John Hadad, co-CEO of Hadco Group, said his company managed to prevent 6,000 tonnes of garbage from going into the dump and converted it to US dollars last year. Speaking on a panel at the American Chamber of Commerce’s (Amcham) Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) conference, he said while the venture isn’t quite profitable now, it soon will be.
He said when management took a deeper look into the company, they realised that if their business model didn’t change, it would not go beyond five years.
Hadad said, “When we started looking at things back then, there was no ESG, we just asked what is sustainable? What are the ills in our society? We’re a TT-based company, we are locals, we have one passport and all of us are at the ownership level.”
The Hadco Group formed a recycling division in 2017 with the acquisition of Eco Impact Co Ltd, and now collects, processes and recycles waste vegetable oil, exporting it to be reused in the production of alternative fuel. In 2020, Hadco also formed New Age Recycling Ltd to recycle wastepaper, cardboard, Tetrapak – cartons and milk/juice boxes – and aluminium cans.
Hadad was responding to a question put to the panel on government’s role in making sure there was alignment when it comes to achieving ESG goals.
The conference aimed to give companies information they need to help them make the leap and invest in ESG policies The conference was the first of its kind held by Amcham.
Hadad was joined by Mark Loquan, president of the National Gas Co of TT Ltd, Gregory Hill, managing director of Ansa Merchant Bank Ltd, and Bill Shireman, president and CEO of Future 500. Future 500 is a US-based non-profit consultancy firm that gets companies and their stakeholders to work together to make the environment and society thrive.
Hadad said, “The fact is, turning waste into US currency is an easy thing to do. Maybe the operational side of it might be difficult, but it’s an easy thing to do without regulation.
"However, the low-hanging fruit for us as a country is to enact some form of legislation that can facilitate this.”
Hadad explained that with legislation, this new avenue of foreign income would be separated from domestic, commercial and industrial businesses. He said this would also force a sort of compliance through regulation among all these industries.
“It would make life easier for us, and I assure you, will then be very profitable, and it will help us in some way.”
Hadad added that the government involvement in ESG investment is needed.
He said government is part of the ecosystem for investments and policies like these, as the government allows processes to flow more easily.
Shireman, who was heavily involved in promoting legislation in California, agreed with Hadad and said he did not see the need for government to be overly involved in decisions like these. But government is best suited for creating the framework and boundaries when it comes to these incentives to ensure fair play among companies.
Shireman recalled his experience in California,
