Pierre Fabre Australia: Going on a Green Mission to save our plants. #RBGSydney

Plants are at the heart of our approach at Pierre Fabre to exploring and innovating for health care and beauty. Plants however are also currently under major threat globally, with up to 50% at risk of extinction worldwide. The national herbarium of NSW is undertaking work to contribute towards the international community of herbaria to transform science by growing its network of online resources, and Pierre Fabre Australia employees chose to participate and help in some of its works. 

Building a virtual herbarium

With the ever growing rise of environmental awareness and importance of corporate social responsibility, the team at Pierre Fabre Australia drew from nature as the source of inspiration, choosing to volunteer their time towards the National Herbarium of NSW’s Digitisation Project taking place at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Picturae is one of the world’s most renowned digitisation companies and is undertaking the exciting project in partnership with International Conservation Services and Alembo. More than 1.4 million botanical specimens at the Herbarium are being captured as high resolution digital images and will be available for everyone around the world to access, to advance science and conservation outcomes. The digitisation project will help researchers around the world address critical issues such as climate change, management of plant diseases and pests and threatened species conservation. Similarly, plants sit firmly at the heart of our research in therapeutics and dermo-cosmetics at Pierre Fabre.  

The volunteer work involved assisting with the crucial preparation of botanical specimens for digitisation. Picturae uses an automated conveyor belt system to safely capture high resolution images of each specimen by minimising the handling of the extremely fragile materials.  The technology used by Picturae means that images are taken at a resolution of 570 pixels per inch, which is almost as powerful as a microscope.  A total of 156 hours was contributed as part of this volunteer activity in 2019 and in 2020. Pierre Fabre Australia announced the entitlement of two paid volunteer days to its staff to do their part in the overall green mission amidst the ongoing catastrophic bushfires affecting Australia*.

"This experience at the Herbarium was especially meaningful for us given how consistent it is with our values at Pierre Fabre. 

Mr Pierre Fabre was not just a pharmacist, he was passionate about botany and the Group now has the largest privately owned herbarium in the world!  So, it speaks volumes for us to be doing our part here in Australia to help in this aspect to preserve and secure these assets for future research and discovery…"

Laurent Saffré

CEO at Pierre Fabre Australia

Volunteering through citizen days is one of a few local Green Mission Initiatives

With Green Mission clearly a priority for the business, employees have been engaged and involved to identify collectively, the areas where Pierre Fabre Australia can take action to do our part environmentally.  In addition to volunteer days, Pierre Fabre Australia has partnered with their logistics provider to offset their carbon footprint on travel and logistics transportation; they also made the switch to using renewable energy in the office and proactively choose to partner with vendors that are environmentally friendly.  

"Green Mission is a priority for our business.  We have a responsibility to do so, and moreover it is very affordable to do so. These actions are easy to do and has engaged many of our employees because of how this is important to them at a personal level.  And we continue to explore opportunities to act on change and make conscious decisions to do our part towards being green."

Arnaud Vaillant

CFO at Pierre Fabre Australia

_{*Pierre Fabre Australia have pledged a monetary donation to Red Cross Australia and Wild Life NSW & VIC, as well as product donations across charitable organisations assisting with those impacted by the bushfires (@beautybagsforbushfirevictims, @foodbanknswact, @sharethedignityaustralia and Helping Hand).  Pierre Fabre Australia also has an ongoing partnership - through the Klorane Botanical Foundation - with the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, supporting its work to protect threatened plant species and biodiversity via its Rainforest Seed Conservation Project.}