environmental impact. Our progress for these focus areas was shared in our ESG report 2022.”

The ESG Report 2022 provides an overview of Grab’s performance in creating positive impacts for the people in Southeast Asia with three key highlights as follows:

• Building Sustainable Partner Livelihoods:

• Over 10 million registered driver- and merchant-partners have an opportunity to earn an income through Grab platform, including over 2,100 partners with disabilities across Southeast Asia
• USD 10.6 billion were earned by the driver- and merchant-partners on the platform – a 19% increase from 2021
• Small merchant-partners saw a 26% increase in average monthly earnings after a year of joining the platform

• Ensuring a Safe and Trusted Platform: 

• 99.99% of rides and deliveries occur without safety incident
• Grab is the first platform in Southeast Asia to develop two new innovations to enhance safety standards: AudioProtect and Quiet Ride features.

• Fostering a Lasting Planet:

• Reduced more than 48,000 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by: 1) Providing zero-emission modes of transport for some  deliveries by cycling or walking 2) Providing low-emission transportation modes, such as electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids, and 3) Optimizing service efficiency
• Retired over 30,000 carbon credits for the protection of Southeast Asia’s forests and planted over 200,000 trees under the Carbon Offset Programme
• Avoided more than 8,100 tons of waste, including 898 million sets of single-use cutlery last year

Sustainability efforts in Thailand

In addition to promoting the EV usage among the driver-partners and the plastic cutlery opt-out feature, Grab Thailand also started another initiative in 2021 to help reduce adverse impacts on the environment.  Known as the Carbon Offset Programme, the feature allows users to  reduce their carbon footprint through a contribution of  THB 2 per four-wheeled ride and THB 1 per two-wheeled ride or GrabFood and GrabMart delivery. The contributed fund is channeled to forest conservation projects in Southeast Asia, as well as a tree-planting project in Thailand. The tree-planting project is headed by Conserve Natural Forests (CNF), a non-profit organization based in Mae Hong Son province whose focus is to restore natural forest landscapes, and EcoMatcher, a platform that enables users to track trees that have been planted through blockchain technology. The initiative received good support from Grab’s users, which resulted in the planting of over 50,000 trees in Krabi and Mae Hong Son provinces in Thailand in 2022 alone, and this supported 51 families in these provinces

“On the occasion of World Environment Day, we have organised ‘Grab Go Green’ activity to raise awareness of environmental care within our company by allowing Grab employees to learn more about biodiversity and participate in the  planting of trees. Employees also got to learn how to make EM balls with the community at Hing Hoy Village, Bang Krasop, Samut Prakan province, to help with wastewater treatment around Bangkok.” concluded Worachat.