Environment
World Water Day 2014 to Focus on Water-Energy Link
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will bring together the country’s water and power sectors to raise public awareness on the close link between water and energy consumption as the nation joins the rest of the world in celebrating World Water Day (WWD) on March 22.DENR Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje said this year’s celebration, which has a local theme “Water is Power,” will focus on the growing awareness that saving water may be one of the most effective ways to save energy – and vice versa. “We wish to highlight the important link between water and power, and how they are highly dependent on each other,” Paje said, noting that producing energy uses water, and providing freshwater uses energy. He said both processes face growing limits and problems.
He added: “In fact, much of our generated power relies on water, while many Filipinos rely on electrical power for domestic water supply.”Paje said that aside from providing Filipinos access to clean water and electricity, “the efficient use of both water and power is also an urgent issue the government is trying to address.”According to statistics, about 17 million people in the Philippines have no access to safe drinking water and over 15 million still have no access to electricity.To mark WWD 2014, the DENR, its attached agencies and partners have prepared a week-long program from March 17-22.
On March 17, a kick-off event will be held at the Angat Hydroelectric Power Plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan. Expected to attend are Paje, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson and National Power Corp. (NPC) president Ma. Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita.These officials, along with other representatives from NPC, National Irrigation Authority, Metropolitan Manila Water Sewerage System, and water concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water, will be treated to a “Water Energy Tour Nexus” of the Angat, Ipo and La Mesa dams.
On March 18, the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) will hold a day-long World Water Day Exhibit at the Activity Center of the Glorietta 2 in Makati City. At 5 p.m. on that day, there will be a free four-hour concert that will feature pop and alternative rock artists to draw attention to current efforts to revive Manila Bay, and major rivers and creeks in Metro Manila.On March 19, the EMB will hold an on-the-spot poster-making contest for elementary and high school students at the SM North EDSA, while their teachers undergo a Water Education workshop at the Air Quality Training Center inside the DENR compound in Quezon City.
On the same day, employees of the Laguna Lake Development Authority will lead tree-planting activities in Antipolo City and Taytay, Rizal. They will also hold a river clean-up in the nearby towns of San Mateo and Rodriguez the following day.The Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, led by its chairperson Gina Lopez, will conduct an “estero tour” featuring the rehabilitated Estero de Aviles in San Miguel, Manila on March 20.
Employees of the DENR and Maynilad will hold a “Plant for Life” mangrove tree-planting activity along Cavite shores on March 18 in Bacoor and March 20 in Kawit.The DENR will also host “Water is Power” lecture series in selected schools in Pateros and the cities of Quezon, Marikina, Pasig, San Juan, and Taguig from March 18 to 20.All activities will culminate on March 21 at the Music Hall of the SM Mall of Asia, where a two-kilometer walk will be held outside to raise awareness on various water-related issues.The celebration of March 22 as “World Day for Water” was declared in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly. This year’s international theme is “Water and Energy.”
Smuggling as a Supply Game
By VL Domingo
(Conclusion)
BEFORE transplanting, the farmer must have to buy at least 10 bags of mix-grade fertilizers for basal application to have a good crop. Because he has very little capital which he also borrowed from the usurer he buys only 1/3 of the plant requirement.
Furthermore, the price of fertilizer as an input initially went up by 136% (and it continues to increase), since only a few Chinese traders are importing it, thus again limiting the supply of fertilizers which provides the plant energy for productivity.
This is specially so when planting during the dry season. During the rainy season, somehow the farmers get free nitrogen from the air every time there is a thunderstorm that initiates nitrification. Meanwhile, his soil has gotten acidic after more than 50 years of chemical farming which was first introduced in the l960’s by ESSO (Standard Oil).
Not a few government employees lost their lives and jobs in the fertilizer subsidy scam for lack of supply.
