Page 19 - Sphere No.31 (Jul 2012)

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Sphere 31
MeMbers of the A s WAtson Group
(AsW) are always busy bringing more to life in
the communities in which they operate, and
during the month of october 2011, they were
particularly so.
october played host to the first ever AsW
Global Volunteer Month, an idea conceived by
the AsW Global Committee following the release
of the AsW Corporate social responsibility (Csr)
policy.
Although Global Volunteer Month is the first
global collective effort in support of the Csr
policy, most AsW business units around the
world have long been engaging in philanthropic
activities on their own. In 2009 alone, the
AsW’s global collective effort resulted in the
contribution of more than usD13 million in
charitable donations. In environmental and
emotional terms, the contributions have been
priceless.
“What we really want to accomplish through
Global Volunteer Month is to engage everyone
across AsW and around the world all at once.
What better cause for everyone to unite around
than giving back to our community,” explained
Mr Gerard van breen, Ceo of A s Watson
benelux and Member of the AsW Csr Global
Committee, which is responsible for defining the
AsW’s Csr policy and direction. “This is a very
important effort, because we have such a great
responsibility to the local communities in which
we operate. We absolutely cannot thrive without
considering the needs of our community, and that
must go beyond simply what products they need.”
october was selected as Global Volunteer
Month because it is the off-peak period for most of
the AsW health and beauty chains. “We saw this
as the perfect time to engage all of our employees
at once in something extremely meaningful,” said
Mr van breen.
Local AsW units, based on the needs of their
local communities, independently determined
the priorities for their contributions to the
global volunteer efforts, spanning across
health, environmental and disaster relief
causes. “for instance, there might be
some relevant services provided by the
government in one country that are
not provided by the government in
another. That provides a gap that
we can attempt to help fill with our
“A culture of caring is part
of the Group’s passion. It
permeates every business
division, every store and every
employee, everywhere.”
- A SWatson CSR Policy