MANILA, Philippines — In adherence to the United Nations Sustainability Goals by 2030, Puregold has stepped up its efforts to lessen its carbon footprint with the launch of its #WalangPlastikMondays in all of its stores in the National Capital Region.

The supermarket chain will also give a P1 cashback for every eco bag used by Perks and Tindahan Ni Aling Puring members, who can earn up to P5 savings for every transaction.

Sachets are a big part of plastic pollution. However, it plays a big part in the sari-sari store business. As a company that supports this small enterprise, we asked Co if there are measures Puregold is undertaking to curb sachet pollution, to which he hastily replied: “In Q3, we will revive our recycle initiatives, which we started in 2019. We will once again encourage our customers to exchange their recyclable wastes for essential grocery items in designated Puregold stores.”

Puregold customers have been making more sustainable choices with the growing usage of eco bags, resulting in a decline of almost 40% in the company’s purchase of single-use plastic bags in 2021.

Ayoko sa plastik’

Did you know that the world produces about 300 million tons of plastic every year and most of these are single-use? Single-use plastics don’t decompose and turn into microplastics, which mostly end up in the world’s oceans and threaten marine life.

Single-use plastics include plastic grocery bags, water and soda bottles and packaging straws. By 2050, experts predict that there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans.

Puregold’s sustainability efforts

Puregold puts environmental protection at the heart of its social responsibility agenda.

For years, it has been driving a wide range of environmental measures across all its branches in order to minimize the negative impacts on the environment.

“As a mindful company, Puregold reuses, recycles and reduces whatever resources are available,” said Puregold President Vincent Co. “As a retailer, we encourage our customers to do the same. We are very much invested in doing business sustainability and helping the younger generations look forward to their future. This is a community effort and we hope to work hand-in-hand with our customers in achieving our objective.”

Puregold customers have been making more sustainable choices with the growing usage of eco bags, resulting in a decline of almost 40% in the company’s purchase of single-use plastic bags in 2021.

Almost half of Puregold stores have either discontinued the use of single-use plastic bags or transitioned to more sustainable materials such as recycled carton boxes or eco bags.

On the road to net-zero emissions

Aside from its #WalangPlastikMondays initiative, Puregold stores are geared towards conversion to 100% LED main lighting to reduce energy consumption.

Further, Puregold’s 135 wastewater treatment facilities are compliant with government regulations, as it also ventures into rainwater catchment, gray water reuse and other water saving and mitigating measures to lessen the company’s impact on water resources.

Meanwhile, migration to business logistics requirements to optimum cross-dock operations efficiency is in a position to help reduce carbon emission by an estimated 36%.