Shangri-La’s Race for Hope national event kicked off today at Century Park Shanghai to celebrate the hotel group’s collaborative environmental efforts across mainland China. The event brought together all 50 hotels as well as Shangri-La’s employees, guests and consumers, over 700 people, to participate in either the family-friendly 5km race or the 2km fun-run competition and to contribute their green energy to water Shangri-La Caring Forest on Alipay Ant Forest platform.
Shangri-La Group officially rolled out Race for Hope on Alipay Ant Forest platform in September 2019 as part of the Group’s commitment to sustainability and environmental protection. Since then, more than 120,000 people have made participation in this programme and have watered Shangri-La Caring Forest over 390,000 times to support reforestation in desertified areas in China. Besides getting people to clock in their daily activities, local runners have participated in the running activities by Shangri-La properties in different cities to raise awareness for environmental protection and as a call for action in the local community.
“Shangri-La has long been committed to protecting our environment,” said Victor Vazquez, Shangri-La’s Executive Vice President – Operations, East China who took part in 5km race competition today. “Under our Race for Hope initiative, we want to instil a sense of urgency that all of us must start doing our part now to save our planet. We are also excited to leverage the Alipay Ant Forest digital platform. The ease of the platform will drive greater participation from everyone, every day, and everywhere. We believe it will also encourage our colleagues, guests and the community to start changing their behaviours once they see how they can convert a low carbon lifestyle into real tree planting”.
Shangri-La’s Race for Hope programme provides a long-term platform to engage with as many people as possible via both online interactions and offline activities. It aims to achieve greater social and environment impact and to help plant 5,000 trees in two years when the Shangri-La Group celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2021. Everyone can easily support the initiative by taking part in eco-friendly activities. For example, by walking, jogging and using public transportation, participants can earn green energy to water Shangri-La Caring Forest. All online participation will then turn into tangible results of real tree planting through Alipay Ant Forest and their NGO partners.
Using Alipay’s digital App, only requires a few taps on the smart phone: open Alipay, scan “Shangri-La Caring Forest” QR code or search for “Shangri-La” on Alipay Ant Forest to access the campaign and to begin the online tree planting.
Tags: Shangri-la hotels
