PHASE 2 LAUNCH OF THE "WE'RE LITTER-FREE SERVICE STATIONS"

Singapore (August 2, 2004)

Good morning, Mr Khoo Seow Poh, Director-General of Public Health, National Environment Agency, Mr Vincent Toh, Group Manager of NTUC FairPrice Cooperative Ltd, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen.  I am very pleased to be here with you today.

Last year, on 28 October, we were at this service station for the launch of ExxonMobil's Phase 1 - "We're Litter-Free Service Stations" programme.  In Phase 1 of this programme, the staff of Esso and Mobil service stations adopted state land bordering the stations' premises and kept it clean and litter-free. Keeping our service stations litter-free is a basic housekeeping requirement to ensure our stations are clean and safe.  But by adopting state land bordering our stations and keeping that clean and litter-free, we are saying that as good citizens we must also take care of our environment.

Today, we are here for Phase 2 launch of the programme.  In this phase, cashiers at our Esso and Mobil Service Stations will hand out our new convenience store shopping bags printed with environmental messages to customers. Our staff will also remind customers to reuse these bags for their car park coupon tabs and empty soda bottles, cans and other litter.  We hope to encourage our customers to join us in this behaviour-based initiative to help keep Singapore clean and litter-free.

Our involvement with the Singapore, Litter-Free Programme started with the 2002 National Day Parade.  ExxonMobil provided 60,000 litter bags for the spectators to encourage them to take ownership of their litter by disposing their trash into the bags provided.  In that year, it took 5 hours to clean up the National Stadium instead of 8 hours in the prior year.   We were encouraged by the results and expanded our efforts in the Singapore, Litter-Free Programme.  

This year, we are providing 250,000 litter bags for the National Day Parade's rehearsals, National Education Show, Preview and the actual show.  Through this, we hope that we can reinforce the key message that all Singaporeans can play a bigger role in caring for the environment.

We are happy to be part of the NEA's Singapore, Litter-Free Programme. We are also working with the NEA in other litter-free initiatives such as inculcating good social habits like keeping commonly shared space clean and litter-free in primary schools, national parks, ExxonMobil sponsored community events as well as our company events.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd, our strategic alliance partner, who are on board with us in this litter-free initiative at our 6 FairPrice Express and Cheers stores in our Esso and Mobil Service Stations.

Lastly, I would like to thank our staff of this service station for the extra efforts they have made to host this event and also to ensure the safety of our visitors and guests.

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