16 June 2022, Siniloan, Laguna, Sierra Madre Mountain Range.  “Terroir means land or soil in French, the birthplace from which all our products take their character from. We are very proud that our brands are so deeply rooted in their countries of origin and play such an important role in the local communities where they are created. We source our natural ingredients from over 250,000 hectares of land across the globe, so we are committed to nurturing every terroir and its biodiversity.” (Source: Pernod Ricard on Nurturing Terroir)

On 16 June 2022, 55 of Pernod Ricard Philippines, Inc.’s eco-warriors braved the hot morning sun and humid afternoon approaching rains to plant their 1,000 native Philippine tree seedlings in their forest in the Sierra Madre mountain range, at the Laguna-Quezon Land Grant (LQLG) – part of an over 9,000 hectare protected forest managed with FEED’s first and longest Living Legacy partner the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

Forester Reynaldo E. Lorida (pictured right), field supervisor at the LQLG commented:  “This is a company with a global footprint and a local heart. We are privileged to plant with people who understand the hardships of protecting all that we plant over these thousands of hectares of forest, including communities with whom we work to ensure the continued preservation of biodiversity in flora and fauna in the Sierra Madres – our first barrier protecting us from the southeastern storms worsening every year. They rightfully place importance on livelihood or socio-economic support to the community and our expanding capacity building efforts, so together we can all achieve more impact in ensuring the highest level of survival of species in our ecosystem”.

The 55 enthusiastic participants had a debrief given by Forester Rey on our collaborative efforts in restoring the Sierra Madres with the local communities; after which we commenced a reasonably-paced trek up the ridge facilitated by 12 forest guardians who are usually otherwise on permanent monitoring and maintenance patrol throughout the 9,000 plus hectares.

Demonstrating partnership in action (Sustainable Development Goal 17),  FEED’s Director of Partnerships, Anne Mananquil Bakker noted: “From their arrival at site, following the trek,  debagging and planting demo, Pernod Ricard’s appreciation for nature became even more evident; despite being fully equipped with planting gear – i.e.  bamboo shovels from LQLG’s sustainable bambusetum and gloves provided by the company – these EcoWarriors went straight to planting once their music started pumping groovy tunes – super gung ho and concentrated!  Everyone found their spot to plant an average 20 seedlings each, with huge smiles on their faces. Part of their joy in planting came from appreciating and knowing the origins of the value of that seedling being nurtured by the community. Their vibe was contaminating!”.

After completing the planting of their 1,000 tree forest, and finishing several photo opportunities (to be able to compare before and after planting pics), the trek back to base camp was much quicker, as the participants anticipated the generous feast of native adobo binalot wrapped in banana leaf, fried local fish  from Quezon Province, chopsuey mixed veggies and fresh buko juice from the same mountain accompanied the local delicacies of gulaman and rice cake for desert. Making the hard sweat, tears and mud well worth the early morning wakeup call.

What was even more amazing was that they also donated an additional P30,000 to the forest guards in support of whatever requirements they needed, which they used to purchase raincoats for patrols across the 9000 hectares, hammocks and forest protection uniforms – making our Bantay Gubat team so grateful.

During the closing ceremonies and certificate awarding after lunch, Pernod Ricard’s Managing Director, Fadil Tasgin (pictured above) graciously honored the forest guard teams on the ground whose permanent job is not only to patrol and guard our forests, but to maintain, monitor and report back on the progress of the newly planted baby seedlings, otherwise the planting would not have been worth any value. “Achieving not only high survival rates, but providing community expertise, knowledge, tools and a way forward in ecosystem protection is the reason we chose to plant here today. Knowing that climate change is only getting worse, it is thanks to people like Forester Rey Lorida and the forest guardians who will remain long after we have left, for ensuring that our joint efforts do not go to waste. You have our respect and gratitude, and we wish you more power in all you do that contributes to our safe, our health and our well being! We hope to be back and do more with you!”

Thank you Pernod Ricard Philippines EcoWarriors!

In mid-April 2022, Pernod Ricard Philippines, Inc. contacted FEED to explore a partnership in sustainability, beyond just tree planting, since their business focus includes people and planet, centering their corporate ethos in all aspects of their operations on “Sustainability and Responsibility“, working with thousands of farmers around the world. The leadership team shared the objectives of their planting, which was one of thousands of other advocacies being carried out by the entire company on the same day in different parts of the world – what they coin “Responsib’All Day”.

Source: Pernod Ricard Responsib’All Day https://www.pernod-ricard-usa.com/sustainability

“Every year, Pernod Ricard employees from our 85 affiliates across the globe stop business for a day to engage in 100+ local community projects, setting aside their daily tasks to focus on bringing “good times from a good place.” This event reflects the spirit of convivialité at Pernod Ricard: employees share their best practices and provide a renewed boost to projects that have been developed throughout the year.” (Source: https://www.pernod-ricard-usa.com/sustainability)

The objectives of Pernod Ricard Philippines’ planting program are to:

• Share global and local progress on our Good Times from a Good Place S&R strategy;
• Educate and inspire our employees around our Nurturing Terroir pillar and the theme (learning);
• Contribute something meaningful and tangible to our local communities and/or environment (doing);
• Enable employees to come together, have fun and take action on something they care about(sharing); and
• Strengthen the Pernod Ricard reputation as a sustainable leader.

