ECOSWITCH Speaks at Earth Day 2013

In the celebration of earth day, SM City organized an event, “Earth Day 2013 Philippines” that was held last Monday, 22nd day of April at Cinemax SM City Sta. Mesa. The goal of this event is to pursue their campaign in giving an environmental awareness to their customers. This short program started with a short prayer and singing of National Anthem at around 11PM followed by opening remarks of Ms. Ferra, event coordinator of SM City Mall. Three speakers were invited to give their speech, and technical knowledge on how to save the environment from individual practices up to large sectors in the society.

One of the invited guests is Mr. Dante Santiago, Head of City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) San Juan City. His speech focuses on their project to clean San Juan River. According to Philippines Today, “San Juan River is one of the tributaries of Pasig River. The entire San Juan River basin including its tributaries has a catchment area of 90.4 sq. km, comprising the lower half of Quezon City, the municipality of San Juan and parts of Mandaluyong City, Pasig City and Manila City. Of the total area, about 78sq km is located in Quezon City.” Environmental Sector of San Juan City is now implementing their project to clean the San Juan River within their vicinity with the help of SM City Mall.

Green Philippines Island of Sustainability-ECOSWITCH (GPIoS-ECOSWITCH) also participated in the event together with the Technical Consultant Mr. Wilson Baldonado, which also gave his overview and technical know-how in environmental topics. According to him it starts with “changing the mindset of people” he explained this statement briefly by implying that in buying goods, individual should identify what is needed and what is not, what will be used and what will be the waste, “all of the waste minsan naging base raw material yan” he added. He also said that their organization teach on how to properly use electricity, material, water and other resources that every individual in a company or establishment consumed which results to company’s savings he said that: “while saving your environment, you also save your money”. He also emphasized that “56% of the savings came from a behavioral change”.

Mr. Baldonado also discussed about the difference between End of Pipe Solution which according to him it is the so called “segregation” and the Cleaner Production or the “Pollution Prevention” which he advised that it is the better practice to at least reduce the waste before it is produced. He closed his speech with his opinion on the ECO FAIR which was written in the poster at the stage, “para sa akin ECO FAIR means everybody let us all be FAIR to the ENVIRONMENT”.

The next invited speaker was Mr. Ken Barrera, a representative from Environmental Protection and Waste Management of Quezon City. He presented the different projects and laws being implemented in Quezon City. Their city implement the No segregation, no collection policy which is according to him every baranggay in their vicinity should follow this ordinance, he also explained that if waste segregation is followed biodegradable waste can be used as a fertilizer, recyclable materials can sold in junkshops and the residual which covers 13% of their waste will be the only waste for disposal. There is also a recent legislation implemented in their city, such as SP1917 S-2009 or Compliance of Green Infrastructures, SP2122 S-2011 or Prohibiting an open burning, and SP2127 S-2012 or regulating the use of plastic bags.

Also they have this Blue and Green Projects which focuses on the cleaning of river ways (blue) and planting of trees (green). Other Projects includes SWM Project (School based projects), such as Hukbong Luntian and Hakot Bulasi sa Eskwela, Payatas Transformation, Air Quality Management, Greening Management, Greening Project in partnership with ABSCBN and Maynilad. Additional projects are Urban Farming, Distribution and posting of ordinance plates and IEC materials, and they have the new target project called Energy Efficiency Street Light (replacing street lights with LED lights).

After the speeches of the invited speakers a cultural band played music (originated from Zamboanga) using different cultural instrument during the break and then followed by ribbon cutting, awarding of token ushered by Miss Earth- Philippines 2012, Ms. Princess Manzon.

Mrs. Sheryl Briones a business women and one of the invited guests, shared and showed her goods, before the program ended, in which his items is mainly made up of recyclable materials such as plastics and papers. One of her items is a necklace made form paper beads, bag from old newspapers, and a tissue holder made from drinking straws. According to her, these goods are sturdy even it is made up of papers since it is coated with polyurethane. Her store is named, “Just One of a Kind”, “because I create one of a kind just for you”, she added.