A Regional Director in Lasam and a DA employee who knew too much about the scam were murdered. The DA employee with his wife, and his only daughter who just graduated from college and a niece working with him as his assistant in their house in Bulacan were murdered in the middle of the night, wiping out the whole family.
Harvesting Headaches
When palay is harvested haphazardly, you again lose 15-20% of what you should harvest from your backbreaking efforts in farming. This is after the farmers spend a lot of money on chemicals to protect their fields from pests and diseases.
Again they need to contract at least 20 harvesters. The practice then is they get 10% of your harvest. This is after shaking off easily 5% of the rice particles to the ground and stepping on them. They could save this if they could only hire harvesting machines. But there is none.
Worse, even the harvesters like the transplanters are gone.
In the barangays, there are two kinds of farm workers. There are those who want to harvest only while the others want to transplant only.
The practice of harvest sharing is gone; hence you could no longer be assured of harvesters on time. You have to wait for harvesters from the other barangay that may still have some harvesters. Meanwhile, the field rats are slowly harvesting your palay if you did not put a rat trap before harvest. There is then a need to rent a combined harvester.
But for the moment only a few towns have it because it is very expensive. It is too costly for an investor. Only a federation or a cooperative could afford to buy it and rent it out to its members if they could raise the funds which is usually not available from banks and the government is not also investing on it.
Availability of Warehouses
Again the supply chain of the grains industry is broken by the lack of investments in warehouses. Only traders are investing and making windfall profits at the expense of the farmer-producers. This is where the trader starts making his profits. This is where the cartels come in.
Only a few own rice warehouses in Metro Manila and they connive to dictate the price in the market.
Recently, they even hired persons and provided them money to queue for rice just to dramatize that there is no rice supply anymore from the NFA warehouses. The NFA then had to release their buffer stocks which some unscrupulous NFA employees usually keep and allow it to rot and sell to traders for a clean profit and recorded as losses in the books of the agency.
Farmer cooperatives have been given funds to build their own warehouses, but their trading funds were mismanaged leaving them bankrupt. So in effect there is no supply of warehouse space even as they stood in the middle of the fields like “white elephants” in the middle of brown and barren rice land for lack of irrigation.
This happens because of subsistence farming as the norm that now needs to be transformed into commercial farming with highly professionalized farmers federation to do the business of planting and trading palay and rice to supply the needs of the country and be truly self sufficient (not by statistical manipulations) .
Supply of Post-Harvest Facilities
Easily, 5-10% is lost in rice milling using dilapidated rice mills that are very inefficient. Part of the rice supply to the consumers is being given to feed mills for livestock instead of human consumption.
Drying in the highways shows the Jurassic way of drying palay which leads again to additional losses that could easily compensate for the 10% shortage that is reported every year.
Drying and Milling are not integrated because of the absence of investors. The government could easily invest on this through farmer federations but is not being done. If the government shifts its policy to invest instead of subsidizing, it will be easier for them to monitor the funds instead of using government money in anomalous subsidies and programs.
The millions of funds allocated by DA Regional offices for training monitoring, evaluation and support services can be realigned with the Government Social Investment Funds (GSIF) to finance the construction of post-harvest facilities, provide trading funds for the importation of inputs and buying palay from their members with incentives and selling to the government those that they could not sell for Quedan, stockpiling and buffer stocking.
GSIF is what is needed in completing the infrastructure in commercial rice production instead of just the farm to market road which others call as “road to my farm” among Congressmen and Senators.
Politics of Rice
The absence of rice supply in the market will topple down a President or he will lose his bid for re-election. This is the politics of rice. Thus a sitting President (with or without him knowing it actually puts a tacit approval to his/her henchmen to DALPO (Do All Possible) and allow even smugglers to bring in rice just to make sure that there is no shortage. Most often also this will be tolerated by his henchmen to keep them in power and in their high positions in government.
