MANILA, Philippines — Watsons Philippines has recently garnered multiple awards from different award-giving bodies for its sustainability program. This proves how it takes the lead in the health, wellness and beauty retail sector in spreading the word about the green lifestyle and encouraging its customers to live more sustainably by offering products that allow them to do so.
Watsons Personal Care Stores Inc. has received the Sustainability Initiative of the Year – Philippines award from the 17th Retail Asia Awards in recognition of the health, wellness and beauty retailer’s Sustainable Choices campaign.
The award is one of three that Watsons got from Retail Asia Awards, a prestigious and exciting event that gathers the region's best retailers and recognizes the most outstanding retail initiatives. The two other awards that Watsons received are Health & Beauty Retailer of the Year – Philippines and the Omnichannel Strategy of the Year.
Watsons Philippines was also recognized in the Green Leadership Category-2021 by the Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards (AREA) for its Doing Good Through Sustainable Choices campaign.
AREA is an annual awards that recognize and honors Asian businesses that champion sustainable and responsible business practices.
Sustainable Choices is the cornerstone of Watsons’ sustainability strategy and Do Good initiative as part of its proposition "Look Good Do Good Feel Great." Watsons is the only health, wellness and beauty retailer in the Philippines with over 1,521 sustainable SKUs that consumers can choose from.
Sustainable Choice products at Watsons contain no harmful ingredients (Clean Beauty), are made from responsibly sourced palm oil and FSC-certified paper, use better packaging materials and support refilling through refill packs.
Watsons has also dedicated spaces in its over 900 stores nationwide for Sustainable Choices products. Highlights within the stores encourage customers to explore and try eco-conscious choices, driving new shopping behaviors.
For the campaign, Watsons collaborated with various stakeholders, including non-government organizations, social enterprises like Plastic Bank, its supplier partners and SM Malls.
“We encouraged Watsons suppliers and manufacturers to introduce more environmentally responsible alternatives for customers. We also helped educate customers, empowering them with the knowledge to make eco-conscious purchase decisions and reduce waste," Watsons Philippines PR and Sustainability Director Viki Encarnacion said.
"To disseminate all this information, we held sustainability webinars and encouraged our media guests to help cascade whatever was shared to their readers,” she added.
On the home front, Watsons shared its Sustainable Choices initiative across all departments. The Watsons trading and purchasing teams operate under the mandate to actively seek out products that are more sustainable. The marketing teams continue to educate customers and help influence shopper preferences.
Meanwhile, stores and staff highlight these alternatives and make sure that shoppers know about the advantages of choosing sustainable products. In addition to that, Watsons also encourages customers to live more sustainably by promoting the use of eco-friendly bags as well as advocating recycling.
Watsons takes great pride in the awards that it has received and it also serves as an inspiration to the organization to further strengthen its commitment and efforts to do good for the planet and the community.