Cathay Pacific Named Caring Company for Tenth Consecutive Year

Cathay Pacific Airways today received the 10 Consecutive Years Caring Company Logo 2002-12 from the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS). The award came at a recognition ceremony at the Caring Company NGO Partnership Day, organised by the HKCSS, at which Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong, Acting Chief Secretary for Administration of the HKSAR, officiated.

Cathay Pacific has been awarded the Caring Company Logo every year since the Caring Company Scheme was launched in 2003. The airline won the top honour, the "Total Caring Award", in 2010. This year, the airline has again been recognised for its continued commitment to caring for the well-being of the community, its employees and the environment with the 10 Consecutive Years Caring Company Logo - a special award to mark the scheme's 10th Anniversary.

For the latest award, Cathay Pacific was nominated by the following seven non-governmental organisations (in alphabetical order): Caritas - Hong Kong, Hong Kong Committee for UNICEF, Hong Kong Red Cross, Life Education Activity Programme, Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council, The Hong Kong Girl Guides Association, and World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific Director Corporate Affairs Quince Chong said: "Cathay Pacific is honoured and privileged to receive the 10 Consecutive Years Caring Company Logo from the HKCSS, based on the nominations received from such outstanding community organisations. Our airline has a deep and lasting commitment to being a socially responsible organisation and we have put a lot of effort into demonstrating this commitment across a number of areas, including the community, the environment and towards our employees. Receiving this latest honour from HKCSS will strengthen our resolve to take our drive towards sustainability to the next level."

The following are the areas where Cathay Pacific has demonstrated a clear commitment towards corporate social responsibility.

Caring for the community
Leveraging the uniqueness of the airline business, Cathay Pacific motivates its staff to serve the community in different areas through the CX Volunteers corporate volunteer team. Its initiatives range from smaller projects responding to the specific needs of local communities to flagship youth programmes such as the aviation-oriented "I Can Fly" programme and "English on Air" for secondary school students. The airline's volunteers clocked up more than 210,000 hours of community work between 2004 and 2011.

Since the Cathay Pacific/UNICEF Change for Good Inflight Fundraising Programme was launched in 1991, spare change worth more than HK$91 million has been collected from passengers to help UNICEF projects in more than 150 developing countries. The airline has also made a wide range of other charitable donations as well as participating in fundraising activities following major disasters such as the Sichuan earthquake and last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Caring for employees
Cathay Pacific takes pride in its strong and motivated team and is committed to attracting and retaining the best people. The airline aims to provide rewarding career opportunities through a motivating work environment and ongoing personal development and training, at the same time providing comprehensive benefits, a counselling service and a wide range of recreational and social activities for all its employees.

Caring for the environment
Cathay Pacific is deeply committed to reducing the impact of its operations on the environment, implementing a number of environment-friendly practices both on the ground and in the air. The airline has worked to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by modernising its fleet, adopting flexible routes and reducing weight on its aircraft. It also runs an inflight recycling programme, and Cathay Pacific was the first Asian airline to launch a carbon-offset initiative, named FLY greener, in 2007. This allows passenger to pay to offset the emissions generated by their travel.

More information on Cathay Pacific's corporate social responsibility initiatives can be found in its 2010 Sustainable Development Report, available for download through the airline's website.

	Members of the CX Volunteers team play an important role in contributing to the community through various corporate volunteering programmes.
	Pilot and staff leaders are involved in Cathay Pacific's flagship youth programme, "I Can Fly", which enhances the aviation knowledge of young people and encourages them to serve the community. More than 3,000 students have graduated from the programme since it was launched in 2003.
	Cathay Pacific's FLY greener carbon-offset programme supports the development of environmental projects in Mainland China that reduce carbon emissions and generate social benefits. This wind farm in Shandong, Changdao, China, is just one example.