Water is a precious natural resource. One of Alibaba Foundation’s key funding aspects is water protection. The Foundation launched the “Clean Water Source Campaign” in 2012 to sponsor the river conservation work of not-for-profit environmental organizations.
In 2018, it sponsored more than 20 projects and the campaign is now covering 1,312 rivers in 389 cities across China.
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Over the years, Alibaba Group has embraced sustainable development. The Group has been working with enterprises, partners and users to implement environmentally sustainable programs across various sectors. Here are updates of the Group’s other green initiatives:
Environmental Awareness of 35 Million People
The education program from Alibaba Foundation reached a total of 35 million members of the public in 2018. One of its highlights was the partnership in Wuhan.
The Foundation worked with various government organizations in the city to conduct nature education programs for 350,000 primary and secondary students in 150 schools.
The curriculum combined online and offline, and outdoor activities, as well as green carnivals and was popular in schools.
Green Map Reaching 700 Million Users
In 2018, The Center of Environmental Education of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Alibaba Foundation and Amap jointly launched the “Act Towards a Beautiful China” online platform.
One of the features of the platform – Green Map – has reached 700 million users since activated on Amap. The Green Map leverages Amap’s location-based service to provide environmental information at the users’ fingertips.
Amap provides mapping, navigation and LBS to users is China and is the country’s leading map solution.
Smart Logistics by Cainiao
Alibaba Group’s logistics arm, Cainiao, has already initiated a comprehensive program to improve material recycling, packaging, route planning and delivery methods to work toward a greener future. Cainiao’s unique packaging algorithm has helped to reduce sizes of 500 million parcels. More than 5,000 recycle stations have been established in 200 cities in China.
Planting 100 Million Trees
As of April 2019, Alipay Ant Forest, a green initiative by Alibaba’s related company Ant Financial, has 500 million users and planted 100 million real trees. The total tree-planting area nearly reached 933 square kilometres.
Alipay Ant Forest promotes a greener lifestyle and encourages low-carbon activities. Such behavior is counted and converted into virtual “green energy” in the Alipay app and can be used to grow a virtual tree. With enough energy points, the virtual tree can be converted into a real tree and planted in the remote areas in China by Alipay Ant Forest and its philanthropy partners. Here’s a video explaining how it works.
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0.3% Revenue for Philanthropy
In 2010, Alibaba announced it would set aside 0.3% of its annual revenue for philanthropy. The commitment is fundamental to Alibaba’s social responsibility initiatives. Building on them, the Alibaba Foundation was established in 2011.