Source: Manila Times
As climate change is the biggest challenge that the world faces today, it has entered the corporate boardrooms as an urgent agenda that must yield positive results if Planet Earth has to go on living for its people.
There have been milestones in the last 10 years as evidenced by the development of fuel efficient cars, solar and wind-driven energy, reusable packaging and eco-friendly buildings, among others.
Newsweek magazine has taken note of this development as “a small example of how the economic case for going green is becoming more compelling.”
In 2009, the magazine inaugurated its Green Rankings, starting with the 500 largest US companies that have done the most for the environment.
Avon Cosmetics ranked 25th among the 500 companies and third among industries on the list with its green score of 84 percent. The company was cited for its use of palm oil, which is linked to deforestation, and leadership “in the personal care industry with its strong environmental management system.”
The magazine further commended the cosmetics firm for its commitment to reduce “GHG emissions by 40 percent from 2002 levels at its global manufacturing locations.”
With its dedication to the proposition that “women get things done,” the US-based firm is now mobilizing its ‘distaff army’ of 6.2 million sales representatives in 65 countries to get the message across that Mother Earth needs help, and everyone can do its part.
Avon Philippines delivers this message through its program “Hello Green Tomorrow” that promotes the 5Rs of Green Action (Replant, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink).
The 5Rs are not mere play on words as they are part of bigger, more pressing efforts to save the Amazon, the Atlantic rainforest in South America, also known as the “lungs of the earth,” which stretches across parts of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
Mike Gudgin, general manager of Avon Philippines, says there is urgent need to plant more trees all over the world to make up for Amazon’s loss.
“Amazon has the greatest impact on climate change and, sadly, it is the most endangered because of deforestation that has cut all but 7 percent of the trees in the area.”
To spur more action, Avon is spending $1 million for the planting of one million trees in the Amazon.
Avon Philippines replicates the mother company’s program through its support for Bantay Kalikasan, the environmental arm of ABS-CBN Foundation, and its project, Save the La Mesa Watershed.
The 2,700-hectare watershed is vital to the city, with its 2,000-hectare forest serving as Metro Manila’s carbon sink, says John Paul Balayon, Bantay Kalikasan operations manager.
More than being the main source of drinking waters, “the La Mesa watershed is the lungs of Metro Manila,” he adds.
Avon and Bantay Kalikasan hope to save the watershed, which, because of illegal settling, poaching and logging, have left 1,722 hectares of the area badly in need of rehabilitation.
According to Gudgin, Avon’s first step towards eco conservation is to engage its representatives in adopting the 5Rs of Green Action. Next is to raise funds for Bantay Kalikasan’s Save the Watershed project using the net proceeds from the sale of the Hello Green Tomorrow reusable bags.
He says use of the HGT bags will mean less need for plastic, known soil and water contaminants, or paper bags, for which huge number of trees has been felled.
According to the 5Rs, if each Avon customer in the world uses fewer plastic bags per week, some 227 million liters of oil would be saved from the bag manufacturing process.
If every customer recycles just two magazines each year, the practice will avoid putting 127,000 metric tons of waste into landfills.
And if just one in 10 Avon representatives worldwide would unplug her cell phone chargers when not in use, she could actually avoid emitting 63,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, one good deed equivalent to taking more than 11,000 cars off the road for a year.
“We’re all in this together and if we can work together to get the 5Rs of Green Action in the marketplace, we can help save the environment for today and for generations to come,” Gudgin says.