PERNOD RICARD PHILIPPINES THEME FOR 2022: Helping to protect and restore nature and biodiversity – “NURTURING TERROIR”

• Focusing this year’s Responsib’All Day on nature will enable us to raise awareness among our employees of the importance of protecting and restoring nature and its biodiversity, celebrate some of the things we’ve done, learn from local organizations and help make a difference in our local environment and communities.
• Climate change, biodiversity loss, air pollution, soil erosion, water scarcity… nature has reached a tipping point and yet it is the most precious thing we have. This is also true for us at Pernod Ricard as all our products take their character from the land where they were grown. We produce and source over 100 ingredients from more than 65 countries to create our iconic brands. That is why we are committed to nurturing every terroir and its biodiversity and responding to the challenges of climate change. 

Pernod Ricard’s global press release, click here: 2022-06-16-ResponsiballDay-Global-EN.

PERNOD RICARD Photo Collage, Laguna Quezon Land Grant, 16 June 2022

FEED Planting Photo Collage, Laguna Quezon Land Grant, 16 June 2022

GPS Coordinates

Use any GPS (Global Positioning System) software / applications to input the latitude and longitude coordinates to be able to remotely see the location of your trees planted. Some examples include:

• https://www.gps-coordinates.net
• https://gps-coordinates.org
• https://www.maps.ie/coordinates.htmlhttp://www.mapcoordinates.net/en

CALLIBRATING – COORDINATES TO FOLLOW.

About Pernod Ricard, Sustainability & Responsibility

Source: https://www.pernod-ricard-usa.com/sustainability

WE ARE PASSIONATE HOSTS AND RESPECTFUL GUESTS. WE ASPIRE TO CREATE A MORE CONVIVIAL WORLD, A WORLD WITHOUT EXCESS.

We are the custodians of a heritage, a history, a terroir that we need to pass on to future generations. There is no alternative but to promote sustainable growth on behalf of all our communities. Our mission is to generate value – value for all of our stakeholders – so we can live in shared prosperity. It’s a prerequisite for our long-term performance.

Sustainability & Responsibility is an integral part of what we do every day and it is at the heart of our “Creators of Conviviality” tagline. Pernod Ricard supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations for 2030 and we are proud to be the only organization in the Wine and Spirits Industry to have been recognized as a UN Global compact LEAD company.

NURTURING TERROIR
Every one of our products takes its character from the land where it was grown. We nurture every terroir and its biodiversity and respond to the challenges of climate, to ensure quality ingredients now and for generations to come.

Our vineyards in Sonoma County and Napa Valley are 100% Certified through California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance. Our winemaking process is good for the environment, good for the community and good for grapes and wine.

VALUING PEOPLE
Conviviality is about sharing warmth, care and respect for people everywhere. We treat everyone we work with as family, from our employees to the people in our supply chain.

Our Employee Resource Groups, focusing on individuals who are, or are allies of, LGBTQ+, Black, LatinX, Asian Pacific Islander, Womxn and Veterans communities, lead the charge within our company.We’re also driving change externally through brand affiliations that inspire acceptance and inclusion – like Absolut’s commitment to LGBTQ communities– and support of industry diversification initiatives like Women of the Vine and Spirits.

CIRCULAR MAKING
We share a world of finite resources, under huge pressure. That’s why we make every effort to minimize waste at every step by imagining, producing and distributing our products and experiences in ways that optimize and help preserve natural resources.

Sustainability is at the core of our operations – from building water, energy and waste management efficiencies into our U.S.-based production to joining the global call to rethink the use of plastics across our business. In June 2021, we reached our target of eliminating all single-use plastic promotional items from our portfolio.

Read more about Pernod Ricard here: https://www.pernod-ricard-usa.com/

On Carbon Sequestration – How Much CO2 can our trees absorb?

Trees are often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth” as they are able to store carbon and produce oxygen, which is essential to many life forms. Trees also stabilise soil and reduce air temperature and humidity, whilst also reducing flooding and improving water quality. Without trees, most fauna and flora would not survive, what more humans?

It is widely accepted that a typical tree can absorb around 22 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year when in fully grown status, meaning that saplings, seedlings and younger trees – whether mangroves or primary or secondary forest trees – absorb around half, so conservatively say 11 kgs per year (also widely used by most international forestry agencies around the world).

So, over a lifetime of a tropical tree (100 years), one tree can absorb around 1 tonne of CO2. Although this figure seems large, it should be measured in perspective: to date we humans generate around 40 billions tonnes of CO2 each year on Earth. Which means, that we need to plant 40 billion trees annually to offset these emissions.

NATURE IS SPEAKING (Narrated by Julia Roberts)

What can I do to stop climate change?

“As the world warms, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense, sea levels are rising, prolonged droughts are putting pressure on food crops, and many animal and plant species are being driven to extinction. It’s hard to imagine what we as individuals can do to resolve a problem of this scale and severity.

The good news: We are not alone. People, communities, cities, businesses, schools, faith groups and other organizations are taking action. We’re fighting like our lives depend on it — because they do.

In a world of more than seven billion people, each of us is a drop in the bucket. But with enough drops, we can fill any bucket.” –  David Suzuki

Check out some of the ways you can take more climate change action.

For example, Climate Action groups are the local solution to a global crisis. Right now people just like you are coming together to develop practical, local solutions and make their towns and cities more climate-friendly. Are you ready to join them? Find out what’s happening near you.

More here: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change/what-can-I-do-to-stop-climate-change

Contact FEED

In 2015, the Philippine government submitted to the United Nations the country’s commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The country committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030. The carbon dioxide reductions will come from the sectors of energy, transport, waste, forestry and industry.  Join us!  Help us reverse the Earth’s “hothouse climate” tipping point.

Tree-Planting with FEED

Contact us at FEED for more details, to join our regular activities or to design your own tree-nurturing event: info@feed.org.ph or call/text +63 (0)917 552 4722.

© Fostering Education & Environment for Development, Inc.