Across two offices in Vietnam -- one in the capital of Hanoi and the other in the coastal city of Da Nang -- Pixelz employs hundreds of staff, both local Vietnamese and foreigners. It is home to nearly all of our critical departments, from our image-editing teams to our Development team to our Human Resources team.
Because Vietnam has played (and continues to play) a critical role in Pixelz success, and the pride we take in our CSR approach to business, we are always looking for ways to support the local community.
That is why we were excited to be asked by the The Asia Institute of Technology in Vietnam (AIT-VN) to be one of the first 10 companies in Vietnam to join its Green Office (GO) project. The GO project is an important sustainability initiative in Vietnam working to raise awareness of environmentally friendly business practices by helping companies implement sustainability projects in their offices and then tracking the impact of those efforts by measuring reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over time.
This initiative is part of the larger United Nations 10 Year Framework, a global six program initiative to promote sustainability in:
- Public Procurement
- Consumer Information for SCP
- Sustainable Tourism
- Sustainable Lifestyles and Education
- Sustainable Buildings and Construction
- Sustainable Food Systems
The concept of sustainability is new here in Vietnam, but, as GO Project Technical staff Ha Hoang Thanh explains, it is gaining traction:
“People in Vietnam are increasingly open to ideas of sustainability, especially young people. The challenge is making them understand that their actions everyday can have a real impact on the environment. That makes the educational aspect of the project critical for us.”
AIT-VN certainly has some help spreading the word about sustainability.
Recently, the men’s national soccer team (who are massive superstars here in Vietnam) have become ambassadors of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to help discourage the use of plastic in the country. It is also becoming common to find coffee shops using bamboo and metal-reusable straws and community organized beach cleanups in coastal cities. The movement is in its early stages, but it is exciting to see awareness around sustainability and the environment growing so quickly across the country.
For Pixelz, The GO project was the perfect chance for us to join the early stages of the sustainability movement and we jumped on the opportunity. At both our Hanoi and Da Nang locations, we elected staff to be Pixelz representatives to work directly with Ha Hoang Thanh to get Pixelz offices certified.
To receive our GO project standard certification, each office had to complete the following:
- Conduct training for all staff about the concept of sustainability, the impact that individuals can have on the environment and specific actions that individuals can take to help
- Create and execute an emissions reduction plan approved by AIT-VN technical experts
- Show a reduction in emissions by the end of the year compared to the previous year
Over the past year, our Human Resource team and our Pixelz GO Representatives did amazing work training our staff in concepts of sustainability and working with our management team to meet the criteria of the GO certification.
In November 2018, we were proud to receive our GO Standard certification at both our Vietnam offices. As Pixelz Head of Human Resources in Vietnam Thuy Nguyen Thuy explains, everyone wins when a company joins initiatives like these:
“From a Human Resource perspective, I think it is important to join programs like this. It helps our staff feel proud to work at Pixelz because we are making that extra effort to get involved and support our local communities.”