The end of October marked the end of my three weeks with the Orange ASEAN Factory – a sustainability consulting training program for “young” professionals (yes, I made the cut!) from Southeast Asia and the Netherlands. This run brought together 20 participants from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Netherlands, grouped us into small teams, and had us work on business cases for real-life sustainability issues from their partner companies. The OAF was initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is currently organized by TheRockGroup, a sustainability consulting company in the Netherlands. This Manila run was the 7th run since OAF started in 2016.
I applied to join OAF because 1) sustainability-related training is hard to come by in general (and especially in the Philippines), and 2) I wanted experience in other industries. This 7th edition was held in Manila, so fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t go far. Previous runs were held in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. Would have been nice to work in another country for a change but there were still advantages to staying close to home.
Christmas is upon us and with the joy and celebrations come the piles of torn wrapping paper, mounds of food waste, busted string lights,and other stresses that will make Mother Nature shout “Bah humbug!”. But it doesn’t have to be like that. It’s possible to celebrate Christmas without creating a trash pile for Santa’s elves.
Collect your coffee (and planner stickers) in a For Here mug or your own reusable tumbler.
How many coffees do you need to buy to get a free planner? How many thousands of people want the same planner you do? Multiply the two and you have an idea how many paper cups are thrown in landfills just this Christmas season to get that free planner. But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Bring your own mug and save the planet. As a bonus, many coffee shops (both chain and independent) give you a discount for bringing your own mug. Chances are, by the time you collect enough stickers for that planner, you’d have saved enough from the cup discount to buy yourself a bonus coffee.
Unplug your Christmas lights before you go to sleep.
If you’ve had your Christmas lights installed since November 1st, you’re probably already feeling the monetary pinch from keeping them running all the time. Remember to unplug your lights before you go to sleep. Anyway, no one’s awake to appreciate them. If you can, invest in LED lights too. While they cost more in the beginning, they also last longer and are safer to use.
Unplug appliances before you leave town.
Appliances left plugged in still use electricity – often called “phantom energy” – so unplug them when not in use, and especially when you’re about to leave on a long trip.
Say no to food waste.
Food waste – whether it’s the waste from food preparation (think peelings) or waste from your plate – almost always also ends up in landfills. Once there, they decompose without air and produce methane. Methane is an even worse greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide, trapping 28 to 36 times more heat compared to CO2.
Reduce food waste by planning properly so that there are no leftovers. If there are leftovers, give them away or eat them right away before they spoil.
Compost the food prep waste. If you have even a small garden, you can compost at home using the Bokashi method. If you need to compost food waste from a large party (your company party maybe?), consider hiring a composting service like Green Space.
Go for greener gifting.
Everybody loves gifts. We love getting them and we love giving them (to people we actually like). But to soften the blow to the environment and avoid all the messy post-unwrapping cleanup, consider:
Gifts that don’t need to be wrapped, like tickets to concerts or classes and store gift certificates. One of my friends gave me gift certificate for classes with Writer’s Block Philippines and it’s one of my favorite things ever.
Gifts that keep on giving, like donations to charity on behalf of your recipient
Buying gifts from environmentally and socially conscious SMEs. Buying locally made items from local companies supports more jobs and keeps the money inside our economy. Last year, I gave away bottles of tea concentrate from Bayani Brew. The tea leaves come from small Filipino farmers who are paid fairly, the price is right, and the tea itself is damned good. I’m also a big fan of SGD Coffee, who buys their beans directly from small farmers in Sagada,
Placing gifts in reusable gift bags. I save all the paper gift bags from the previous Christmas so I can reuse them for the next year. If you don’t like paper gift bags, maybe you can learn the art of furoshiki instead.
For this year’s gifts, I’ve gone for the following:
Bath and Home Care gift sets from Messy Bessy for the family titos and titas. Messy Bessy’s corporate gift guide, Christmas catalog, and regular catalog are available for download:
They offer free shipping within Metro Manila for orders worth at least Php 5,000. If you’re getting items from the regular catalog, they offer 5% discount and free shipping for orders worth at least Php 5,000.
Baby-safe liquid laundry detergent from Messy Bessy for my brother and sister-in-law (and super cute niece)
Books from Adarna House and Tahanan Books for my inaanaks. Support local authors and publishers!
Homemade goodies for my friends and cousins. Yes, they are my (unwilling) test subjects for my baking.
