You can donate a medlar tree to a poverty-stricken family in Guyuan Ningxia with the rewarded points of credit card, and add a bit green to the desert West China -- the “Points Based Love” program of Industrial Bank (IB) is helping more and more volunteers to fulfill their public benefit aspirations.
The area of Guyuan in Ningxia is characterized by sparse vegetation and severe soil and water loss, and the atrocious environment results in economic poverty. With few approaches to earn a living, local farmers mainly depend on the medlar trees planted on the barren hills, which have become accustomed to the weak ecological system, and take medlar as their economic source.
The “Happy Family – West China Green Campaign” launched by China Green Foundation (CGF) plans, within three years, to help 600 poverty-stricken families of Guyuan to plant 666 medlar trees respectively and create an ecological economic forest with nearly 400,000 trees, so as to increase the incomes of farmers while improving ecological environment of Guyuan.
This public benefit project soon attracted IB. We all know that IB is the first Equator bank and the leader of green finance in China. For years, IB has always upheld the social responsibility practice model of “obtaining reasonable profits while bringing benefits to the stakeholders”, namely to combine social responsibilities with its own banking business closely, implement such responsibilities into the specific operation and management of the bank, and seek business opportunities during the performance of social responsibilities, so as to explore a sustainable and developable commercial model and social responsibility practice model in which a win-win result can be achieved between the bank and the society.
This time, to support the project with the “Points Based Love” program of credit card is another action taken by the bank to “obtain reasonable profits while bringing benefits to the stakeholders”. The so-called “Points Based Love” means that when holders of IB credit cards make consumption with their credit cards, the rewarded points generated in their cards can be converted into donations for public benefits at certain proportion, namely to make it easier for cardholders to join the public benefit cause and express their love. In this way, not only credit card holders can use the rewarded points accumulated perennially in a more flexible and diversified manner, but the model of “micro-charity” characterized by “many a little makes a mickle” is also accepted by more people.
“The planting cost of each medlar tree is only RMB 10. After the completion of the ecological medlar forest, each family can earn around RMB 20,000 a year by selling medlar and breeding under forest”. The person-in-charge of the “Happy Family – West China Green Campaign” told the reporter.
The planting of medlar trees is beneficial for the ecological progress and development of rural industries in Guyuan. Zheng Zhiming, General Manager of IB Credit Card Center, said, “What we care is that this project can not only help increase the incomes of local farmer families, but also bring ecological effect to the area. We are very happy to lend support to the ‘Happy Family – West China Green Campaign’ with the ‘Points Based Love’ program of IB, hoping that it can both bring green to the land of West China and pass the happy positive energy into the heart of common people of Guyuan.”
The official website of IB Credit Card shows that, from now on till May 31, 2016, if customers of IB credit cards join the “Points Based Love” program, they can convert each 7,500 points accumulated in their cards into RMB 10 to donate a medlar tree to the poverty-stricken families of Guyuan Ningxia. Cardholders can make any points-based exchange for donations by way of interactive short message, WeChat and the credit card “points mall” of IB. The amount and details of donations made by cardholders can be checked via the official credit card platform of IB.
As learnt by the reporter, the bank has put into operation the “Points Based Love” program many times in recent years. As early as December 2013, IB opened the donation channel of “Points Based Love” in collaboration with China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), in which donations are used for building the “Future Space” classrooms for poor students in schools in state-level poverty-stricken counties, conjoined poverty-stricken regions and surrounding areas of cities with concentrated children of migrant workers in the period of nine-year compulsory education. Now, more than 100 million points have been exchanged, and enough funds for building the first “Future Space” have been raised. In addition, the program was also used to make donations for the reconstruction after Ya’an Earthquake, providing grants to 335 students in the disaster-stricken Ya’an.