Press Clipping

Global trans­ition to paid paper bags and EUR 35,000 for drinking water projects of Viva con Agua

EUR 35,000 for international water projects: Karsten Oberheide, Managing Director of GERRY WEBER Retail GmbH, Ildiko Botka, Store Management House of GERRY WEBER Hamburg, and Moritz Meier, Head of Marketing and Fundraising at Viva con Agua (photo © www.offenblen.de for GERRY WEBER)

March 24, 2017

GERRY WEBER continues its sustainability efforts and started to substitute paper bags for plastic bags in its worldwide Retail stores in early March 2017.

GERRY WEBER joined the voluntary industry initiative of the German Retail Association (HDE) already in mid-2016 and has since helped to reduce the consumption of plastic bags. In the context of this commitment, the company started charging 10 cents per plastic bag on 1 June 2016, which helped cut the use of plastic bags by over half.

In early March the company took yet another step towards sustainability and introduced paper bags on which a fee of 10 cents is charged. The transition to paper bags will be implemented successively at all of the company’s own Retail stores worldwide. At the same time, the remaining plastic bags will be used up by the GERRY WEBER outlet stores.

The international fashion and lifestyle company will use the proceeds from the sale of the plastic and paper bags to support “Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli e.V.”, a Hamburg-based network which promotes clean drinking water and initiates water projects all over the world.

To mark the World Water Day on 22 March 2017, Karsten Oberheide, Managing Director of GERRY WEBER Retail GmbH, last night handed over the donation of EUR 35,000 to Moritz Meier, Marketing Manager at Viva con Agua.

Karsten Oberheide: “For us, protecting the environment is a matter of course. More than six months ago we therefore decided to charge a fee on plastic shopping bags, which has helped to reduce their consumption significantly. At the same time, we support sustainable environmental protection projects. As a consequence, our customers are now exclusively offered paper bags, whose high quality and use of FSC-certified paper reflect our sustainable quality standards.”

Viva con Agua is committed to giving people permanent access to clean drinking water and combines the three components of water, sanitation and hygiene. The projects funded by Viva con Agua are implemented professionally and transparently by organisations such as “Welthungerhilfe” as well as local organisations.

Moritz Meier: “35,000 euros from selling bags? This will make every drug dealer in St. Pauli envious. But seriously, Viva con Agua is very happy that GERRY WEBER has not only taken a great step forward towards sustainable paper bags but also combines this move with corporate citizenship to support water projects throughout the world.”

GERRY WEBER customers will be informed of the company’s cooperation with Viva con Agua at the POS to raise awareness for a more conscious use of the vital resource that is water.

Please note the captions and photo credits of the attached press photos.