Coolaire Strengthens Leadership in Sustainable Development Through Renewal of DEPDev Stakeholders’ Chamber Membership
QUEZON CITY, Philippines — Coolaire Consolidated Inc. (Coolaire) strengthened its commitment to sustainable development by renewing its membership in the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development’s (DEPDev) Stakeholders’ Chamber last July 22, 2026.
“We believe that our collective effort in supporting and engaging in projects that promote the 17 SDGs assures that Filipinos will enjoy a matatag, maginhawa, and panatag na buhay, ensuring that no one will be left behind in any kind of progress,” stated Joel Ryan E. Tugade, President of Coolaire, who renewed his oath alongside 71 representatives from civil society, business, academia, and public sectors.
The Chamber supports the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a global plan of action that protects the planet’s natural resources, improves people’s quality of life, and promotes sustainable measures by 2030.
Coolaire’s membership renewal follows its successful three-year term as the Lead of the Economic Working Group. In this role, Coolaire helped shepherd programs, activities and projects that correspond to specific SDG targets and indicators which are a valuable resource for the government to map where the private sector is with respect to SDG goals associated with the working group’s mandate.
Coolaire’s dedication to the SDGs had already started years before its election in the Chamber in 2023. Long before assuming the role, the company already had sustainability embedded in its operations—and has since continued to forge its own vision of leadership.
How Coolaire’s SDG Journey Began
“Back in 2020, I was appointed to lead the efforts in mainstreaming the SDGs within the business sector,” recalled Joel Ryan.
In that mandate, he helped in private sector efforts at increasing awareness about the SDGs as well influencing and reorienting corporate strategies towards the Global Goals, capitalizing on third party public, private and international expertise and best practices as benchmarks for organizations and companies. Within Coolaire itself, it has been able to identify decent work and economic growth, quality education, gender equality, reduced inequalities, and responsible consumption and production as core pillars of its SDG programs.
Since 2020, Coolaire, together with its charitable arm, the JRT Foundation, has also carried out more than 100 SDG-aligned events benefiting both its workforce and surrounding communities.
Among these initiatives is the TIKYO Scholarship Program, through which the company has invested over P2.1 million for the holistic education of its employees’ children. Another is the Hapag Kalinga Program, an urban gardening initiative that has produced thousands of kilos of vegetables for its employees.
Beyond its social projects, Coolaire has also transformed its operations by adopting solar energy and rainwater harvesting systems as alternative energy sources for its manufacturing processes, saving nearly a million pesos in consumption costs.
“Our activities are guided by the SDGs in the sense that we assess how each will affect and impact environmental, social, and governance situations. We aim to make our business more intentional and purposeful,” shared Joel Ryan, reflecting on the company’s sustainable development efforts since 2020.
Coolaire has likewise pursued partnerships with development institutions—including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Philippines, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in the Philippines as well as like-minded business organizations —to deepen its expertise in the field.
Its involvement in the Chamber in 2023 only fortified the company’s work through more SDG-focused programs it led in the private sector, helping the government assess its progress in sustainable business practices.
“Coolaire’s role makes it a responsible actor in the private sector involved in nation building beyond simple corporate social responsibility,” Joel Ryan said.
A Vision for Philippine Sustainable Development
“Sustainability is not just a buzzword. It guides the private sector towards doing business the right way and leading our people in the right direction,” affirmed Joel Ryan.
Coolaire’s commitment to the SDGs now goes beyond its partners—it also involves turning its own employees into active participants. Since 2023, Coolaire’s workforce has received SDG awareness trainings by its various institutional partners.
“[The SDGs] are a vague concept that not many people understand. People usually associate SDGs as something that only large companies can participate in, [but] it’s for everybody,” Joel Ryan emphasized.
Looking ahead, Joel Ryan reaffirms Coolaire’s vision for the future: “We see SDGs as a social call to action to improve not only our bottomline but people’s environment and futures so that we do not only preserve dreams but leave no one behind.”
Interview and text by Raf Perez Inguito
