NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chinese
e-commerce giant JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) kicks off a week-long
sustainability program on October 10,
raising awareness around sustainable consumption while developing
its ongoing efforts to reduce consumption-related waste. JD.com's
initiatives aim to diminish the negative environmental impact of
the rocketing consumption patterns inherent to the world's most
populous nation. Partnering with the e-retailer to launch the
second-annual "Green Planet-Sustainable Week" event are World Wide
Fund for Nature (WWF) and The China Children and Teenagers' Fund
(CCTF).
As China's largest retailer,
JD.com has positioned itself as a leader in the industry,
developing sustainable solutions and initiatives unique to the
challenges in lessening the impact and environmental footprint
created by e-commerce. During the week-long push, JD, WWF and CCTF
will work together to accelerate the trend toward more sustainable
solutions.
"The spectacular rise of Chinese consumption has been a major
force behind the country's incredible economic story but has also
contributed to unprecedented environmental challenges," said
Zhonghao Jin, Head of Market
Practice, WWF China. "By actively encouraging its over 300 million
customers to recycle and reduce waste, JD.com is
admirably leading the transition towards a sustainable future for
China and the world. WWF is
honored to partner with them. I believe this week's activities will
help raise consumer awareness and accelerate the mainstreaming of
sustainable consumption."
Green Planet-Sustainable Week activities will include:
- Offering eco-friendly, reusable shopping bags. In
response to a call from the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) to reduce pollution caused by plastics, JD's new bags have
been specifically created from the fabric of discarded apparel.
Free bags will be distributed throughout the course of the
week-long event and will come with special RFID Chips that can be
scanned as coupons in offline stores through JD's partners.
Additionally, the company is also working with dozens of suppliers,
including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, PepsiCo and Haier, to
develop more environmentally-friendly products using recycled
materials thus continuing the program to reduce their use of
plastics and lessen the country's pollutions.
- Collecting clothing using its in-house logistics
network. JD's clothing drive is part of its larger recycling
initiatives, collecting new and used donations from customers in
its nationwide in-house logistics network which covers a whopping
99% of China's population.
Materials collected will either be sent to facilities to be
ethically recycled or will be distributed for reuse in impoverished
areas of China. In the drive, some
clothing collections will also be donated to charity organizations
to be sold. A similar drive in 2017 led to collections of nearly
400,000 items of clothing from 150 million people in four cities.
This year, the program is set to expand to cover 47 cities
throughout the country. Proceeds will be donated to lower-income
families, people with disabilities and charity groups.
- Gathering appliances to be recycled. Customers will be
able to trade in major appliances for recycling with the help of
third-party companies through JD's platform. All collected
appliances will be disassembled, collecting parts to be used for
repairs, helping to reduce the waste generated by household
appliances and the pollution created by their production. Working
with JD Foundation, the retailer's charity affiliate, the
participating companies will donate a portion of proceeds to
charitable activities on the customer's behalf, while customers
will be eligible for payment and coupons from JD in exchange for
the trade.
"As the largest retailer both online and offline in China, JD.com holds a special responsibility
to use our influence and infrastructure to mitigate the
environmental impact of consumption," said Libo Ma, head of the CSR department at JD.com,
who is also general secretary of the company's charity affiliate,
JD Foundation. "Together with the WWF and CCTF, we are excited to
expand our environmental protection efforts, and to leverage our
pooled resources to help benefit some of the most underprivileged
groups in society."
Beyond the week-long program encouraging recycling and teaching
sustainability throughout the country, JD is actively converting a
delivery fleet of 2,000 vehicles to electric vehicles, while
long-term working with partners to convert hundreds of thousands of
others in the next three years, which would save several million
tons in emissions per year. The company is also researching
biodegradable packaging, continuing its industry-leading move
toward addressing and reducing e-commerce waste. In 2016, JD
switched to thinner strips of tape in its packaging, a seemingly
small measure that has in turn saved over 100 million meters of
tape since its inception.
Based on insights from JD's hundreds of millions of customers,
the company's 2018 Trends in Green Consumption Development report
revealed an increasing consumer demand for green products. JD has
been active in introducing more green products through its platform
to meet consumers' broad range of demands and preferences. Last
year, the total volume of green products available on JD increased
by more than half and the total volume of green purchases made on
JD increased by 71%, contributing to 15.1% of total sales on the
platform during the same period.
All logistic information tracing donations and trade-ins
throughout JD's Green Planet-Sustainable Week are available through
JD.com's proprietary supply chain management technology.
About JD.com:
Founded in 2004 in Beijing by CEO
Richard Liu, JD.com is China's largest online retailer and its
biggest overall retailer, as well as the country's biggest Internet
company by revenue. After owning a string of tech storefronts in
China in the early '00s, Liu moved
to e-comm to counter rising demand and the effects of the SARS
virus in 2003 that left most of the country homebound. The meteoric
rise of the retailer is evidence of trustworthy sales practices and
innovative delivery and logistics projects, now leading the global
industry in AI and eco-friendly solutions. The unrivalled
nationwide fulfillment network provided by JD.com issues same- and
next-day delivery that covers a population of more than 1 billion
customers – a level of service and speed unmatched globally.
Contact: press@jd.com
SOURCE JD.com