Mall shares lessons on going ‘green’

MALL manager Mark Louie Sta. Ana welcomes the audience in the green retail agenda.

Not a few people know about SM Malls’ initiative of tackling the road to green and sustainability. Eco-friendly SM Green bags have been commonplace, SM Green Festival regularly draws moviegoers into its roster of “green” documentaries. And then there were series of lectures on environmental awareness and protection in what they call the “Green Retail Agenda.”

In line with the mall-wide agenda of educating students, tenants and employees, SM Sta. Mesa in Manila recently held Tuesday its version of the Green Retail Agenda under the theme “Empowerment by sustainability.”

The mall hopes to foster awareness that its retail agenda can also be a venue for community development and to bring environmental awareness to public consciousness.

“The change is toward sustainability,” says engineer Mark Louie Sta. Ana, SM Sta Mesa mall manager, in his speech to welcome the audience composed mostly of students from nearby colleges such as the UERMMC College of Medicine, the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, San Beda College and the sole high school contingent from the Fountain International School.

Bacolod-based NGO Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc (AIDFI) was flown in to address the conference and share its project which recently bagged the BBC World Challenge Award.

Called the hydraulic ram pump project, this water system supplies drinking water to remote villages in Negros Occidental and other parts of the country. One of its strongest suits is that it utilizes no fuel or electricity.

The group is a proud recipient of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Award, Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. AIDFI is founded in 1991 by Leonidas Baterna, a union worker and Auke Idzenga, a Dutch development worker.

According to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, AIDFI was recognized for “its collective vision, technological innovations, and partnership practices to make appropriate technologies improve the lives and livelihoods of the rural poor in upland Philippine communities and elsewhere in Asia.”

Che Idzenga, AIDFI project manager, showed the audience how the ram pump works and how it continues to benefit communities in the upland areas.

Also present during the lecture series was former Ms Earth Philippines title holder Catherine Untalan, who represented the Miss Earth Foundation. Untalan highlighted the benefit of the environment and shared first-hand advocacy projects and the group’s initiatives to take care of the environment.

The former beauty queen who now holds post as executive director of the foundation says that the problem of the youth today is apathy, more than poverty and lack of access to education. She says that not a lot of people have become truly aware of green living and sustainability.

The change, she says, must start with our selves even if it means changing our lifestyle. She confesses bringing her own “little eco-bag” everywhere she goes.

The GRA started in 2008 and becomes an annual conference hosted by SM Prime Holdings that provides a forward thinking view on the social, economic and environmental effects of green retail. This hopes to strengthen the public’s participation and empower them to contribute to the efforts of various sectors.

Last year, Al Gore was the guest of honor in a talk titled “Face the Inconvenient Truth.”

Among SM’s programs also include Trash to Cash, a monthly recycling market fair and the “My Own Bag” movement on Wednesdays.