Source: Shangri-La Group

Shangri-La's Race for Hope national event kicked off today at Century Park Shanghai to celebrate the hotel group's collaborative environmental efforts across mainland China. The event brought together all 50 hotels as well as Shangri-La's employees, guests and consumers, over 700 people, to participate in either the family-friendly 5km race or the 2km fun-run competition and to contribute their green energy to water Shangri-La Caring Forest on Alipay Ant Forest platform.

Shangri-La Group officially rolled out Race for Hope on Alipay Ant Forest platform in September 2019 as part of the Group's commitment to sustainability and environmental protection. Since then, more than 120,000 people have made participation in this programme and have watered Shangri-La Caring Forest over 390,000 times to support reforestation in desertified areas in China. Besides getting people to clock in their daily activities, local runners have participated in the running activities by Shangri-La properties in different cities to raise awareness for environmental protection and as a call for action in the local community.

"Shangri-La has long been committed to protecting our environment," said Victor Vazquez, Shangri-La's Executive Vice President - Operations, East China who took part in 5km race competition today. "Under our Race for Hope initiative, we want to instil a sense of urgency that all of us must start doing our part now to save our planet. We are also excited to leverage the Alipay Ant Forest digital platform. The ease of the platform will drive greater participation from everyone, every day, and everywhere. We believe it will also encourage our colleagues, guests and the community to start changing their behaviours once they see how they can convert a low carbon lifestyle into real tree planting".

Shangri-La's Race for Hope programme provides a long-term platform to engage with as many people as possible via both online interactions and offline activities. It aims to achieve greater social and environment impact and to help plant 5,000 trees in two years when the Shangri-La Group celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2021. Everyone can easily support the initiative by taking part in eco-friendly activities. For example, by walking, jogging and using public transportation, participants can earn green energy to water Shangri-La Caring Forest. All online participation will then turn into tangible results of real tree planting through Alipay Ant Forest and their NGO partners.

Using Alipay's digital App, only requires a few taps on the smart phone: open Alipay, scan "Shangri-La Caring Forest" QR code or search for "Shangri-La" on Alipay Ant Forest to access the campaign and to begin the online tree planting.

About Alipay Ant Forest
Alipay Ant Forest is a green initiative launched by Alipay, the world's leading payment and lifestyle platform, in August 2016 to promote a greener lifestyle and encourage low-carbon activities — such as paying utility bills online and walking to work instead of driving — among users. Such behaviour is counted as virtual "green energy" that can then be used to grow a virtual tree and will later be converted into a real tree by Alipay and its philanthropic partners. As of August 2019, over 500 million people had joined Alipay Ant Forest, planting 122 million trees in Gansu Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and other areas in China and avoiding 7.9 million tons of carbon emission.

About Shangri-La Group's CSR & Sustainability

Shangri-La Group is committed to operating in an economically, socially and environmentally responsible manner while balancing the interests of diverse stakeholders. We strive to be a leader in corporate citizenship and sustainable development and our CSR initiatives are focused on five key areas namely environment & biodiversity, community engagement, sustainable supply chain, employee development and health & safety. The two CSR programmes at the hotel levels - Embrace & Sanctuary - are aimed at promoting education and the environment. Embrace, Shangri-La's Care for People project, looks at the highest level of education and health support needed in under-privileged communities. Sanctuary, Shangri-La's Care for Nature project, promotes the conservation and restoration of biodiversity. For more information, please visit the group's CSR section on www.shangri-la.com.

About Shangri-La Group

Shangri-La Group is one of the world's premier developers, owners and managers of hotel and investment properties which comprises office buildings, commercial real estate and serviced apartments/residences. The Group's other principal activities include hotel management services as well as property development for sale. It currently owns and/or manages over 100 hotels globally in 78 destinations under the Shangri-La, Kerry, JEN and Traders brands. Prominently positioned in Asia, the Group has a substantial pipeline of upcoming hotel and mixed-use development projects in Australia, the Chinese mainland, Cambodia, and Japan. For more information, please visit https://www.shangri-la.com/group/.