Bangkok, Thailand, Sep 30, 2015: Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE: SEE) was named the winner of the CSR Impact category in the Asian CSR Awards 2015 presented at the 14th Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR),
Sealed Air’s Himanshu Jain, Vice President for Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, received the award from His Excellency M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula, former Deputy Prime Minister, Kingdom of Thailand at the awards ceremony. The CSR Impact Award honors a program that has an on-going track record of significant sustainable impact and is innovative and replicable.
From among 134 entries from 12 countries, Sealed Air won the award for its Soap for Hope™ program on soap recycling and distribution. In partnering with hotels who are Sealed Air’s customers, Sealed Air collects and channels used soap to local communities for recycling into reconstituted soap bars. The soap is then distributed back to the local communities.
The program’s objective is three-fold: to save lives by promoting a cleaner and healthier environment through proper hand-washing with soap: to provide a means of livelihood for local communities through learning a new skill; and to help hotels reduce waste by recycling used or discarded soap.
“A typical 400-room hotel generates 3.5 metric tons of solid soap waste per annum. Hand-washing with soap is among the effective and inexpensive ways to prevent diarrheal and respiratory diseases in developing regions. Put these facts together and you can see that Soap for Hope addresses waste reduction and hygiene enhancement at the same time, while also generating livelihoods for local communities through soap recycling,” said Sealed Air’s Stefan Phang, Director for Sustainability and CSR.
How Soap for Hope works is simple. Once used guest soap is collected from the hotels, Sealed Air transports them to local communities and teaches them to re-process soap using a specially customized cold-press method that requires no running water and electricity. The reconstituted soap bars are then distributed to communities with limited access to basic hygiene amenities.
Soap for Hope was first launched in Cambodia in 2013, and since then, it has been implemented in multiple Asian countries and expanded beyond the region. Soap for Hope is now in 17 cities across 11 countries that include Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, China, United Arab Emirates, Kenya and South Africa. Currently, 120 hotels are supporting the program and at least 160,000 beneficiaries gain free access to soap every year.
“Sustainability drives everything that we do at Sealed Air and Soap for Hope is a very real example of creating shared and sustainable value for all parties involved – our customers, the NGOs, the local communities and Sealed Air employees. Every party plays a critical role and has embraced the Soap for Hope program enthusiastically. I thank everyone for their support and participation and look forward to spreading the impact of Soap for Hope to more countries,” said Himanshu Jain.
Soap for Hope’s most recent launch was in Vietnam which was a resounding success with participation from 11 hotels.
The Asian CSR Awards recognize companies that have embodied the principles of corporate responsibility in their business philosophy and operations, as well as programs that have achieved excellence in terms of services to stakeholders and innovative sustainable solutions to address pressing social challenges. The Asian CSR Awards, a featured event at the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (AFCSR), are given out by the Asian Institute of Management – Ramon V. del Rosario, Sr. Center for Corporate Social Responsibility (AIM – RVR CSR Center) and Asia Inc Forum.
This year’s Asian CSR Awards recognize companies in the categories of: Environmental Excellence, Education Improvement, Poverty Alleviation, and Health Enhancement. There is also a CSR Special Impact Award, which recognizes outstanding programs that demonstrate significant sustainable impact and are innovative, replicable, and scalable. Meanwhile, the Intel-AIM Corporate Responsibility Award (IACRA) recognizes a company’s approach in embedding CSR into its business and its strategies to promoting CSR among its internal and external stakeholders.
Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)
