The FINANCIAL — The students of Caucasus University joined the new green campaign promoted by the Government of Georgia last week. CU students repaired the cottages of local security guards working for Borjomi-Kharagauli National park, damaged as a result of the 25 day fire started in Borjomi Gorge in August.
About 1,000 ha of forest in Borjomi-Kharagaui were burnt according to Georgian officials. The damage to the environment was more than EUR 500,000,000.
“13 students were ordered to make a project in the sphere of international business. The main demand of the project was to include the local community somehow. We decided to do our bit by making a project about tourist infrastructure development,” George Pruidze, junior student of CU ‘s CSB and a member of the project, told The FINANCIAL.
The CU students’ voluntary work was much encouraged by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and other sponsors.
“Our work in Kharagauli lasted two days. 50 people participated in this action. Big support was provided by the Ministry of Environment Protection, they sent 10 persons. Large support was given by Seni and Reki, who took their places next to us in rebuilding the country. Seni helped us to buy materials and made our promotion. The sponsors were: DIZEL, LTD Magnati 2008, Pepsi, and Libo +, which helped us to move materials,” Pruidze added.
The students’ activity started from a compulsory project that soon became voluntary and will hopefully be repeated many times in the future.
According to Pruidze this project is not a one-shot campaign. “In the future we are planning to restore the national park of Tbilisi. We will start this work from 20 November. This will be a bigger project, more wide scale, and because of it being a new project there will be more things to do. We already have the support of the Ministry of Environment Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia, which is equipping us with all the necessary things for conducting our work effectively. We also plan to do some restoration works in Old Tbilisi. We are doing this work under the name of our university and hope that others will follow. We need support from the media too.”
Social responsibility has become the main demand of modern marketing activity.
“In today’s integrative marketing communication, the new issue, topic, which is widely discussed everywhere is corporate social responsibility. Unfortunately CSR politics is not very well integrated in Georgian society and Georgian companies. We want to show an example to others. Not only is financial support crucial, but also physical support and I think that our students are a good example for other companies and universities too,” Tinatin Gugberidze, Marketing and PR Director of CU, announced.
Gugberidze thinks that it’s a prime time for all companies to move toward new marketing strategies: “The modern market has changed much. All the companies must look closely at their marketing strategy. At the first stage is making your ability profitable for customers, especially if we foresee the current economic crisis, which will influence a lot of things. Old marketing strategies were oriented solely at company’s welfare. Modern marketing means not only internal welfare, but also external welfare. What is marketing? It’s communication with customers, and if we communicate limitedly for a company’s wellbeing and only in micro activities, we won’t be considered its members. Internal welfare – for the benefit of the company and also external welfare – for the benefit of society.”
Gugberidze is asking for more support from the media, which they need for spreading CU students’ activities among other companies and universities. “We are always glad to support such initiatives from our students.”
“CU financially helped some refugees from the Samachablo region. We arrange such events every year. We won’t be focused on just one concrete segment; we will try to participate in rebuilding and flourishing every sector of our country. The monetary support of refugees includes the wish of a company’s staff, to collect money for them, which will be handed out by us. We will continue this direction,” Gugberidze said.
Last month Bank of Georgia created a new product called “Green Deposit” which is a part of the rehabilitation programme of forests burnt in Borjomi Gorge. For every term or child deposit exceeding GEL 500 (USD 356), BoG will plant a tree in Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park. Every new tree planted will have a number and the owner of the deposit will be given a special ownership certificate.
Written By Madona Gasanova
