Responding to Vietnam’s National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Waste Management (NAP) at provincial level, Suntory Holdings Limited (SHD) and Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage (SPVB) cooperated with Ocean Conservancy to organize the “Beach Cleanup Event” in Can Gio. The program has collected and treated nearly 1 ton of waste thanks to the participation and contributions of more than 150 volunteers who are SPVB employees and young people.

The beach cleanup event in Can Gio organized by Suntory Group and Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam helped collect nearly 1 ton of waste and cleaned up 250m of the beach.

Environmental status reports show that Vietnam's marine environment is currently showing signs of pollution and degradation. According to statistics of the Vietnam Administration of Seas and Islands - Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, about 70% of marine and ocean pollution originates from the mainland, originating from waste discharge of towns and cities. In which organic waste is waste from industrial activities, which significantly affects the marine environment, degrades the quality of aquatic products and a number of other marine species, and pollutes sea water, especially in the coastal areas, bays and estuary areas of our country.

In the face of increasing ocean pollution, over the years, many organizations have been taking measures to reduce pollution of the marine environment. 

“Cleaning the beach – Small action, big meaning”

Responding to the Vietnam’s National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Waste Management and towards the goal of sustainable development, since 2019 SPVB has cooperated with organizations to clean up beaches in Vietnam every year. SPVB calls on company employees and young people to participate in activities to clean up beaches so that each employee in the company has a sense of and responsibility to the community in their environmental protection work. Continuing this series of meaningful activities, on September 17, 2022, SHD and SPVB cooperated with Ocean Conservancy - an American nonprofit environmental advocacy group to jointly launch 30/04 beach cleaning event in Can Gio.

From early morning, more than 150 volunteers including SPVB employees with their families and young people gathered at the 30/04[KT1]  Can Gio Beach to participate in the event. After an arduous cleaning session, the volunteers collected nearly 1 ton of waste and cleared 250m of the beach. The waste will then be collected and treated by the public garbage collection team of Can Gio People's Committee.

Volunteers and employees of Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam tried to pull out trash buried deep in the sand

Speaking at the event, Mr. Do Thai Vuong – SPVB’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs said, “We urge everyone to join hands to help reduce the negative impact to the environment so that together we contribute to building a greener, cleaner and more beautiful Vietnam. Each of our small actions has a good meaning and can spread positive messages to society."

Mr. Do Thai Vuong - Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs spoke and participated in waste collection at the event

Beach cleanup is an activity in-line with one of the focused areas of Suntory Group Plastic Policy - promoting[KT1]  activities that drive change in consumer behavior, where each Suntory employee will work to change their lifestyle, promote sorting and collection, and actively participate in social contribution activities such as cleaning up rivers and beaches. This activity is also an annual activity that SPVB deploys with the goal of the company's employees and young people to take practical actions in environmental protection in the local communities.

As a pioneer in activities towards sustainable development, recently, SPVB has launched many initiatives and implemented many meaningful activities to help build a better Vietnam. Specifically, in production activities, in addition to saving water and energy, in April, the company launched the Pepsi product using the first 100[KT2] % recycled PET (rPET) bottle in Vietnam market. The company also implemented many initiatives to reduce plastic for packaging, helping to reduce nearly 12,000 tons of plastic from 2018 until now.

For community activities, the company cooperates with the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union to initiate the program "Millions Trees - For a green Vietnam" with the goal of planting and taking care of 01 [KT3] million trees in watershed forests area frequently affected by natural disasters, storms and floods. The program "Mizuiku - I love clean water" by SHD and SPVB in collaboration with domestic partners has deployed more than 3,000 classes for 100,000 students in 16 provinces, helping to build more than 100 houses sanitation and clean water supply system for primary schools across the country, more than 1.9 million people have benefited since the program was launched.

Image of Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam volunteers and employees participating in the beach cleanup event