"We react more to that rather than the fear of regulation," said Gozun, one of six winners of the annual Champions of the Earth awards due to be presented by the UN to environmental leaders in Singapore on Thursday.

Gozun won the award for her environmental efforts in the Philippines, which include the introduction of a pollution charges scheme and establishment of a public disclosure system for companies' environmental performance.

The 54-year-old mother of two cited the example of a textile firm in Manila which had discharged untreated water into the city's Malabon-Navotas river in the 1990s, and was shamed into cleaning up the effluent after the government named it as one of the "dirty dozen" responsible for polluting the river.

The children of the family that owned the textile firm were so ashamed by this that they refused to go to school.

"They said 'we are so embarrassed because now our classmates are saying we are rich, we are making money, but we are polluting the river'," Gozun said.

"That's what woke them up. They cleaned up their act. They now serve as a leader in the community," she said, referring to the family.

Similarly, the "Pasig Poison" awards given by the Sagip Pasig Movement, a Philippine NGO, to the worst polluters of Manila's Pasig river every year have reined in some polluters, many of them food manufacturers wary of being seen by the public as dirty, Gozun said.

"NOT A REAL THREAT"

Gozun, who has worked as a consultant for environmental projects by global agencies such as the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, said bureaucracy often gets in the way of enforcing environmental standards and many firms do not take threats of closure very seriously.

"It's not a real threat, and it's not something that they fear," she said, referring to government regulation.

In the Philippines, firms are fined for dumping waste into rivers -- a scheme Gozun helped to implement in 2005 inspired by similar systems in Malaysia, Netherlands, Germany and Poland.

"Whenever you hit the pocket, people take notice," she said.

Gozun, who said she got involved in environmental work after huge floods killed more than 5,000 people in the Philippine town of Ormoc in 1991, said people would become environmentally friendly if they knew how global warming could affect their individual lives.

"Once you do that, I have yet to come across anybody, rich or poor, who would dare not get engaged to think of a solution," she said.