Thus, the previous President tolerated this sad reality through her Secretaries of Agriculture. The standing order then was to produce or tolerate smuggled rice (to insure supply in the hands of the retailers). Along the way, sometimes things go wrong in this “modus operandi”.
One popular businessman lost his life when he told the President about a smuggled rice and the President without knowing the implication since it is a complex reality in food security, had the goods confiscated. The businessman was then shot (as a double crosser) in his house probably even in front of his wife by telling on the smugglers.
The “Hunger Game” which starts with government lies that there is sufficient supply, has now graduated into a “Supply Game” which the government has failed to address by subsidizing creating anomalous transactions has now graduated into a “Killing Game”.
Paradigm Shift
Like history, these anomalies in the P300 billion grains industry will keep on repeating itself from administration to administration until Kingdom Come unless there is a paradigm shift in dealing with this killing issue.
The first is to listen to what the farmers say (through their credible leaders) as a solution to this recurring problem of rice supply which starts from lack of palay supply, lack of seeds, lack of water, lack of inputs, lack of farm credit, which continues because of inefficient transplanting, harvesting, milling and warehousing thus making their unit costs higher than the world price which now results to unbridled smuggling of rice in all ports of the country.
The second is for the government to invest (not subsidize) in the commercial ventures of farmer federations and similar associations to now operate their own agribusiness.
The third is to allow the price of palay and rice to seek its own levels. When the farmers earn more because of free enterprise (not with government control) but with government investments, the farmers will produce more and better quality palay because they will now have regular incomes from the commercial venture in which they participated. They can then buy more manufacture goods and invigorate the manufacturing industry to be able to pay higher wages and can now afford to buy a more expensive rice directly sold to them by the farmers through cluster farming.
This will then enable the farmers to produce rice at lower unit cost, provide the supply needed by the traders and generate the local and national economy. With more incomes from palay farming then they don’t have to sell their seeds, keep some stocks for their use and will not become a consumer of rice themselves as claimed by many technocrats who are not even “walking the fields” just to justify their claim of certifying importation.
Japan Commits PHP215 Million ODA Providing “Next-Generation Vehicle Package”
Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Albert F. Del Rosario exchanged notes for the “Non-Project Grant Aid (Next-Generation Vehicle Package)” amounting to 500 million yen (approximately 215 million pesos) on March12, 2014.
The “Non-Project Grant Aid (Next-Generation Vehicle Package)” aims to contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution in the Philippines caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The products to be provided under this project will be decided in accordance with the Philippine Government’s requests. Specifically, the project is intended to provide eco-friendly products that will promote the development of the Philippines through making use of Japanese technology such as hybrid vehicle (HV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), electric vehicle (EV) and clean diesel vehicle (CD).
Projects under the Non-Project Grant Aid (NPGA) seek to assist developing countries in responding to different economic and social needs. The NPGA offers foreign currency funding for importation of goods such as industrial materials that will address a specific concern of a developing country. The objectives of these projects are in line with the concept of “Inclusive Growth” stated in the Philippine Development Plan 2011-2016, as well as the concept of “Human Security” being advocated by the Japanese Government. Projects such as this serve as a continuing testimony of strategic partnership between Japan and the Philippines.
A Global Mining Ethics Code: Why It Matters
by Erick A. Fabian
There is no international law governing mining projects, according to environmental ethics expert Shefa Siegel. The Philippine Society of Mining Engineers (PSEM) has a Code of Ethics, but a quick look at their website copy of the code reveals that it needs improvement in the environmental aspect. At the moment, there are only individual ethical codes and behavioral standards, but these are mostly voluntary and no government strictly enforces them. Included in this long list of ethical codes are the International Cyanide Management Code, the Equator Principles, the Global Reporting Initiative, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the Natural Resource Charter, and the United Nations’ “Ruggie Principles”. These are seen more as guidelines rather than authoritative.
