GCash heeds WWF Philippines’ call to #ShapeOurFuture

As the world faces various threats to the environment such as pollution and deforestation, it’s vital for individuals and institutions to take substantial action and prioritize environmental sustainability for all sectors. This was one of the key points highlighted during the Earth Hour virtual launch by the WorldWide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines, which was co-presented by GCash, the country’s leading mobile wallet.

During the event, WWF-Philippines invited Filipinos to turn off their lights during the annual celebration of Earth Hour on March 26 at 8:30 P.M local time, as a symbol of a broader commitment toward the planet. This year’s Earth Hour, with the theme “Shape the Future,” aimed to put forward a broader call to action for individuals to step towards living sustainably and for companies and governments to help build an equitable, nature-positive, and net-zero carbon future.

“At GCash, we strive to help over 55 million Filipinos live better and have efficient and more environmentally friendly transactions. Global movements like Earth Hour will always be relevant as its advocacy is not just for the protection of the environment, but it also carries the foundation of our way of life and the world. GCash is proud to join the annual observance of this symbolic switching-off of non-essential lights for an hour, which is an important call for climate action, especially in these crucial times,” said GCash President and CEO Martha Sazon.

WWF Energy Program Head and Earth Hour National Director Atty. Angela Ibay added, “Through Earth Hour, we want to engage over a billion people worldwide and engage decision-makers whether in business, institutions, and governments, to move the agenda of nature up the priority list in the global sphere and in the national agenda. We want people to lend their voices as we're shaping our future, and hopefully, we'll be changing the ending for the positive – for both people and the planet.”

As a financial institution that supports environmental sustainability, GCash is one with the mission of WWF Philippines to protect the environment by helping people lessen their carbon footprint. GCash encourages subscribers to shift to paperless billing for their transactions and lessen pollution through its safe, sustainable, and convenient digital financial products on the GCash app such as Pay Bills, Send Money, GLife for shopping for essentials, GSave for a savings account, GInvest for investments, GInsure for insurance, and many more.

GCash is also the only fintech company in the Philippines to have a sustainability feature integrated within its app, which is the GForest feature. Users can earn green energy points and use these points to plant virtual trees. These virtual trees will then be converted to actual trees by GCash. They can earn green energy points by using various cashless services of GCash and every time they walk if they enable GCash to access their health app or fitness tracker.

Having started as a symbolic event in Sydney, Australia in 2007, Earth Hour has become a global celebration and has grown into one of the world’s largest grassroots environmental movements spanning over 7,000 cities and 193 countries and territories.

WWF-Philippines Executive Director Katherine Custodio was also present for this important event. The Earth Hour virtual launch was hosted by Filipino physicist and Miss Earth Philippines 2017 Karen Ibasco and WWF Philippines National Ambassador Rovilson Fernandez.

 “This important partnership with WWF-Philippines underscores our strong desire to ensure GCash’s environment, social and governance (ESG) aspiration is in place, and in fact, brought to life. As we recently announced planting 1 million trees nationwide via our GForest program, we are positive that together with our partners like WWF, GCash will be able to further champion environmental stewardship in our homes and work places,” adds Chito Maniago, VP for Corporate Communications and Public Affairs of GCash. 

GCash, together with WWF Philippines, encourages Filipinos to help the environment in whatever way they can – big or small.

To use GForest and the other carbon-footprint saving features on GCash, you can download the GCash app for free via the Google Play or App Store.

For more information, visit https://www.gcash.com.

### 

About GCash

GCash (G-Xchange, Inc.) is the #1 Financial App in the Philippines. Through the GCash App, customers can easily purchase prepaid airtime; pay bills at over 1.3k partner billers; send and receive money anywhere in the Philippines, even to other bank accounts; purchase from over 4.5M partner merchants and social sellers; cash-in and cash-out at over 170k partner agents; and get access to savings, credit, insurance and invest money all at the convenience of their smartphones. GCash is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.).

GCash was recognized by The Asian Banker (TAB) and by the IDC in 2021 for its outstanding digital financial inclusion programs impacting more than 55 million Filipinos in the country today.

