A conference was held in Ho Chi Minh City on May 12 to launch a campaign to encourage consumers to use so-called green products, which are products that are environment friendly.
The green products campaign is co-organized for the second time by Saigon Giai Phong newspaper, the HCMC Department of Industry and Trade and the supermarket chain Saigon Co-op.
Addressing the conference, Quach To Dung, the deputy director of the department said HCMC is one of the 10 cities in the world suffering the highest impact from climate change.
He added that the city was aware of this problem and hence in 2007 the city had become the 40th member of C40, a group of 40 global cities committed to tackling climate change.
Mr. Dung said that participating in C40 proved that the city considered coping and minimizing damage caused by climate change as an important and key issue of the city.
Nguyen Van Duc, deputy minister of Natural Resources and Environment, said using green products is one of the ways for consumers to contribute towards the protection of their immediate surrounding environment.
Through the campaign, consumers can exercise their rights to boycott products from so-called black enterprises, which are enterprises polluting the environment and hence compelling them to protect the environment.
Nguyen Thi Hong, vice chairperson of the HCMC People’s Committee, said the campaign is aimed for enterprises to protect the environment and call on the community and enterprises to perform their role in the development of the national economy while still ensuring sustainable development.
According to the campaign’s organizing board, this year’s campaign will focus on changing people’s consumption habits towards environment friendly ones and adopting economic measures to stimulate the demand for green products via supermarkets and trading centers, especially Co-op Mart supermarkets nationwide.
Hoang Thi Minh Hong, member of the organizing board, said a series of activities would take place in many provinces and cities from May 15 in response to the campaign, with the participation of volunteers.
She added that so far, over 1,000 people have registered to be environment volunteers.
The Co-op Mart supermarket will give coupons called “Green Consumption Card”, worth VND10, 000 to each customer who spends more than VND300, 000 on at least 1 green product or a Co-op Mart brand product.
The organizing board will also give 100,000 coupons to residential communities to stimulate the demand for green products.
A representative of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said WWF is willing to support the campaign and provide green enterprises and enterprises participating in the campaign with up to date information of green business practices and products.
WWF will also create opportunities for these enterprises to approach the network of WWF green enterprises and minimize risks while doing business with foreign partners.
Initially, the campaign was launched in 2010 with over 3,000 volunteers.