On a recent visit to Japan, geologist and researcher Dr. Victor Maglambayan found out that there is a growing demand for “ethical jewelry.” He noticed that discussions about fair trade and related ethics in the jewelry business have been gaining ground in other countries. “In one of my early visits to Japan, I realized that the green trend has already taken hold even for gold, especially for gold produced by small-scale miners,” says Maglambayan in an interview with mainstream broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer some years back. The respected geologist also works as division manager for exploration at Philex Mining Exploration.
“The traditionally wealthier countries in the world have shown concern for problems associated with small-scale mining by preferring jewelry that is untainted by issues normally associated with small-scale miners like child labor, use of toxic substances and other environmentally hazardous practices,” he remarked. According to Maglambayan, this trend is not much different from the phenomenon of ‘blood diamonds’ in some African countries in the past. ‘Blood diamonds’ are those mined using slave labor, often done using kidnappings and other illegal methods. He mentions examples of jewelry companies that are exemplary when it comes to ethical business practices, such as Cartier and Fifi Bijoux in France, and Hasuna jewelry in Japan.
A sane mining code of ethics, Siegel believes, is one that would limit prolonged extraction once it reaches an unsustainable level in an area, instead of expanding as if the resource is unlimited. The enforcement of mining ethics will require interfering with existing mining policies. Such interference, says Siegel, was unheard of in the past decades but is very much necessary in the time of climate change and ecologically-sustainable business practices. Failure of enforcing an international mining ethics code will result to the stubborn persistence of extraction practices, which will prove to be fatal to communities around the world, not to mention the environment.
The country of Mongolia has the Sustainable Artisanal Mining (SAM) project, done in partnership with the Swiss government. It has produced a mercury-free gold processing plant in Bornuur province after its small-scale miners formed a cooperative. The advocacy for ethically-produced mining products is now being jump-started in Latin American countries as well. In Colombia, there is an organization of small-scale miners called Asociacion por la Mineria Responsable (ARM). ARM advocates for a ‘standard zero’,a process to certify gold, silver and platinum that conforms with the following ethical requirements: Gold and gemstones should be from socially and environmentally responsible mines. These should be fairly traded, ensuring that miners get a fair price for the goods, and the employees are paid more than the local minimum wage.
ARM emphasizes that no child and forced labor or exploitative practices will be used in the mining, refining or trading of gold and gemstones. Another remarkable thing about this movement is that the gold mines follow an eco-sustainability program, meaning no chemicals were used (for example, cyanide, mercury or arsenic). As a way to make up for the extraction, ARM members make sure that the topsoil dug off during mining is replaced.
It is uncertain if mining companies in the country are catching on the trend to promote “green jewelry” and fairly traded mineral. Research efforts in finding ways to produce and promote “ethical gold” to benefit small-scale miners are apparently not in place. The Philippines is still in the “fact-finding” stage, while foreign researchers are now in the “problem-solving” stage. Maglambayan mentions research work by Dr. Peter Appel of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, who documented the extent of mercury use in the small-scale mine sites in Zamboanga del Norte and Camarines Norte.
“Aside from helping clean up the process of small-scale miners, this may have economic benefits. Consider how much gold can be recovered from the mercury that can be recovered from the tailings. If it becomes successful, maybe large mining companies may show more interest in small-scale miners’ activities finally,”said Maglambayan. He believes that international agencies with interest in social development should see artisanal, or small-scale mining, as a way to help rural folk rise from poverty.
In the Philippines, the Environmental Management Bureau has estimated 300,000 small-scale miners in 2011. In Benguet alone, at least around 16,000 people work in small-scale mining industries. Maglambayan says small-scale mining “should be engaged constructively as the problems in this sector impact largely on mining companies.” “Small-scale mining is a reality in the Philippines because it is driven by poverty and the lack of opportunities,” he says.
