Audie Wong, President of Amway (China) Co., Ltd, talks to a local Tibetan through an interpreter on Mt. Laji at an altitude of 3858 meters on August 2, 2009. Mt. Laji is located in Guide, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

More and more companies from home and abroad set a high value on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Environmental protection and climate change are now major concerns.

As a large US-invested manufacturing and distribution company, Amway China believes that a company, which is both the promoter and beneficiary of society, should not only make a contribution to economic development, but also assume corresponding social responsibilities.

Environmental protection is part of the key subjects that Amway China covers under its public welfare undertaking. The company not only provides high-quality eco-friendly products but also advocates environmental protection to the public through large-scale social activities.

Greenway - A Journey to Yellow River, a scientific survey on the environment in Sanjiangyuan (Three-River-Source) area sponsored by Amway China, began in China's northwest Qinghai province on July 31, 2009. Some 20 volunteers from Amway China led by Audie Wong, President of the company, experts with China Green Foundation and Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve Administration took part in the four-day trip as the first phase of the project.

During the four-day trip on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, participants carried out a fact-finding mission on the ecological environment of the highland grasslands.

A local herdswoman told us that her family owns 200 sheep and 60 yaks. Every year they graze cattle from mid June here in the Mt. Laji, which is located in Guide, a county in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province. She says that though the mountain is well-known for cordyceps, they don't dig for it since the digging will destroy the grassland that feeds their cattle.

Another herdswoman says that her family owns 500 sheep and ten yaks. Their only source of income, livestock breeding, mainly depends on the weather. Abundant rainfall can bring in more than 10,000 yuan a year for them. She does not feel that their living environment is worse than before and she welcomes visitors to the region. The visitors enable them to learn of the outside world.

The Greenway project is expected to be finished by January 1, 2011, with a final investigation report on the bio-diversity in the river-source wetlands of the Yellow River.

Amway China commenced sales operation in China in April 1995. Headquartered in Guangzhou, Amway has two regional offices in Beijing and Shanghai, with 6,000 employees in various facilities across the country.

At present, Amway China has become the largest affiliate within Amway's worldwide business family. The company's business in 2008 reached 17.6 billion yuan, and it paid taxes amounting to around 3.8 billion yuan. Business aside, Amway China gives back to society generously, and implements its corporate social responsibility with a platform of volunteer schemes and focuses on children and environmental protection. By the end of 2008, Amway China had sponsored over 4,500 social projects and had contributed a total of almost 280 millions yuan.