SCA Americas celebrates Earth Day with Philadelphia schools

As filed – without editing – last week for yesterday’s edition of the Philadelphia Business Journal.

SCA Americas has gone green with its educational advocacy.

The Swedish consumer goods and paper company with U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia celebrated Earth Day last week by donating a book with a message to elementary schools in Philadelphia.

“For SCA, sustainability goes beyond environmentalism,” said Amy Bellcourt, vice president of communications for SCA Americas. “It goes to creating sustainability communities.”

The company donated 10 copies of “Earth Day Hooray” by Stuart J. Murphy to each of Philadelphia’s 170 public elementary schools, some of which were visited by SCA employees on April 21.

“This is a great opportunity to learn how to make stronger environments where they live,” she said.

The book, which is the story of children who recycle cans to pay for flowers to plant in a local park, is meant to teach the importance of conservation, cooperation and even math, as the children in the book are surprised how quickly their can money accumulates.

“It’s a lesson in local activism,” she said. “When we moved into Philadelpia, we set a bar for ourselves that we were going to be practicing the strongest level of sustainability.”

When SCA first moved its U.S. headquarters to Philadelphia from Eddystone two years ago, its offices in the Cira Centre near 30th Street Station was certified as a LEED-CI Gold interior space, for things like using local lumber for its hardwood floors and ceiling tiles made from reusable materials.

“SCA is relatively new to the Philadelphia area, but we have a decades old focus on sustainability,” Bellcourt said.

The company, which has more than 150 employees in Philadelphia, makes its paper products from 100 percent recycled materials, she said, so working with so many schools to celebrate environmentalism is a natural fit.

“I am confident that each and every Earth Day,” she said. “SCA will be doing something to raise awareness around sustainbility.”

See similar profiles for the Philadelphia Business Journal here. See other examples of my reporting here.

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