In Defense of Small Businesses
by Ike Señeres
AS WE see vivid images of super typhoons devastating our islands, we should also be reminded of the very strong economic storms that are already hitting our country every day now, causing daily damage that could cost more than a series of storms and earthquakes could possibly cause. As we talk about the apparent lack of preparations to address these natural disasters, we should also be reminded that we are not prepared for these economic storms either, with practically none of the so called “safety nets” in place.
It is a good thing that natural storms could be forecasted. Economic storms on the other hand do not need any forecasts, because these are certain to come, and in fact they already have. As we speak, local products are being clobbered in the local markets, and scores of small businesses and small factories have already closed. The damage is already being felt, even before the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) is fully in place by 2015, and even before all the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements will be fully implemented.
One way or the other, the natural storms that are coming to our shores would have something to do with climate change and global warming, even if it could be argued that storms would naturally happen even without these two factors. That said however, regardless of what side of the argument you are with, there is no argument that the effects of climate change and global warming would definitely affect small businesses and small factories, as it has already happened in many cases. When we say small businesses, it should already include the business of farmers and fishermen.
I remember that when the issue of “safety nets” was discussed many years ago, there was a consensus that the government should not count all projects that all the projects that are in the normal course of public services delivery. What that means is that the government should come up with new and original “safety nets” that would be on top of, and different from what are normally provided by them. At that time, nobody really knew what that meant, and that is still the case now.
In the lack of understanding what “safety nets” would really mean, I would instead define it to mean anything and everything that would make a local product survive the onslaught of foreign products. Actually it should not be limited to plain and simple survival alone, because it should objectively mean success in the local and foreign markets, defined in terms of gross sales and market shares. I will add to that the fact that this boils down to product competitiveness. If that sounds to you like a sink or swim scenario, you are right, because that is what it really is, and much more than that, it is actually a life or death situation.
By comparison, I would say that dealing with a natural storm is easier than dealing with an economic storm. On the part of many local politicians, that could be as simple as delivering a few relief goods and taking lots of pictures. There is really no need for a closure, because the actions would end as soon as the evacuation centers are vacated, and that is it. In the case of economic storms however, the first line of casualties are not people, so there is really no rush for dramatic photo opportunities.
In the case of economic storms, the local products in the local markets are the first to die, and their deaths would ultimately result in the death of the factories, being the second line of defense. It could be said that the third line of defense would be among the ranks of the workers who would lose their incomes as their jobs would also die. Complicated as the sequence would appear to be, the cause of it all is the death of local products, and that is where we should fight back first, to make our products more competitive, so that these could stand up strongly to the foreign invaders and win the fights too.
Making products more competitive is a no brainer, because there is a science behind that. As a matter of fact, many big local companies have already perfected that science, and many of their products are now doing very well in the local and global markets. The rules of the marketing game are very clear. Aside from having a good product, what are needed are good product positioning, good branding, good labelling, good packaging and good advertising. There is no way out of these rules, because companies would have to play the game or die.
Again by comparison, the big companies could very well stand up on their own, and would therefore not need any help from the government. Obviously, the only ones that would need help from the government are the small businesses and the small factories. This is not really a new discovery, because we have known this all along. For so many years now, we have also heard many government agencies reporting that they are implementing programs along this line, but nothing seems to stick, and we are not seeing local products winning in the local and global markets.
The lack of financing is often said to be the cause of local product failure. That could be true, but in reality, any product doing well in the market should not have any problem in getting investors. And if the product is really doing well, the cash flow would be good too, and the only need for more financing would be for expansion purposes. We should really aspire to produce more local products that are global winners. Otherwise, we will just be a consumer economy, found at the lower end of the value chain, with no value added of our own.
