Every year, we publish an ESG report to track our progress towards environmental, social, and governance goals. That report is filled with charts, percentages, and important milestones.
Data gives us essential accountability. It shows, for instance, that 189,000 women and persons with disabilities (PWD) now earn through our platform as driver-partners—a 40 per cent increase from last year. Or that Grab users have collectively helped avoid or remove 772,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and plant over 210,000 trees through Grab’s Green Programme.
However, numbers on a spreadsheet only capture the outcome. They do not show how those outcomes happen, and what impact they bring to the individuals and families on the ground.
Working alongside passionate individuals and organisations taught us: meaningful social impact requires collaboration and trust between stakeholders. We can drive real impact when we combine the grassroots expertise of our partners with Grab’s scalable platform infrastructure.
To document how these collaborations work in practice, we followed some of our partner organisations across Southeast Asia, in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Here is what their work teaches us about building sustainable ecosystems—and the lasting results that come from connecting local initiatives with global scale.
Case Study 1: Lowering barriers to financial independence for women
Single mothers in Southeast Asia often face a dual challenge: assuming responsibility as the primary household earner while navigating social stigmas around divorce or separation.
When working with Single Moms Indonesia (SMI), an organisation dedicated to helping women rebuild their lives, the need was clear. As SMI founder Maureen Hitipeuw notes: “What we needed wasn’t charity. We needed partners who could help women earn again.”
While Grab provides a flexible platform for earning, flexible work alone is insufficient if the entry barrier is too high. By collaborating directly with SMI, Grab established dedicated registration assistance and tailored onboarding pathways, allowing SMI members to help one another as they learn to take on driver-partner roles with Grab, where they can access flexible yet reliable income opportunities.
Case Study 2: Designing inclusive systems for persons with disabilities
Physical infrastructure across many Southeast Asian cities remains largely inaccessible for persons with disabilities (PWD), significantly restricting employment options.
Community groups like Komunitas Ojol Tuna Rungu Indonesia (KOTRI) in Indonesia and Persatuan Pemandu e-Hailing OKU Fizikal Malaysia (PPEOFM) in Malaysia, started by e-hailing drivers who themselves are dealing with disabilities, have long worked to foster independence for deaf, amputee, and mobility-impaired individuals. However, joining an e-hailing or delivery platform requires overcoming logistical barriers.
To support their efforts, Grab worked alongside KOTRI and PPEOFM to implement specific operational adjustments, such as organising one-on-one onboarding sessions tailored to speech-, hearing-, or physical-impairment needs.
In some cases, Grab helps PWD driver-partners navigate options for adapting vehicles to meet disability requirements.
“We guide them to earn their own income, so they don’t need to ask anyone for help,” says Siew Queen, the Vice President of Malaysian Association of Disabled E-hailing Drivers (PPEOFM). She has lived with Poliio since she was seven and is an inspiration to the Malaysian PWD e-hailing drivers community.
When systems are adapted to accommodate diverse physical needs, economic participation and dignity follow.
Case Study 3: Connecting local environmental solutions to broader scale
Air and water pollution are a common occurrence in parts of Southeast Asia. The impact of climate change is felt in rising temperatures and extreme weather events.
Community leaders across the region are fighting on the frontlines of these challenges. For example Aom Kwanpiromtara, a resident of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, whose young daughter suffers health issues from the severe seasonal air pollution in the area caused by farmers burning agricultural waste.
Aom joined Biochar Life, an organisation that collects crop waste from farmers and turns it into biochar in a specialised kiln. This gives farmers an alternative to burning the waste on their fields–which releases greenhouse gases into the air and causes pollution. The biochar that comes from burning waste in Biochar Life’s kilns can even be used by farmers to improve soil health in future planting cycles..
Aom helps farmers adopt Biochar Life’s new practices, but it’s a long and costly process. That’s where Grab saw an opportunity for partnership.
To help BioChar scale its adoption, Grab linked its Green Programme directly to its initiatives. Through a voluntary opt-in toggle integrated within consumer journey, Grab purchases verified carbon credits generated by local BioChar projects. This provides direct financial backing to farmers, helping them transition to cleaner land-management practices without sacrificing income.
“Our main objective is to keep scaling, to have more impact—reducing smoke pollution, removing more carbon,” says Matt Rickard, CEO Biochar Life, Thailand.
Grab supports grassroots initiatives across Southeast Asia with the same mechanism. For example mangrove restoration initiatives in the Philippines, through the organisation Fostering Education & Environment for Development (FEED).
Mangroves are vital ecosystems that produce oxygen, trap carbon dioxide, protect coastlines and support marine life. The Philippines has already lost half of its mangrove forests, making restoration more important than ever.
Grab ran a campaign in the Philippines encouraging more users to make contributions via the Green Programme toggle, which helped FEED and its community partners replant tens of thousands of mangrove saplings.
The campaign was so successful that another 11,000+ trees were added to the initial target, says Anne-Marie Bakker, Director of FEED. “That’s the power of the partnership. It’s working, and it wasn’t actually that difficult.”
She also stresses that the stories of local environmental advocates need to become more mainstream. “They are the first line of defense for the environment as well as our food supply,” she says.
Looking ahead
Meaningful social impact is built through ecosystems. Our role at Grab is to create links between people, local organisations, practical economic opportunities, and the scale and reach of our digital platform, so that local communities can lead their own progress.
It’s an ongoing, shared effort. To learn more about our partner organisations and explore the docuseries, visit Grab’s Impact Partners page.