Becoming the Sustainability Manager of a property management company wasn’t something that I anticipated going into after doing coral reef ecology and fisheries-related research around the Philippines. But now that I’m here, I appreciate the opportunity (and challenge! huhu) to influence hundreds of property managers, and by extension, the hundreds of thousands of residents, office tenants, and mallgoers that they interact with on a daily basis.
Last month, I was approached by Speed to write an article on green condo living for their November issue. Speed describes itself as “the technology magazine for the fast-paced lifestyle, bringing together not only the most up-to-date tech news, interesting features, and informative columns”. November is typically their Green Technology issue, and I’d already written something on sustainable living for their 2016 issue (you can read it here). This new article was my chance to promote sustainable property management practices to a wider audience, so OF COURSE I wrote it.
Read the full article here:
Here’s hoping a lot of condo residents read this and start supporting practices in their own buildings 🙂
Tourism is the biggest industry in the world, providing 10% of global GDP and 1 out of 10 jobs in 2016. It’s also big on GHG emissions, producing 5% of global GHG. Considering that tourism contributed 8.6% of the Philippines’ GDP in 2016 AND the Philippines is one of the countries most affected by climate change,WWF-Philippines’ Green Wanderer travel fair held last August 11-13, 2017 at Bonifacio High Street Central Square Mall couldn’t have come at a better time. And yes, this also means that this blog post is very, very late.
I attended the second day specifically for the Sustainability Forum (yes, I woke up at 7am on a Saturday) and the talk by Daluyon Beach and Mountain Resort . The panelists for the Sustainability Forum were Joel Palma (WWF-Philippines President and CEO), Josephine Alcantara-Cruz (mayor of Donsol, Sorsogon), Anton Diaz (founder of the travel blog Our Awesome Planet), Deanne Bibat (Executive Producer of the travel show Biyahe ni Drew), and Alexa Cancio and Nikki Huang (WWF-Philippines National Youth Council members).
My favorite part of the forum was Mayor Jo sharing Donsol’s keys to success. During his presentation, Joel Palma said that for sustainable tourism to succeed, it needs visitor satisfaction (no one’s going to come back or recommend it to their friends if they aren’t happy with it), environmental protection (no protection means you’ll lose what tourists come to see in the first place), and benefits to the community. This was seen in Donsol, as Mayor Jo credits their success to their whale shark ecotourism being Community-Based, Legislation, Environmental-friendliness, the Adaptability of the community, and iNnovation (CLEAN). In Donsol, the community receives 85% of the tourism revenue. The definition of “ecotourism stakeholders” was also expanded to include transportation companies and businesses, not just the boat operators, tour guides, and hotels. Legislation means that everything is controlled and institutionalized. In the worlds of Mayor Jo, the LGU is the “taga-puna” (the critic) and “taga-puno” (the one who fills [needs]). Any new tours or activities in Donsol are screened to ensure that they don’t harm the environment. The community was also able to adapt to tourism as an alternative livelihood, with assistance from WW-Philippines. And lastly, innovation means that they never stop learning.
As for the challenges that Donsol faces, Mayor Jo mentioned three: nature, politics, and culture. Whale sharks are migratory so they’re only in Donsol for six months of the year [me: that means they need to develop another product for the off-season]. Politics also factors in because projects implemented by the current administration aren’t always continued by the succeeding administration. As for culture, Donsol is fighting hard to maintain its culture despite the influx of foreign visitors. An example of this is the increasing demand for nightlife spots, but the LGU has consistently shot down those requests in order to keep the town quiet at night.
Anton Diaz shared some tips on how to be a sustainable traveler. Did you know that Oslob, Cebu (where whale sharks are fed) has 10x the tourism income as Donsol? THAT SUCKS. As for why that sucks, let me enumerate everything that’s wrong with Oslob’s model:
The whale sharks stay at the surface for longer periods of time when they’re not supposed to. This means they get overheated so they dive very deep to cool off then go back to the surface.
Because they stay at the surface for longer periods, the whale sharks are more exposed to boats and they get HURT.
During the Q&A, Mayor Jo was asked what she would change about Oslob should she become mayor there. Her response? She’d change how tourists interact with the whale sharks. Bravo Ma’am!
Anton Diaz shared his tips on how to become a sustainable traveler. They were:
Fight apathy.
Support social enterprises.
Book sustainable accommodations.
Patronize products from the community.
Experience sustainable adventures.
Choose stand-up paddle tours.
Use electric tricycles.
Eat in local places.
Explore cultural heritage sites.
Fight against animal abuse.
