Next festive season, instead of sending corporate gift boxes from one business to another, consider giving to a cause. Cut out the waste and pollution. Take the pledge.
All across India, we love and celebrate our numerous festivals with great joy. With festive seasons come gifting seasons. Millions of gifts are sent not just by individuals but also by businesses. However, corporate gift boxes sent in bulk by businesses to other businesses are unlike individual acts of gifting that convey personal emotions and sentiments.
While our intentions are good, we forget about the environmental impact of a gift box. For instance, a plastic-laden gift box given in Bengaluru is most likely manufactured in a faraway place, shipped by air to central logistics hubs like Delhi, Kolkata, or Mumbai, and then shipped back to Bengaluru by road. Every step in the supply chain leaves a carbon footprint and generates massive amounts of waste.
We believe that businesses and corporations can convey their goodwill to each other by supporting worthy social causes without generating material waste and pollution. Businesses do not need gift boxes to brighten their day. Instead, they can celebrate the next festive season by bringing the light to people and causes who really need it, eliminating waste and pollution in the process.
Take the #NoCorporateGiftBox pledge.
Causes
Support any cause around you. If you are unsure where to start, here is a list of causes that Rainmatter Foundation has curated.
Charlie's Animal Rescue Centre – CARE is an animal shelter established in January 2013. It aims to provide timely medical aid to injured and ill animals on the streets of Bangalore city. CARE is also home to many dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, hens, pigs, guinea pigs, birds and terrapins.
A not-for-profit with the goal of revolutionizing India’s forestry sector to sequester carbon, support farmers, create green jobs and restore and protect fragile ecosystems. FFF works with communities and people who want to protect the forest where they live.
Contributing to the knowledge and conservation of India’s unique wildlife heritage with innovative research and imaginative solutions. NCF works in a range of wildlife habitats—from coral reefs and tropical rainforests to the high mountains of the Himalayas.
SayTrees, which does more than 50 tree plantation drives in 4 months of monsoon, spearheads a variety of initiatives, including research, education, sensitisation and advocacy around the importance of environmental preservation and tree plantation. The group thrives on its vast volunteer base that runs into thousands, from young children to busy professionals, housewives and retired citizens.
Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM) is a development organisation engaged in building a new civil society in India through its grassroots to policy level action in health, education, socio-economic empowerment and training and research sectors since 1984. The program runs 30+ projects touching the lives of nearly 3 million people across Karnataka.
Uttarayan (Wildlife Wing), a 35+ yr old NGO working with people and ecosystem, has been steadily building robust ecology across West Bengal. They partner with Rainmatter Foundation for Forest and landscape restoration in a participatory mode – the largest of its kind in India in parts of elephant corridors of South Bengal – a volatile field of man-elephant conflict. The NGO’s sole mission and vision has been to Revive, Regenerate and Restore fragmented landscapes and recreate rich biodiversity while balancing human needs.
The creation of agency and the desire to take charge of one's own future is a critical piece of the climate puzzle. Buzz Women has been creating changemakers in over 5,000 villages in rural Karnataka. By supporting Buzz Women, the Foundation hopes to increase the awareness of both the sense of the house as well as of solutions that can help these changemakers drive climate adaptation and mitigation efforts in their respective communities.
Pledger list
Organisations who have taken the pledge to not send and receive corporate gift boxes. If you have taken the pledge, e-mail us to add your organisation to the list.
- Zerodha
- BoCo
- Frappe
- Kredily
- Organic Mandya