Axalta supports environmental stewardship programs and associated nonprofit organizations around the globe to promote clean water and air and support and protect habitats.
Water and Wetlands in the Americas
Water and wetlands support life on the planet and we look for opportunities to conserve and expand these precious resources. In North America, we continued a long-term partnership with Ducks Unlimited, established in 1937 and, today, the largest conservation organization dedicated to preserving wetlands that benefit people and wildlife. Our support has provided earmarked support in the United States for ocean and lake coastline restoration projects in Texas, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Michigan in addition to other Ducks Unlimited initiatives. In 2018, Axalta promoted Ducks Unlimited on the NASCAR racing circuit at Bristol Raceway in Tennessee by placing the Ducks Unlimited logo on the quarter panel of the Axalta sponsored #88 car.
Ducks Unlimited Mexico (DUMAC) has received our support for a number of projects to improve wetlands and wildlife habitat. Our support enabled the installation of 165 dry toilets, as well as technologies for more sustainable farming and solar heaters, in communities surrounding Lake Cuitzeo, Mexico’s second largest freshwater lake, and Lake Penjamo and Lake Sayula, which were becoming polluted by runoff from open toilets. Dry toilets are improving the standard of living for approximately 800 people in these rural areas and provide natural fertilizer.
Our support also underwrites DUMAC’s capacity building programs at its RESERVA training center in the Yucatan. In 2017, DUMAC’s curriculum trained 31 professionals employed in governmental and non-governmental organizations from 18 countries in México, Central and South America and the Caribbean who specialize in ecology and environmental stewardship. Participants return home from RESERVA equipped with new strategies to address wetland conservation and threats to the ecologies of their home countries.
Close to our Corporate and Americas Region headquarters in the greater Philadelphia area, Axalta supports The Stroud Water Research Center whose goal is to advance knowledge and stewardship of freshwater systems through global research, education and watershed restoration. Combining our passion for cars and coatings with Stroud's passion for conserving our watersheds, in 2017 we sponsored The Axalta Road Rally which takes classic car enthusiasts on an educational tour through the watersheds in Chester and Lancaster counties. Axalta employees participated in the scavenger hunt-styled tour that led participants around the countryside using clues and landmarks to show the scope of Stroud’s work in the area. We also took advantage of Stroud’s award-winning education program and invited students from the Serviam Girls Academy and the Young Men and Women in Charge Foundation to learn about stream health, macroinvertebrates, chemistry and forest ecology. The children got hands on with bugs, microscopes and science equipment for a fun and educational time.
Forests and Wetlands in Asia-Pacific
In China, Axalta continued a multi-year partnership with the Mother River Protection Program, which was created to plant trees in the collection basins of China’s great river systems. Axalta employees partnered with program managers under the auspices of the China Youth Development Foundation, local governments and schools in neighboring communities that incorporated the forests into their eco-curriculum. More than 30,000 trees have been planted in “Axalta Forests” located in Zhangjiakou, northwest of Beijing and in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. The trees replenish the aquifer by preventing rainwater runoff, serving as “green lungs” by converting CO2 to oxygen and reducing air polluting dust from soil that is not held down by enhanced root systems and protected by foliage.
In 2017, our environmental stewardship efforts in China moved closer to our headquarters in Shanghai where we launched support, in partnership with the China Green Foundation, of the Babeiyao Wetland project, part of the Shanghai Chongming Dongtan National Nature Reserve. Located at the delta of the Yangtze River northeast of Shanghai and a critical part of the Yellow Sea ecoregion, the Reserve is facing severe ecological threats. Operated by the World Wildlife Fund, Babeiyao also serves as a model wetlands conservation protocol that will be used to create similar restoration programs elsewhere along China’s coastline. Axalta employees, customers and other stakeholders will be able to participate in the program as part of our support.
To commemorate the opening of our expanded production and research facilities in Savli, India, in 2018 Axalta Chairman and CEO Charlie Shaver launched a project with S M Sehgal Foundation CEO Ajay Pandey to complete a three-year soil and water conservation project in the semi-arid, drought-hit district of Alwar, Rajasthan. Three ponds will be created by 2021, each with a 10,000-kiloliter capacity to collect and store rainwater during the wet months of July through September. These ponds will be critical to helping the Rajasthan district store water for use during the drier months of the year to support farming and biodiverse indigenous wildlife. An accompanying tree-planting project will prevent soil erosion, provide shade and food and revive the area’s 12,000 wild species of flora and wild animals.
