Commentary: Could corporate gifts like mooncakes be cut down as more work from home?
SINGAPORE: Each Mid-Fall Festival, mooncakes draw flak for the nutrient and packaging waste they generate - and it is easy to see why.
They have come to correspond an arms race of unnecessary packaging, with increasingly lavish boxes rolled out each yr. Lacquered, embroidered, sequined, or adorned with ornaments, they are not only almost impossible to resist, but also to recycle.
Mooncakes have been a common gift companies and organisations routinely send to business partners and clients as a form of goodwill to maintain network ties and cultivate social capital.
It makes good business organisation too when some 20 to 50 per cent of mooncake businesses come from corporate sales.
This is the second Mid-Autumn Festival celebrated under the shadow of the pandemic. With many companies maintaining work-from-home arrangements, should organisations fleck the giving of mooncakes?
More than half of the businesses and households surveyed said that they would rather non receive mooncakes, according to a pre-pandemic 2022 survey in Hong Kong.
With many offices largely empty on most days, it seems pointless to transport perishable gifts to workplaces, and it is unclear if people are comfortable revealing their home accost just to receive corporate gifts at home instead.
In Singapore, firms too told the Business organization Times terminal year they planned to reduce or cease the practise of giving mooncakes birthday, to mitigate costs after losses suffered from COVID-19. Anticipating a precipitous drop in need, many mooncake businesses, like Tai Chong Kok, ordered 30 per cent fewer ingredients similar lotus seeds.
Scrap CORPORATE MOONCAKE GIFTING TO REDUCE WASTE?
This trend of organisations moving away from corporate gifting during the Mid-Autumn Festival may assist in Singapore'due south drive to reduce waste product.
About xl per cent of mooncake packaging is unnecessary and wasteful, according to the Singapore Environment Council.
A major paper recycling company in Singapore interviewed by CNA in 2022 estimated receiving but nether 5 tonnes of newspaper and paper-thin waste from mooncake boxes lone every twelvemonth. Information technology candy about five,000 to 8,000 tonnes of waste paper monthly in 2019.
Virtually mooncake boxes finish up in the incinerator. More fanciful designs and inner linings to prevent impairment during delivery invariably result in more waste product. The outer frills added to attract customers make mooncake boxes difficult to recycle.
Is sustainability about ownership "greener" or just buying less? Heed to a business school professor weigh in on CNA's The Climate Conversations:
Mooncake-associated waste likewise goes beyond the extravagant packaging.
In Hong Kong, food recycling organisation Food Grace reported that over two.88 one thousand thousand mooncakes were discarded last year - an boilerplate of 1.07 mooncake thrown abroad by each household.
The chief reason for dumping them? People did not like the season of mooncakes they received.
And with more than new-fangled mooncake flavours developed each year, including Mala, pandan or milk tea, that risk of more than seeing the bin grows.
INFUSING Business RELATIONSHIPS WITH MEANING
Simply should corporate gifts exist washed away with completely? In the era of remote work, such actions tin be pleasant reminders of our human relationships.
There is an inherent symbolism to the gift of mooncakes in the corporate globe - a time-honoured emblem of fullness, bountiful harvest and togetherness - a value that has never been closer to our hearts as we remain socially distanced during the pandemic.
Givers and recipients understand information technology is the gesture of appreciation that gives meaning to business organization relationships. The mooncake box, or indeed the mooncake itself, are symbols of the sentiment, admitting with shiny bells and whistles.
A survey found that employers in the United states really handed out more corporate gifts during the pandemic. Nearly reported doing so to motivate their teams and maintain connections with their clients.
On their function, mooncake producers take as well been experimenting with more than ways to reduce packaging waste, by rolling out containers that can be reused or repurposed.
Recent mooncake boxes have taken the form of luncheon carriers, jewellery boxes, wine cases, leather bags and storage drawers. Naught-waste matter community groups have also shared creative suggestions on how to transform simpler packaging for alternative uses though it remains unclear what happens if recipients themselves have no need for such storage options.
RETHINKING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH MOONCAKES
The do of corporate gifting is unlikely to disappear completely although the pandemic has made companies relook corporate practices for their fiscal implications.
Spending on items steeped in tradition and culture – while incorporating consideration well-nigh their sustainable product and consumption, in the spirit of saving the environs - is a win for all parties.
Using simpler packaging and reducing the use of materials can take their own ecological appeal. This effort tin be linked to elements of the festival: The moon, plants and harvest, all parts of nature. It is relevant at a time when companies are striving to mitigate their environmental footprint and hiring master sustainability officers.
E -vouchers that allow the recipients to select mooncakes of their selection, fewer if they would like to, and even collect them with their own containers can curb waste matter, while arrangements to donate mooncakes to charity organisations and other beneficiaries can besides provide new meaning to the business organisation human relationship.
Going green does not accept to take an all or zilch approach.
Merely getting rid of mooncakes as corporate gifts to reduce waste comes across as a piecemeal approach that ignores the deep cultural significance and benefits they bring.
Companies can, as function of their ain sustainability practices, choose to support retailers who tin assist them preserve valuable and joyful traditions in a sustainable manner.
This is a mindset that should extend to broader gift-giving community including new year greeting cards, other holiday presents and conference packs.
Gift-giving and sustainability are not mutually sectional. We tin can have our mooncake and eat it too.
Audrey Chia is an associate professor of direction and organisation at the National Academy of Singapore Business concern Schoolhouse. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/corporate-gifts-mooncakes-cut-work-home-sustainability-reduce-waste-packaging-295396
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