“Beginning our 20th Anniversary celebrations through our Green & Clean beach challenge, we hope to contribute to marine life preservation in Singapore and at the same time, bond over a good cause” says Geana Barbosa, Country Manager of Euromonitor Singapore.
Embracing this corporate spirit of giving back to the community, the Singapore team has pioneered our own initiative this time around. Eighty employees from our office jointly volunteered to get down and dirty to clear up garbage along the coastal regions of Singapore to kickstart our 20th anniversary celebrations.
“This may seem like a mundane task or chore to others but the positive impact that we can have on the ecosystem is definitely underestimated” said Farzana Mohsin, Head of Consulting (Asia) and CSR team Lead.
“As high tide approaches, the garbage that you see lying on the shores will be washed into the ocean. Plastic bags, bottles and waste are brought back into the waters and thus pose as a threat to marine life,” she added.
On the morning of 18th May, everyone gathered at East Coast Park Singapore equipped with thongs and garbage bags, ready to get down to work. Within an hour or so, volunteers exceeded their targets and managed to pick up approximately 350kg of trash, filling up 3 big rubbish carts to the brim.
“It was quite shocking for us to see so many plastic bags floating around in the waters, and the amount of straws and Styrofoam being washed onshore. Seeing the amount of Styrofoam litter around, I would reconsider taking out food in Styrofoam boxes next time” said Loo Wee Teck, Industry Manager at Euromonitor International.
Source: Euromonitor International
The initiative’s organising committee members Cheryl Seow, Associate Consultant and Leon Liang, Senior Account Manager were excited about the planning process and the outcome.
“The Beach Clean-up Challenge was a massive success. The Singapore office brought out their competitive spirit as Team East and West battled it out over the amount of trash they could collect at East Coast Park beach” said Cheryl.
“The gruesome battle took place over a 2km stretch of a popular stretch of the East Coast Park. All the excitement and fierce competition brought the attention of THOR, as a brief but intense thunderstorm rained down on us. But nothing could dampen our spirits” she added.
“Wooden planks, switchboards, styrofoam, detergent pack, cigarette butts... you name it, we picked it. Ultimately, the beach was a tad cleaner with our collective efforts, as we gathered over 350kg worth of rubbish (weighed with proper equipment). All in all, 50 huge garbage bags and 3 overflowing litter carts were used. We celebrated our success with a tasty BBQ lunch treat by the beach” said Leon.
Source: Euromonitor International
The Singapore team concurs with the notion that we should do our parts in marine life preservation, as well as improving the community which we all live and do business in. Though our efforts may not make a significant or immediate visible impact on the ecosystem or the environment, we hope that this will also inspire other businesses to do their parts for the community.
In the past year, our office has also conducted a few CSR events, serving different stakeholders such as the elderly, teenage mothers, as well as animal shelters.
As an office, we managed to jointly raise SGD$10,000 for the Babes Pregnancy Crisis support organisation – an amount sufficient to help 5 teenage mothers with essentials for their babies.
Globally, Euromonitor International commits 1% of its annual turnover to charitable causes.