While this list is a good starting point, I feel like it lacks context in some parts. Things are not black and white.
Small businesses and social enterprises are not necessarily sustainable in the same way that big businesses are not inherently unsustainable. A large resort with its own sewage treatment plant is more environmentally responsible than a dozen mom-and-pop inns that discharge their sewage straight into the ocean. A restaurant chain with a firm and fully implemented “no sharks’ fin” policy is more sustainable than a social enterprise that makes sharks fin dumplings.
While vehicles are the largest source of air pollution in the Philippines, using electric tricycles would only contribute towards decreasing pollution if they were charged using renewable energy sources, like solar, wind, and geothermal. If they’re powered using coal, you’re just moving the pollutants from the road to the power plant. Burning coal to produce electricity also produces more CO2 compared to just burning gasoline directly.
As with all things sustainability, one should look at the whole picture and not just one angle.
I was supposed to stay until the afternoon for the talk by Daluyon Resort but since I was lucky enough to get a mini one-on-one interview with Kim, the Marketing Head of Daluyon at their booth, I decided to skip it.
I haven’t been to Daluyon but what Kim showed me was impressive. They’ve invested in an MRF, solar power (not all of their rooms have them, though), an organic vegetable farm, and bicycles available for guests to use. They also offer a bike loan program to the staff, where staffers can avail of an interest-free loan for one year to buy a bike for commuting to work. They’ve also made an effort to promote eco-friendly tours, such as a mangrove tours and nature hikes. Though since I haven’t been there, I don’t know how good their guides are.
Out of all the things that Kim said and promoted about Daluyon, what stood out for me was what she didn’t say: education. Daluyon doesn’t seem to have an environmental education program in place for their guests or staff, which is both a shame and a tremendous opportunity for improvement.
Spent the next two hours looking around the exhibitor booths. I really liked the exhibitor mix, which were mostly homegrown companies offering organic vegetables and sustainable seafood. Of special interest to me was Balangay’s Best.
My biggest disappointment and chief complaint is about the severe lack of actual sustainable travel companies advertising at the fair. The only companies there were El Nido Resorts, Daluyon, and Circle Hostel – places that are already known to practice sustainable tourism.
The travel fair was supposed to introduce me to sustainable tourism companies that I didn’t know of yet.If there were no others to be had in the Philippines, I expected the travel agencies there (who banded together under the Philippine Tour Operators Association, Inc. (PHILTOA)) to suggest options abroad.
No sustainable tourism options here 🙁
Unfortunately, the agents there were unable to recommend anything. They couldn’t assure me that any of the hotels or tours they were offering were handled by responsible companies. If they couldn’t do that, then what was the point of them being there? A travel agency is supposed to cater to what the event is about. If it’s a country-specific event, then you offer tours to that country. If it’s a sustainable tourism event, then you should be offering sustainable accommodations and activities! This fiasco just underscored how much work there is left to do.
Another thing I noticed: all of those who attended Green Wanderer looked well-off. I’m not sure if that’s a reflection of the venue (a high-end mall like Central Square) or a reflection of the demographic interested in sustainable travel. If it’s the latter, then we have even MORE work left to do. Sustainable travel should be accessible to everybody, not just those with big bank accounts.
All in all, Green Wanderer was a decent event. My favorite really was the talk by the mayor of Donsol. Still sad I missed the talk by former boss Mariglo Laririt about El Nido Resorts (why was it on Friday?! huhu). Selection of exhibitors could have been better. Since it was supposed to promote sustainable travel, I expected exhibitors to sell items that make sustainable travel possible, like Patagonia and their jackets made from recycled PET bottles and Nalgene and their tough refillable water bottles (no to disposable plastic bottles!). I’m hoping that Green Wanderer will become a regular event with more success stories from the front lines.
International airports around the globe have major impacts on the environment, and as companies across all industries push toward a sustainable future, it’s important that aviation facilities such as London’s Heathrow Airport doesn’t get left behind.
Heathrow is the third busiest airport in the world when it comes to passenger traffic, accessible by more than 90 airlines according to Parking4Less, which can be quite concerning for the environmentalist given the amount of fossils fuels required to run such a large aviation hub. Believe it or not, the airport ranked among the top 10 best corporations for responsible business as airport operators continue to work with together with partner companies and national and international organisations in pursuit of an eco-friendly and socially responsible airport.