Environmental win: GCash hits 1 million virtual trees planted in GForest

The Philippines’ leading digital mobile wallet company GCash announced it has virtually planted 1 million trees through GForest, the environmental sustainability feature on the GCash app. As of December 19, 2021, a total of 1,060,000 trees have been planted virtually by GForest users.

The virtual trees are planted by GCash users via the GForest on the app, and GCash in turn plants the real trees on their behalf.  Since GForest’s launch in 2019, it now has 9 million users.  The users can earn green energy points by using the various cashless services of GCash, such as Send Money, Pay Bills, or Bank Transfer on the app – digital financial services that also lessen their carbon footprint, in addition to planting trees. GForest users can also collect green energy every time they walk if they enable GCash to access their health app or fitness tracker. These green energy points can be used to plant virtual trees. As of November 2021, more than 133 million digital, paperless transactions have been made in GCash to earn green energy points for GForest users. This is in line with the mission of GCash to support environmental sustainability by keeping individual carbon footprint low and helping fight climate change.

“With the impacts of climate change, GCash capitalizes on technology in contributing and raising awareness to environmental conservation and sustainability. We hope that through GForest, we are able to empower more Filipinos to help in protecting the environment,” said Martha Sazon, President and CEO of GCash. 

GCash executed several GForest joint projects, including tree-planting partnerships with World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines, Ayala Land Inc., Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI), HOPE and Century Pacific Food, Inc, in areas such as the Ipo Watershed, Alaminos Carbon Forest, Luyang Watershed and South Cotabato and Sarangani Provinces. Trees with diverse species like Narra, Yakal, Molave, Guyabano and Coconut have been planted in these vulnerable locations nationwide, through GForest and its partners.  Aside from these designated areas, GCash is also identifying new sites that it can reforest as it scales up its sustainability program.

Through GForest, GCash was also able to support and empower local farming communities. With the tree-planting activities of GCash, HOPE and Century Pacific Inc., more than 2,000 coconut farmers received coconut seedlings which can help them have more produce and in turn, increase their revenue. With GCash, RAFI also conducted tree growing orientations and planting trainings for 150 farmers in order to guide them on tree-planting projects. The initiative aims to achieve 1.3 million trees planted by 2022.

GCash is the only fintech company in the Philippines to have a sustainability feature integrated within its app, and has been recognized by global sustainability organizations. Recently, WWF Philippines conferred the Conservation Innovation Award to GCash. The leading mobile wallet company was also recognized by Miss Earth ECO Awards 2021 and UNDP Biodiversity Finance Initiative (UNDP BIOFIN) as well for the environmental impact the campaign has created.

“The GForest program proves that marrying new technologies with creative sustainability solutions are something organizations can achieve. We thank our partners and users for making this milestone possible. We are looking forward to being more "One with the Nation" with our social responsibility initiatives in the years to come”, said Chito Maniago, Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs Officer of GCash.

"One with the Nation" is GCash's corporate social responsibility program employing various initiatives including NGO partnerships, programs on disaster response and environmental stewardship, as well as grassroots finlit education campaigns nationwide.

Aside from GForest, GCash's various digital products and services enable users to go cashless for various transactions, which helps keep their carbon footprint low and fight climate change.

Continue to use GCash and become a “green hero” today!

For more information, visit www.gcash.com.

###

 

About GCash

GCash (G-Xchange, Inc.) is the #1 Financial App in the Philippines. Through the GCash App, customers can easily purchase prepaid airtime; pay bills at over 1k partner billers; send and receive money anywhere in the Philippines, even to other bank accounts; purchase from over 3.9M partner merchants and social sellers; cash-in and cash-out at over 94k partner agents; and get access to savings, credit, insurance and invest money all at the convenience of their smartphones. GCash is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mynt (Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.). 

GCash was recognized by The Asian Banker (TAB) and by the IDC in 2021 for its outstanding digital financial inclusion programs impacting more than 51 million Filipinos in the country today.