Teams of volunteers from FedEx Express (FedEx), a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and one of the world’s largest express transportation companies, have been active across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa (AMEA) region conducting beach cleaning activities to support the company’s commitment to making the communities in which it operates more sustainable.
More than 455 FedEx volunteers and their family members joined in a pan-AMEA beach cleaning initiative that ran for four months up to December 2022 across 21 beaches in Australia, India, Japan, and Singapore. The volunteers put in a total of 870 hours of hard work and removed a massive 142,987kg of garbage and plastic waste from the environment.
It is estimated that 81% of ocean plastics come from Asian rivers. Beach clean-ups play a critical role in not just protecting marine biodiversity, and mitigating the impacts of climate change, but also supporting sustainable economic growth around the coastlines which supports the livelihoods of millions of people.
“Building a sustainable future doesn’t happen overnight. It requires a collective behavior change. At FedEx, we are not only working hard to achieve our organizational goal of carbon-neutral global operations by 2040 but are also actively building meaningful programs to get our employees involved in solving some of the most pressing environmental issues in our society,” said Kawal Preet, president of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) region at FedEx Express. “The beach clean-ups are an excellent opportunity for our team members to contribute to turning the tide on ocean plastic and building cleaner and more sustainable coastal communities for the future.”
Giving back to local communities has always been part of FedEx culture. The company is using its ongoing FedEx Cares program to reach its goal of positively impacting 50 million people around the world by its 50th birthday in April, 2023.