Besides ensuring the safety of passengers and the wellness of their staff, Heathrow operators are committed to supporting economic growth locally, regionally, and nationally, as well as investing in local communities. Reducing their environmental impact is also outlined in their Responsible Heathrow 2020 plan. The environmental goals are as follows:
– Reduce carbon emissions from buildings by 34 percent
– Reduce noise from all aircrafts to comply with international standards
– Recycle 70 percent of water and waste produced
– Reduce ground-based nitrogen oxide emissions from the airport by at least 5 percent
Their efforts in environmentally sound operations haven’t gone unnoticed, with numerous environmental agencies regarding the airport as a leader in sustainable business. Other than their four-star ranking with Business in the Community’s Corporate Responsibility Index for management, performance, and development of specific and measurable targets, Heathrow’s collection of accolades include having won four International Green Apple Awards for sustainable development and environmental best practice. They have also received multiple Biodiversity Benchmark awards, along with plenty of others.
With the progress currently outlined in the latest sustainability report, it would seem that Heathrow is well on its way in becoming an environmentally and socially responsible airport.
Author’s Bio Jayde Kim Having traveled all over the world, Jayde was thoroughly impressed with a number of airports which strongly advocated for sustainability and clean travel. When she’s not busy teaching environmental science to sixth graders, you can catch her cycling around town or hiking on forest trails.
From Macy:
Hey dear Readers! Because responsible travel and sustainability is such a broad topic, I figured it would be a good idea to get some guest contributions for the blog to get a different perspective on how sustainability is done around the world 🙂
The World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Tourism for Tomorrow Awards are one of the highest accolades in the travel and tourism industry. The Awards were established to highlight and promote sustainable tourism best practices worldwide. On behalf of the company, my boss received the Tourism for Tomorrow 2013 Award for the Community Benefit category last April 9, 2013 during the WTTC’s 13th Global Summit in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The Philippines is ahead of Abu Dhabi by a few time zones so I actually found out that we won at around 12:15 am on April 10. My boss posted the simple status message “We. Won.” and a photo of the trophy. A flurry of internal screaming (my roommate was asleep and would have killed me if I woke her up), furious tweets and retweets, and Facebook shares later, I called Aids and said “We won.” Took me another hour and a few games of Temple Run to slow my brain so that I could sleep. A good couple of hours later, the sun is up and I’m back at work but my brain is still on a high. Luckily, my Facebook and Twitter contacts have been very patient and understanding about my endless posts about our company winning the award. Why is winning Tourism for Tomorrow such a big deal?
Of course my boss took a picture of the trophy 😀
It’s recognition. Sustainable tourism is only now just getting off the ground in the Philippines but our company has been at it since we opened 31 years ago as a dive camp in Miniloc Island. It’s not easy to do – just ask my boss! – so recognition that we’re an industry leader is always welcome. As an industry leader, we hope to become a case study for how to grow a tourism business without sacrificing the foundation of the business – the environment and the local community.
It’s validation. We already know that we’re doing the right thing – hiring locally, investing in staff training, protecting the environment, and supporting local businesses – but having an outside party composed of international experts agree with us is still pretty cool.
It’s more promotion for us. Hey, we’re a business after all. Increased media exposure for us means (hopefully!) more guests. More guests means more staff, more local purchases, and more funding to continue what we’re doing. We wouldn’t have been able to install mooring buoys around Bacuit Bay in the 1990s if we didn’t have any money. More guests means more students of sustainable tourism. I’m also hoping that as a result of the promotional blitz for our win, we get more guests who chose to spend their holidays with us because of what we’re doing.
The Boss is asking us to plan a victory party. It’s going to take some doing since we have to coordinate with the resorts, ITI, TKP, and our partners in the local community. It’ll be worth it though because we’re going to celebrate a win that was 31 years in the making 🙂
It’s easy to be awesome when you’re surrounded by equally awesome people 🙂 Rima and Mavs aren’t in the photo. We miss you guys!!!
World Environment Day 2013 is coming up and UNEP is again holding a contest to find the green blogger who will keep the rest of the world updated on the WED festivities in the host country. They started the contest in 2010 but this was the first time I’d heard of it. The challenge was to write an engaging 400-600 word blog post on the impact of food waste on the environment. Of course I joined!
You can find my blog entry hereon our work website. If you found it interesting and engaging, please share, Like, and tweet it!UNEP and Treehugger are judging the first round and while content matters, popularity matters too. The prize at stake: the chance to live-blog and tweet about the World Environment Day activities happening in Mongolia!
Me working hard to harvest the lettuce in our greenhouses
