CEBU CITY–After a successful debut in Manila earlier this year, the Aboitiz Green Fashion Revolution (GFR) is returning to its roots in the Queen City of the South with another installment set to take place in Cebu City later this month.

The Aboitiz GFR Cebu 2016 kicked off last October with a design lecture by Cebu City fashion designer Dexter Alazas and a garment-making workshop for Cebuano students at the Aboitiz Banilad Office in Cebu City. A total of 29 students from six schools (Fashion Institute of Design and Arts, Fashion Institute of the Philippines, University of San Carlos, University of San Jose-Recoletos, Cebu Institute of Technology University, and University of Cebu) attended the workshop in preparation for the actual competition slated for November 26 at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall, with the theme “Life Flourishing on Land and in Water.”

“Following the success of the Aboitiz GFR in Manila last January, we are excited to bring it home once again here in Cebu. In line with the GFR’s environmental thrust and objectives, we hope this year’s contestants will continue to champion a sustainability mindset among today’s youth by producing outstanding designs that embody sustainability and resource conservation,” Sonny Carpio, Aboitiz Foundation Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, said.

The program was the brainchild of a group of Aboitiz scholars during the Aboitiz Scholars’ Corporate Social Responsibility Summit in December 2011 and was first staged in 2012 through the auspices of the Aboitiz Foundation, the corporate foundation of the Aboitiz Group.

Since then, it has been challenging students to create clothing, footwear, and accessories that make use of recycled materials and highlight the importance of the 3Rs—Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. It is currently an initiative under the Aboitiz Group’s Wealth on Waste Program that promotes creative recycling of waste materials after their useful life.

Last month, the Aboitiz Green Fashion Revolution was given a Silver Stevie Award for the category Communications or Public Relations Campaign of the Year-Sponsorship at The Stevie Awards, the world’s premier business awards.

An annual favorite within Cebu’s college and university fashion circuit for the past four years, the Aboitiz Green Fashion Revolution—with the theme “ECOUTURE: Greener Design for a BetterWorld”—successfully debuted in Manila for the first time last January.

This year’s GFR supports two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Life Below Water (conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development) and Life on Land (protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss).

As part of its Environment for a #BetterWorld campaign, the Aboitiz Foundation spearheads the implementation of programs that promote environmental conservation and biodiversity enhancement. Through the active participation of Aboitiz team members across the Group, the organization ensures that it is doing its part in caring for the planet while building a sustainable enterprise that can be entrusted to future generations. Among these initiatives include the Race to Reduce program that underpins the Aboitiz Group’s commitment to the efficient use of enterprise resources, the A-Park Program which aims to plant nine million trees nationwide by 2020, and the Aboitiz Cleanergy Park, an eight-hectare outdoor biodiversity park in Davao City that is home to the critically-endangered hawksbill sea turtle (pawikan) and 66 other species.