07/08/2006
The Bright Side of the Road
Yesterday was the Ayala Land Recharge day where all the employees allocated their volunteer services to a selection of 5 non-profit organizations. WWF was the environment group. WWF Marketing and Climate Change teams conducted a climate change workshop to over 100 Ayala Land employees.
We at WWF figured, Ayala Land – land development – climate change - critical. The morning was an onslaught of information on climate change, the rise and fall of ancient civilizations and the factors that lead to decline, predominantly environmental damage and climate change. Then we went into 2 hours of what caused global warming, why, who, what was the situation in the Philippines, global and local impacts.
The afternoon was dedicated to a carbon footprinting exercise. As expected, the average Ayala Land employee emitted huge amounts of carbon, way over the average Filipino’s 0.9 tonnes a year. Again as expected, the majority of emissions came from transportation, about 3 times the amount of carbon than other sources such as electricity, waste, etc.
Your average Ayala Land employee pretty much represents your average Metro-Manila employee who commutes an average of 1 hour a day to get to work and another hour to go home. As the largest land developer in the Philippines, and the company that built Makati, obviously there was something terribly twisted in the thinking, or rather, the planning to have engendered a Metro-Manila lifestyle that produced a standard of 2 hours commute a day. But hey, like all good Filipinos, they were simply miming the American development models where owning a car is a given, and we all know what this lifestyle contributes to climate not to mention the blind eye it turns to those who can’t own a car, like maybe 40% of the population.
The last exercise of the day was group case studies of 3 development projects. The groups had to identify how the projects were contributing to dangerous climate change and recommend mitigation and adaptation measures. Obviously the group got it and then maybe they didn’t get it. On the problem of clearing the trees off land as is the practice upon ground breaking, the solution was replanting. This was a retro-fit, after-the-fact solution but no one talked about not cutting them down at all but landscaping development around the existing vegetation. But then the mindset is still, “hey, we control nature and bend it to follow our plan”. There were some surprises, such as leaving more unpaved spaces good for photosynthetic ceiling and of course the obvious ones such as, eco-design for static ventilation and natural light. They were a sharp, young group and we only had 3 hours of brainwash so give it time to sink in, deepen and flourish in innovative ideas. Seeds were planted – maybe we’ll see changing landscapes, less pollution, cleaner lifestyles, maybe hope.
04:45 Posted by sr in Climate Change , Sus Dev , Sustainable Business , Sustainable Consumption | Permalink | Comments (1) | Email this | Tags: Ayala Land, climate change
05/08/2006
The Brand Scrimmage
Interesting to watch this century is the evolution of the corporate ‘brand’. The ‘culture’ of brands drives global consumption, taking on a life of it’s own, defying territory, creating global societies of consumers related by brand preference. One had to witness the hordes of Japanese consumers in 1990s waiting in line for the doors of Louis Vuitton to open for the day (Filipinos not far behind), Parisians walking past the queues slightly disdainful, feeling culturally violated (but not half as violated as when you order a Coke in a fine dining restaurant, if it’s available).
14:24 Posted by sr in Sustainable Consumption | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Sustainable Development
04/24/2006
Food, Water, Sunlight, and Sex Are Not Enough
by Yeb Sano
Saving the environment may sound like a self-indulgent affair, where one engages in pseudo-philosophical gymnastics and concludes “hey, we only got one planet… we’ve got to take care of it.” Mother Earth would no doubt be flattered. However, such a mindset will most likely raise more questions (and eyebrows) than provide solutions. “Is Mother Earth really as simple as a blue and green blob? Is Mother Earth even a mother? Is it even correct to refer to Mother Earth as one singular being? Is saving the environment as simple as ‘stop this, stop that’. What the hell do I have anything to do with endangered species or with disappearing coral reefs?”
Many years in conservation work has taught us that saving nature is not about saving nature. Yes, it sounds circular but strangely enough, everything is part of a big circle. Maybe that’s what Mother Earth really is – a big circle. And definitely, people are an integral part of the circle. We save nature not for nature, but for the survival and development of the human species. Anyone who believes that we should rid this planet of people so that it can flourish is either thoroughly dimwitted or totally being a bloody hypocrite.
Actually, ridding earth of humans is not at all that hard. We can just go on with our business as usual and not too long we will be extinct. We are actually doing a pretty good job at getting our species gone forever. So how easy is it to make humans extinct? What does the human species need to survive? Sunlight, yes but should go with the correct balance of greenhouse gases. Sex, we’ve had too much. Food, definitely. Freshwater, definitely. The equation is quite straightforward. The truth is, we’re seriously jeopardizing the balance in the equation.
Apparently, decimating the human species is not rocket science. We are doing it when we keep the faucet running while brushing our teeth, when we don’t segregate our trash, every time we forget to turn off the lights or the television, when we buy stuff we don’t really need and a lot of really simple everyday mistakes. More sophisticated groups of people have found more efficient ways to darn our species, but ordinary people are as blameworthy as these multi-million dollar culprits. Pardon the cliché, but “for evil to triumph, it is enough that good people do nothing.”
Today, we face a myriad of environmental issues both domestically and globally. We’ve heard of climate change, global warming, sea level rise, droughts, super typhoons; the “day after tomorrow” doomsday stuff. We’ve also witnessed plummeting fish catch, decreased soil fertility, vanishing forests, scarcity of freshwater. It’s crazy, really.
But the more serious problems are not really those that can be measured by thermometers, data loggers, anemometers, barometers, computers, or through physical or biological studies. The more serious problems are those things that happen between people, within communities of people, and whole societies. Greed, hate, apathy, indifference, more greed, distrust…
So, after all, in order for the human species to survive, food and water are not enough. We need compassion, love, benevolence, fairness, solidarity. To paraphrase Robert Fulghum’s words, ‘all we really need to save the world we learned in kindergarten.’
Let’s leave our children a loving planet.
17:16 Posted by Yeb Sano in Community , Science , Species , Sus Dev , Sustainable Consumption | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment
04/21/2006
What you can do for Earth Day
April 22 is the day we renew our commitment to Earth which we should actually be doing everyday, but don't. Various celebrations are going on in WWF project sites and below is a list of little things we can do for one day to alleviate the pressures we put on our ailing Mother the rest of the year.
05:40 Posted by sr in Community , Sustainable Consumption | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment
04/06/2006
Hope for Sulu Sulawesi
Lest we are tagged as ‘bad news bloggers’, here’s some good news. After 6 years of hard work, the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have just signed a tripartite agreement to conserve and manage the Sulu Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion (SSME). This milestone agreement over Southeast Asia’s most biologically productive marine environment gives the region hope.
02:27 Posted by sr in Apo Reef , Batangas , Biodiversity , Marine , Sulu Sulawesi Ecoregion , Sustainable Business , Sustainable Consumption | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Ecology & Environment
03/21/2006
Mea Culpa: Confessions of an Environmentalist
by Yeb Sano
Even though we’re environmentalists, we have our share of daily struggles. Just like what St. Augustine prayed for, “Lord, make me chaste--but not just yet." Nonetheless, environmentalists have this stereotype reputation for being self-righteous, being always holier than most people when it comes to devotion for Mother Earth. Environmentalists are usually perceived to be geeks, eating an all-organic diet, leading a hippie lifestyle, riding bikes, maintaining their own backyard compost pits, and riding rubber rafts to block nuclear ships.
00:29 Posted by sr in Sustainable Consumption | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this | Tags: Sustainable Development