Aboitiz Group spearheads fashion design workshops for the youth
The Aboitiz Group recently completed a series of learning sessions for Manila’s top student fashion designers in preparation for their participation in the upcoming 2nd Aboitiz Green Fashion Revolution (GFR) Manila.
Beginning January until end-March, students from Asia Pacific College, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, and SoFA Design Institute were immersed in practical fashion design tips and tricks from “Project Runway Philippines” Season 4 winner Joy Chicano and members of the Aboitiz Group Sustainability team.
These workshops enabled the students to come up with creative, competitive, and environmentally-friendly designs for the upcoming GFR Manila 2017.
“We are happy to help impart useful and valuable knowledge on fashion design to Manila’s best young fashion designers. With this kind of training, coupled with their talent, we are definitely looking forward to seeing on the fashion runway their homegrown designs that highlight and manifest sustainable, eco-friendly living,” Maribeth L. Marasigan, Aboitiz Foundation First Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, said.
This year, GFR Manila 2017—with the theme “Life Flourishing on Land and in Water” and supported by the National Youth Commission—will be held on April 22, Saturday (Earth Day), 3 p.m. at the SMX Convention Center, SM Aura Premier in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. Young STAR, PageOne.ph, and TheFortCity.com are the event’s official media partners.
A brainchild of a group of Aboitiz scholars during the Aboitiz Scholars’ CSR Summit in December 2011, GFR and was first staged in Cebu and Manila in 2012 and 2016, respectively, through the auspices of the Aboitiz Foundation, the corporate foundation of the Aboitiz Group.
Since then, it has become an annual favorite among the college and university fashion circuit, 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. Approximately 1,600 kilograms of waste material from various Aboitiz business units are repurposed annually for Aboitiz GFR since it began in 2011.
In 2016, the GFR 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, and last March, a Gold Anvil Award at the Public Relations Society of the Philippines’ Anvil Awards.
This year’s GFR continues to support two of the United Nations (UN) 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).
According to the UN, oceans cover three quarters of the Earth’s surface, contain 97% of the Earth’s water, and represent 99% of the living space on the planet by volume. Yet as much as 40% of the world’s oceans are heavily affected by human activities, including pollution, depleted fisheries, and loss of coastal habitats.
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 grow 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.