For feedback, email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639083159262
Related articles
- Op-Ed Contributor: The Truth About Tornadoes (nytimes.com)
- Meteorologists Warn of a Future Rife with More Haiyan-Strength Storms (inhabitat.com)
- UN Climate Summit Rejects Its Own Science – Links Typhoon Haiyan to Global Warming – UN Summit Degenerates Into Unscientific Claims to Advance Political Agenda – Climate Depot Special Report (climatedepot.com)
- The Conscious Consumer Goes Mainstream (thehartford.com)
- Scientists reject Typhoon Haiyan link to man-made global warming: Storm expert Brian McNoldy of U. of Miami: ‘We don’t get to pick and choose which storms are enhanced by a warmer climate and which ones aren’t’ (climatedepot.com)
- AFTA gab slated in Bukidnon (mindanews.com)
- Extreme Weather Part II: Extreme Weather Is On The Horizon (thehartford.com)
- Climate Change: It’s Now or Never (jamiesoule.wordpress.com)
- Typhoon Haiyan exposes different perspectives on a warming planet (abc.net.au)
- Yolanda: Disaster, devastation and hope. (melisalerue.com)
Manhattan Green Solutions: A Green Business Model
by Miriam Tan-Fabian
Big is Not Always Bad
I have always had a deep-seated distrust of big businesses. Unconsciously, I often feel that big business translates to increased environmental impact just due to the sheer size of a company’s operations. When I thought about it though, I recalled that the equation would be totally different if a company’s core competencies are green and pro-environment. One such wonder is Manhattan Green Solutions. Mr. Haresh Daswani, environmental head and manager of MGS, gave me the insider’s scoop on his company.
Conscious Pro-environment Commitment
Reading through the company website, (manhattangreensolutions.com), MGS’ motto is “Welcome to a Greener World,” as a leading environmental and product solutions consultant for companies who wish to reduce their carbon footprint, as well as reduce their operational costs. Digesting this small bit of information encouraged me to delve deeper into the company. I liked the part where the MGS asserted that operational costs can be minimized, if not eliminated, with green and environmental technologies. Oftentimes, businessmen have a popular and deep-seated notion that caring for the environment, including complying with environmental laws, means an inherent trade off between the company’s bottomline and the environment. Such a mindset is wrong and MGS proves it.
Environment-Friendly Products
One such way is to consciously create products that are good for the environment. Manhattan does this through five major products, the Oxygenics Water Saving showerheads, Veltia hand dryers, Efergy energy monitors, EcoGreen LED lights, and Bioball waterless urinal solution. For example, the Oxygenics series of showerheads allows up to ten (10) times increased oxygen content in the water which helps stimulate and rejuvenate skin cells. Compared to other brands, these products exert 30% stronger water pressure which helps reduce anywhere from 23-70% water and energy consumption when compared to usual commercial brands. And since these showerheads are made of a patented durable resin called Delrin, these showerheads do not clog nor corrode while it resists mineral buildup. Best of all, these futuristic showerheads also have some cool-sounding model names like Vortex, Storm, X Stream, and Five Star Resort.
Starting it Green
Apparently, all of these product innovations involved a conscious choice on MGS’s part, so I had to ask how the company started. Haresh explained that while MGS was initially a trading company, he wanted it to go in a different direction so they initially delved into several comprehensive researches on the environment. This fueled a concern for the current state of our surroundings and a commitment that something had to be done to make things right. At that time, many solutions seemed ineffective and while there were ideas of creating novel green products for the local market, all of these had yet to be made. Finally, these products had to be geared towards the context of the Philippines.
Environmental Advocates
The company has already achieved much by creating and selling their products, but while it can readily just rest on their laurels, Haresh wanted more. When asked, “What is unique about your company that is different from other companies that have environment-friendly products?” He answered, “We are not mere traders. We are consultants presenting product solutions. We initiate in-depth researches and understanding of each of our products. This allows us to properly demonstrate them while being convinced that they are indeed solutions to a problem. We are solution providers more than just product importers”. In addition, MGS provides a staggered payment scheme to all companies, hotels, resorts, hospitals, and other institutions that buy the company’s showerheads by bulk. This set up allows customers to pay affordable monthly payments for a year which would ultimately come from savings from the use of the company’s showerheads. Thus, it is a win-win scenario for everyone. Users of these showerheads enjoy a refreshing shower experience, the purchasing company spends less and is able to pay MGS more conveniently, and MGS itself earns in the process while promoting a stronger tie-up with its bulk buyers. In fact, MGS has already partnered with such bigwigs as Fitness First and several hotels in Manila, Cebu, Palawan, and Boracay.
