Company: SMART Communications, Inc.
Country: Philippines
Project Name: SMARTrees
Category: Environment
Website:
Objectives:
The project aimed to do the following:
i.contribution to national reforestation efforts by planting 800,000 seedlings by 2010
ii.recruit 2,000 employees to help out in the tree planting activities
iii.reinforce positive community relations
Details of the project:
Between 1990 and 2007, reports said that the Philippines had already lost over 3.4M hectares of its forest cover. Scientists also pegged a 2 percent drop in forest cover yearly. This alarming prompted SMART to actively support reforestation.
In 2004, SMART employees planted trees in Mount Banahaw and Marikina, and mangrove propagules in Cebu through a project spearheaded by the Public Affairs Group and the Human Resource Management and Development Group (HRMDG). From 2004 to 2007, SMART, along with parent company Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), contributed 130,000 seedlings to the country’s reforestation efforts. Since then, SMART had been aggressive in its tree planting program, tapping employees and partnering with schools, government agencies, local government units, and non-government organizations.
In July 2008, the PLDT Group, through the PLDT-SMART Foundation embarked on a three-year tree-planting program with Japanese mobile communications company NTT DOCOMO, Inc. Under the agreement, the Group would identify tree-planting sites and mobilize volunteers in a weekly tree planting activity, while NTT DOCOMO would provide additional funding. Initially, NTT DOCOMO gave Y3M (US$24,000) to augment SMART’s budget.
Public Affairs, with support from HRMDG, launched the project SMARTrees. It established partnerships with organizations, thereby leading to the identification of tree planting areas nationwide. HRMDG handled employee volunteer recruitment and orientation.
Upon the recommendation of local community partners, only native and fruit-bearing trees and mangrove propagules were planted to maintain the balance of the local ecosystem. SMART also tapped local community partners to ensure the care and maintenance of the seedlings and propagules.
During the tree planting activities, employees were oriented on the proper way of planting tress and on the significance of tree planting. The orientation also helped the employees understand why SMART was engaging in pro-environment initiatives and told them of SMART’s other environmental undertakings. As the PLDT Group and NTT DOCOMO entered the second year of their tree planting partnership, SMART increased its target number of seedlings and propagules to be planted to 300,000.
One of the key developments of the project in 2009 was its helping a partner indigenous group from one of the Luzon tree planting sites establish a cooperative for community livelihood projects. The cooperative was now registered with the Cooperative Development Authority.
The Public Affairs Group initiated a SMARTrees campaign in August to cascade the tree planting targets for the year and engage others to volunteer. The campaign consisted of online trivia emailers, trivia quizzes, and a photo contest so that employees from the geographically scattered SMART offices might have access to the information and the online campaign.
The 2008 tree-planting efforts resulted in the planting of 167,000 trees and propagules by about 3,000 employee-volunteers and community partners in 12 provinces across the country. The seedlings planted covered 120 hectares of land. In 2009, about 125,000 seedlings and propagules were planted in eight provinces. When the seedlings were fully grown, they acted as filters for the carbon dioxide emitted.
By joining the planting activities and through the month-long campaign, employees became aware of the need for reforestation efforts. They also became involved in the company’s environment preservation activities.
SMART’s tree-planting activities gained publicity for the company and a positive corporate image because through the project, the company showed its concern for the environment and its desire to help contain climate change.