The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Viet Nam and the German Business Association (GBA) in Viet Nam have announced that they will collaborate to support, promote and recommend the WWF Green Office programme to all its member corporations.
The GBA in Viet Nam, with more than 160 member corporations, is the first business association in the country to publicly and proactively support, promote and recommend the WWF Green Office programme.
GBA Chairman Alexander Bischoff explained that ongoing support for the programme would improve environmental awareness and energy savings, amongst, and hopefully beyond, its member corporations.
“Protecting the environment, especially in Viet Nam, is no longer a private task but a responsibility for all of society, and therefore its corporations and businesses,” Bischoff said.
“The World Bank calculates that Viet Nam may incur a loss of up to 5.5 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) due to environmental pollution and wasted energy each year. Therefore, when the country reached a GDP of US$76 billion in 2008, the nation lost around $4.2 billion.
“The country has to spend around $780 million annually on community health problems aggravated by pollution-induced diseases, also according to the global lender,” said Bischoff.
He added that some GBA member corporations have already experienced success as WWF Green Offices.
Current Green Office Viet Nam members include the Finnish Embassy, the British Embassy and British Consulate-General, Conforama, OUT-2 Design and Toyota Motors Viet Nam.