Challenges from Local Context
Despite MGS’s outstanding accomplishments, Haresh was candid about the company’s many challenges when he explained that one problem was, “Market maturity and understanding of product feasibility given that many managers in the Philippines just run on the command given to them, rather than presenting a novel idea to resolve their issues. Many are still stuck to the idea that a good suggestion is riskier than just following what your boss has ordered you to do”.
Need: A Little Boost
When I asked Haresh if the government has extended any kind of support, he said, “None at this point”. However, when I quizzed him what the government can do for Manhattan, he answered, “We would like our products to be better promoted and used in cities. We hope to be given audience to discuss how we can provide new solutions that others never thought about”. With all the good work that Manhattan has been done and is doing, it should obtain more help so that it can continually do good.
***
For feedback: miamfabian@gmail.com
Related articles
- Energy savings on tap at Stoneleigh Park (coventrytelegraph.net)
- Manhattan Software Brings Big Data to Real Estate and Facility Management in Manhattan Analytics (sacbee.com)
- Earth-Friendly Business: A Guide to Green Computing (staples.com)
- Manhattan Software Announces Partnership with BRG (virtual-strategy.com)
- Green Apple Environment Award in the National Campaign to Find Britain’s Greenest Companies Presented to ViridiSTOR (prnewswire.com)
- Ecolodges-Eco-hotel (egypttraveltours.wordpress.com)
- New Rejuvenator™ Microbubble Technology™ Goes Skin Deep with Less Water and Soap Than Traditional Showerheads (prweb.com)
- Bathroom Plumbing Tips (rotorooter.com)
- Manhattan Software Brings Big Data to Real Estate and Facility Management in Manhattan Analytics (prnewswire.com)
- Manhattan: Environmentally Friendly? (zoningthegardenstate.wordpress.com)
Green and Profitable
How ChemRes Runs its Business the Ethical Way
By Miriam Tan-Fabian
WATER is life and life comes from water. And while 70% of the planet is made of water, only a small percentage of it is drinkable. At the same time, since pollutants tend to easily contaminate our bodies of water and since water easily disperses, water pollution should be everyone’s concern, especially companies. Such facts seem obvious, but unfortunately, these truths are often lost in the minds of many businessmen when it comes to the environment.
Regrettably, many company owners and top managers share a static mindset that is convinced that reaping profits is inherently irreconcilable with the protection and preservation of the planet and that caring for the environment means additional costs, thus eroding competitiveness, but Engr. Jose L. de Jesus does not agree. #OpinYon #business
read cont | http://bit.ly/1bZvJsS
Related articles
- China bars water-polluting projects in five cities (vancouverdesi.com)
- China Faces Big Water Crisis (theepochtimes.com)
- Dangerous and Dirty Water in China: Examples From the First Half of 2013 (theepochtimes.com)
- Study: Cilantro helps purify polluted water (insidecostarica.com)
- Fukushima Operator Dumps 1,000 Tons Of Polluted Water In Sea (alternet.org)
- water pollution (travellingfox.wordpress.com)
- Detecting polluted water remotely – Egypt (barakabits.com)
- U.S. EPA Awards Hawaii $1.1M To Control Polluted Water Runoff (wateronline.com)
- Fukushima: 1000 Tons Of Polluted Water Dumped Into Pacific Ocean (infiniteunknown.net)
- SecureWaters Introduces AquaSentinel (hispanicbusiness.com)
- ← Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
OpinYon - The Philippines' first and only weekly opinion paper. 