Aboitiz marks Earth Day with interschool ‘green’ fashion design contest
The Aboitiz Group is set to celebrate Earth Day on the runway as Metro Manila’s young top fashion design talents compete for the edgiest and most environmentally-friendly collections at the Aboitiz Green Fashion Revolution (GFR) Manila 2017.
Bringing together students from Asia Pacific College, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, and SoFA Design Institute, GFR Manila 2017—with the theme “Life Flourishing on Land and in Water”—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.
The date of this year’s GFR Manila 2017, April 22, happens fall on Earth Day, whose 2017 campaign “Environmental & Climate Literacy” mirrors GFR’s own goals.
“Environmental and climate literacy is the engine not only for creating green voters and advancing environmental and climate laws and policies but also for accelerating green technologies and jobs,” Earth Day Network said on its website.
This year’s GFR Manila will feature an esteemed panel of judges comprised of Paul Anthony Pangilinan, National Youth Commission commissioner-at-large; Reese Fernandez, fashion design house Rags2Riches president; Celia Elumba, Philippine Textile Research Institute director; and Sofia Aboitiz of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc., among others.
Young STAR, PageOne.ph, and TheFortCity.com are the event’s official media partners.
“We are excited to be holding GFR in Manila for the second time. Our successful run in 2016 only confirmed that the youth are more than capable of helping save the environment while producing fashionable, wearable apparel. Indeed, we can help co-create communities that are safe, empowered, and sustainable through environmentally-friendly fashion designs,” Maribeth L. Marasigan, Aboitiz Foundation first vice president and chief operating officer, said.
A brainchild of a group of Aboitiz scholars during the Aboitiz Scholars’ Corporate Social Responsibility 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.
