PRAIS Corporate Communications and PRAIS Foundation, the initiators of the National Planting Movement „Millions of People, Millions of Trees”, have announced the results of the 4th edition. Since its launch, in September 2006, to the month of May 2010, the movement has cumulatively registered a record number of plantings nationwide: more than 53,198,000 trees and more than 23,254,000 younglings and plants. These results have been made possible due to the extraordinary involvement of 700 organisations, 98,000 volunteers and 91,000 employees. Institutional partners are The Ministry for Environment and The National Environment Guard. Smithfield Romania and Lafarge Romania are Founder Members. The movement has been officially recognised by the United Nations for Environment Program (UNEP) and is developed under the logo of UNEP’s global program „Plant for the Planet”. This recognition is based on the contribution of the Romanian movement to the UN environmental program – the campaign „One Billion Trees”.
The most active foundations, schools, mayoralties, companies, forestry directorates and departments, as well as other organisations in Romania, which registered the highest number of plantings nationwide in the 4th edition, were awarded the „Millions of People, Millions of Trees” Trophy. The movement communication platform, www.milioanedecopaci.ro website has registered an increase in traffic this year, with visitors from 40 countries, such as: USA, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Russia and Austria.
Over the last 14 years, PRAIS has created and implemented in Romania 18 national CSR programs, platforms which support a different kind of progress, based on healthy, sustainable lifestyles, access to education, culture, information, planet resources, and promote the concern for the nature. These are part of the new culture and global market: LOHAS – „Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability” to which PRAIS adhered. 20 multinational companies and professional associations trusted these national CSR projects.
“Since its establishment, PRAIS received international recognition in Tokyo, from the IPRA jury, being awarded the IPRA Golden World Award for the best CSR program in 1999 and Grand Prize for the best PR program in all the categories. The national planting movement was nominated by IPRA in 2007 in the section of the best environmental PR campaign. We are grateful to Smithfield Romania’ 4 years involvement in this major project. We have being honoured to award both SMF Ferme and SMF Prod with our Foundation Trophy for Excellence in CSR”, declared Silvia Bucur, President of PRAIS Foundation.
PRAIS has also celebrated the second edition of the national initiative „Your World? Clean!”- www.lumeatacurata.ro, the educational component of the planting movement, which aims at civically and responsibly educating the young generation to save planet resources, selectively collect recyclable waste, protect the environment by volunteering actions.
To date, “Your World? Clean!” has involved more than 5,200 pupils and 230 educators from 92 schools in Bucharest, Medgidia, Arad and Timişoara Counties, as well as 15,000 members of the pupils’ families. 50 open lessons were conducted in schools; the pupils created more than 1,300 decorative items from recyclable materials, of which 200 were awarded. The pupils registered 260 compositions on environmental topics on the website www.lumeatacurata.ro. In Bucharest, district 1, all the schools involved in the program were provided with bins for selective collection. The pupils have cumulatively collected from their daily consumption, in the two editions: 605.32 cubic meters of paper, 216.57 cubic meters of plastic.
These two national projects are possible due to the involvement and support from our institutional partners: Ministry of Environment and Forestry, National Environmental Guard, School Inspectorate of the Municipality of Bucharest.