A small group of volunteers from at the Chagville Beach cleanup after making the beach beautiful again

Port of Spain, September 20, 2011:Chagville Beach at Chaguaramas, Trinidad, was a beehive of activity on Saturday 17th September for Ocean Conservancy’s 26th annual International Coastal Cleanup. Guardian Holdings employees along with their families were joined by volunteers from schools and NGOs for the event.  More than 300 volunteers turned up from as early as 7:00 am and spent about three hours collecting and logging debris found on the beach. Hundreds of plastic bottles as well as clothing, vehicle parts and construction materials were some of the more common items collected, which washed up on the shore.

Guardian Holdings, as one of the major sponsors of this activity also serves on the National Planning Committee.  Though Chagville Beach was adopted three years ago, Company employees and their families participated at other beaches across the country. This is the world’s largest volunteer event for marine cleanup and data collection and, as important as cleaning the beaches, the data collected will prove even more valuable.  The debris is logged separately (glass, plastics, other waste) and weighed and that data is submitted to Ocean Conservancy’s Headquarters in Washington DC for compilation and analysis. The information gathered serves to influence local and international legislation on protecting the marine environment.  In 2010 company volunteers succeeded in collecting over 3000 pounds of debris from Chagville Beach alone.

This exercise is one of Guardian’s many activities, within and outside of the corporation, aimed at promoting sustainability and reducing its impact on the environment. In 2007 the company launched ‘Project Green’ to encourage employees to go beyond mere compliance by engaging them incorporate green initiatives so as to reduce individual and corporate carbon footprint. These include several recycling schemes, reductions in paper usage and power consumption as well as volunteerism in national initiatives.

In 2009, the Energy Chamber awarded GHL a Leadership Award for “Sustaining the Environment: Making the Most of Green Opportunities Award”. The company was honoured for its Guardian Wildlife Fund initiative dedicated to saving the Pawl bird, as well as its nationwide “responsible waste management and collection” drive.
The Guardian Team was joined in the effort by employee volunteers from Caribbean Bottlers Limited and British Gas while Associated Brands Limited provided snacks.

The International Coastal Cleanup exercise is as important a data collection as a beach cleanup

Articles of clothing, were some of the most common items collected at the Chagville Beach cleanup

A team effort from Dunross Preparatory

A small group of volunteers from at the Chagville Beach cleanup after making the beach beautiful again