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SUNDAY, JULY 23, 2017
Business
Ray S. Eñano, Editor / Roderick dela Cruz, Issue Editor business@manilastandard.net
SILICON VALLEY ICON GOES TO CEBU
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SUNSHINE HEROES
From left: Dole Asean cluster general manager Noel Casanova, National Solid Waste Management Commission executive director Eligio Ildefonso, Dole Asia vice president for marketing and innovations Ashvin Subramanyan and Gone Adventurin’ founder and chief executive Ashwin Subramaniam
PLDT Inc. will once again host Asia’s premier telecom event, the ACC, with Silicon Valley icon Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple and trustee of Wikimedia Foundation, as keynote speaker, at Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort & Spa in Cebu on Sept. 12 to 15, 2017. The much-anticipated telco and technology conference has always top billed speakers from around the world who are experts in the fields of telecommunications, carrier business and technology. This year, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Kawasaki, who is also a much sought-after speaker in international conferences, will explore the ACC 2017 theme “Reinventing Customer Experience in the Digital Age.” “If you provide enough value, then you earn the right to promote your company in order to recruit new customers. The key is to always provide value,” said Kawasaki who is currently the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool. He is also a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business (UC Berkeley). He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University, his MBA from UCLA and an honorary doctorate from Babson College.
FRUIT COMPANY WANTS FILIPINOS TO STOP POLLUTING PACIFIC OCEAN
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MASSIVE island of plastics is forming in the Pacific Ocean, and the Philippines is pinpointed as the third biggest culprit in dumping trash to the world’s largest body of water. “If you look at the southern Pacific Ocean, there is a massive, almost like a floating island of plastic trash. The Philippines ranks number three in contribution to plastic waste in the ocean in the world. Number one is China, number two is Indonesia and number three is the Philippines,” said Dole Asia vice president for marketing and innovations Ashvin Subramanyan. Subramanyan said this could be due to the fact that the Philippines has the second longest coastline in Asia after Indonesia, and there is a need to improve waste segregation and recycling in the country. Ocean Conservancy, a US environmental nonprofit group, reported in 2015 that the majority of plastic waste enters the Pacific Ocean from a small geographic area, and that “over half comes from just five rapidly growing economies—China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.” Ocean Conservancy said the rising economic power of these countries had also generated exploding demand for consumer products that had not yet been met with a commensurate waste-management infrastructure. The study found that of the 275 million metric tons of plastic waste that coastal countries produced in 2010, between 4.8 and 12.7 million MT leaked to the ocean. China was listed as the top contributor, with 1.32 million MT to 3.53 million MT going into the sea, followed by Indonesia with 480,000 MT to 1.29 million MT and the Philippines with 280,000 MT to 750,000 MT of plastic waste. While China was the biggest producer of plastic waste with 50 million MT of plastic waste per year, compared to the Philippines’ 2.7 million MT, waste in China was spread over a much greater geographic area, resulting in a much lower density
of waste. Metro Manila in the Philippines generates roughly 560,000 metric tons of plastic waste each year within an area of 620 square kilometers, translating into a plastic waste density of 900 metric tons per square kilometer. In its estimate, Ocean Conservatory said of the 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste produced by the Philippines, about half a million metric tons leaked to the sea. An executive of Dole, a multinational fruit producer which has a 17,000-hectare plantation in South Cotabato province, said companies were contributing to the problem. “Disposable container has created issues for the environment. Because of the nature of business of Dole, we know that we also contribute. That is why we have decided to put emphasis on putting training, wisdom among the students,” said Dole Asean cluster general manager Noel Casanova. Subramanyan agreed, saying: “We have business in the Philippines, so we can do something about it. So let us do something about it.” Dole Philippines teamed up with Gone Adventurin’ and Mother Earth Foundation to launch the Sunshine Heroes campaign—a CSR and sustainability drive centered on engaging the schoolchildren and instilling within them the passion to embrace sustainability, through recycling, as a lifestyle and a progressive movement. “We need to teach kids that all the trash they see laying around our streets and clogging our waterways is because we need more recycling and less trash,” said Subramanyam. Data showed the Philippines was producing around 40,000 tons of garbage every day or about 14.6 million tons a year. Experts said that at least 70 percent of these wastes were generated by households, while about 75 percent could actually be recycled. To encourage the youth to recycle materials, the Sunshine Heroes campaign is putting up material recovery facilities in five public schools in Malabon and Quezon City where students will be
