October 7, 2023, Mr. Suphachai Chearavanont, Chief Executive Officer of Charoen Pokphand Group or C.P. Group together with executive officers from leading organizations, including Mr. Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi, President and CEO of Thai Beverage Public Company Limited, and Mr. Roongrote Rangsiyopash, President and CEO of Siam Cement Group Public Company Limited, jointly shared the vision on the "Thailand Supply Chain Network CEO Panel: How to Adapt to Survive Sustainably? at SUSTAINABILITY EXPO 2023 (SX2023), ASEAN's Largest Sustainability Expo. Leaders offered sustainable development recommendations for use in corporate management and lessons learned from implementing sustainable development. They were developing the capacities of leaders of organizations in various business sectors in order to do business jointly in a sustainable manner. Mr. Suthichai Yun moderated the discussion. More than 1,000 top corporate executives, businesspeople, and entrepreneurs from many industries registered to attend the event at SX GRAND PLENARY HALL, Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.

Mr. Suphachai Chearavanont, Chief Executive Officer of Charoen Pokphand Group stated even though in the past four years, the world faced several challenges, but sustainability is still an essential topic and more implementations have been done. The UN sees that Thailand has the potential for sustainability and is a good example in ASEAN. This is because, even though the country has been affected by the world’s crisis in many ways, but there is still an adjustment. Especially giving importance to carbon reduction. For this matter, government policy must support the use of EV cars, clean energy, and solar farms. Providing incentives to entrepreneurs regarding knowledge and innovation It's important. C.P. Group has announced clear sustainability goals and strategies and has announced a goal to lead the organization to Carbon Neutral in 2030, which C.P. Group has already reduced carbon by 70% through the reduction of Scope 1 and Scope 2, which is greenhouse gas emissions reduction within the organization. At the same time, we are starting to work on Scope 3, which is a very big and challenging goal, but C.P. Group will not spare any effort and must rely on building cooperation with partners and other sectors as well.

Mr. Suphachai gave advice that running a business with sustainability requires setting clear goals and indicators, while marketing mechanisms must be taken into consideration as well. At the same time, we must look at three big challenges: 1. Inclusive capital, reducing inequality; 2. Digital transformation and 3. Climate change. Two sectors must be given special consideration: 1. Business sector: every listed company must report its sustainability targets, such as reporting on carbon reduction; and 2. The social sector must focus on the educational system, where sustainability must be integrated into the curriculum. Adjust teaching and learning by placing children at the center so that they can learn from doing it themselves (Action Base Learning), learn from problems, ask questions, search for answers, develop together, including giving importance on Computer Science and the use of AI which must inculcate ethics and morality in the use of technology.

C.P. Group’s CEO sees that to transform an organization, it is important to develop “people”, especially the new generations. Working across business units and across organizations must be implemented, which C.P. Group has been executed 100%. This approach allows employees to come out of their comfort zones and learn new things that are outside the boundaries of routine work. This new knowledge they acquired can be used to improve the way of working, which will eventually lead to the creation of new innovations for the organization. If new generations keep working the same job for three years, they can change from genius into an ordination person, so we must give them a chance to continuously learn.

“Adapting to survive in an era with many challenges requires empowering the new generation because now is their era and must create cooperation in the form of Chick to Click to Collaborate to create unity, be of one mind. We don't have to compete in everything, but there must be more cooperation between both the public and private sectors, as well as the civil society sector. The issue of cooperation is therefore a big and important issue in answering the question of driving sustainability to the goal. If we work together, we can break the curve in time.

At the closing, the CEO emphasized that in this era, importance must be given to building cooperation with all sectors. The government sector must get serious about setting up a foundation for digital transformation, and clear and transparent sustainability targets must be set together with action plans. Progress must be disclosed to the public. In this era, media creators, whether they be main media or online media, must act as facilitators in joining together to drive sustainability.