requested to bring household recyclable wastes to the facility. The trash will then be sold to local recyclers once it reaches a certain amount. Money generated from this program will go directly to the school to help fund other school activities. The pilot schools are Potrero Elementary School, Potrero National High School, Masambong Elementary School, Sergio Osmeña Sr. High School and Holy Spirit Elementary School. “We chose to engage the youth because of their role in helping change mindsets about recycling and proper waste management,” said Subramanyam. “Down the road, we hope that other schools will be able to replicate this sustainability model. Making this model a staple in every school can make a lasting impact in terms of advocating for proper waste management nationwide,” said Subramanyam. National Solid Waste Management Commission executive director Eligio Ildefonso said the industries and the private sector have crucial roles to play in waste management. “The order of the Supreme Court is to clean up Manila Bay to restore it to former status where everyone can swim,” he said. “We want to see more companies as partners of the government,” said Ildefonso. Gone Adventurin’ founder and chief executive Ashwin Subramaniam said urban waste in the Philippines was expected to rise significantly in the coming years. “The World Bank has forecasted that urban waste in the Philippines will increase 165 percent by 2025 from 2012,” he said. He said teaching students to recycle materials is a good start. “Our whole future depends on the next generation or two,” said Subramaniam. “Each household has 4.4 members and if you can influence one student or one child in the family, you have 3.4 other members of the family who can start segregating and recycling,” he said. Subramanyan, the Dole executive, said aside from the fruit company, everybody should take part in recycling of materials. “We all live in this planet. We owe it to ourselves to protect it,” he said. Roderick T. dela Cruz
Silicon Valley’s Guy Kawasaki leads speakers at ACC 2017
Kawasaki’s quotes have captivated audiences: “When you enchant people, your goal is not to make money from them or to get them to do what you want, but to fill them with great delight.”A prolific writer, he has authored numerous best-selling books such as The Art of Social Media, Enchantment, The Art of the Start 2.0 and nine others. Several international experts in technology and telco will be joining Kawasaki as speakers at the plenary session. “As ACC provides an ideal venue for industry leaders to discuss and share the latest technological breakthroughs, it also spearheads Thought Leadership on the future of technology and telco through relevant activities such as the plenary session, bilateral meetings, workshops, exhibits, and networking events,” said PLDT Group chief revenue officer Eric Alberto. Last year, the ACC was attended by over 1,300 delegates representing 414 companies from 62 countries around the world. “The ACC has always been well-attended since it was first held 13 years ago,” Alberto said. “Both international and local delegates look for ward to this conference every year because it offers them great technological knowledge and enormous opportunities for networking, collaborating and conducting business with industry leaders and players,” he said. The conference program consists of the plenary session, various workshops, bilateral meets, networking sessions, and social activities.
ABOITIZ INTRODUCES THE ‘GREEN’ JEEPNEY By Alena Mae S. Flores BUSINESSMAN Endika Aboitiz teamed up with Spanish investor Enrique Bañuelos to reinvent the old ‘jeepney’ and transform it into a green, electric vehicle. QEV Philippines Electromobility Solutions and Consulting Group Inc., the joint venture between Aboitiz and Bañuelos, proposes to convert an initial 50,000 jeepneys over five years, or 10,000 per year, by replacing their diesel engines with
lithium-ion batteries. QEV Philippines, the Philippine unit of Singapore-based electromobility holding firm QEV Capital Pte. Ltd., also seeks the help of the government to shoulder the cost of electric kit of around P600,000 per unit. “The jeepney is as much Filipino as all of you. It is like London’s double-decker bus. It in itself is a moving museum. Taking the jeepney away is taking away a piece of our colorful history, an icon that
many have come to associate with the Philippines. We can preserve the jeepney and modernize it without taking away its charm,” Aboitiz said during the launching of the green jeepney in Taguig City. When Bañuelos, QEV’s principal investor first laid eyes on the jeepney, it was love at first sight. In his resolve, he had a Sarao jeepney sent to Spain for extensive research and development, so they could study how it could be converted Turn to C2