More than usual business

Some people, especially those opposing it, may not know it, but SM City Baguio’s P1.2-billion redevelopment plan is not really about profits.

The redevelopment plan was prompted by the fact that there was serious soil erosion at the back of the SM City Baguio mall, which has a steeply downward sloping terrain following the discovery of the erosion. Experts suggested building structures to correct the erosion that had also affected some of the trees.

Unknown to many, SM had been reinforcing the ground for years to preserve the trees and prevent them from falling. Sometime at the end of 2010, SM’s planning group suggested to build structures to correct the erosion. Local officials then suggested that SM City Baguio plan a parking building to ease the traffic in Session Road, to decongest traffic and lessen the air pollution it produces. SM’s planning group worked with a US environmental adviser to plan a LEED certified structure that would properly transfer the trees from the slope to a better and safer location within the property.

DENR foresters and environmental experts advised SM that if it was going to transfer the trees, the balling would have to be done at night, where the moisture content is greater. This activity is difficult to implement, but SM deemed it necessary to save the trees in its own property.

SM went further to plan a parking building to ease the traffic on Session Road, which would also result in lessening the air pollution in the area. To justify the building cost, there will be added shopping spaces in the open air levels.

To date, SM has not cut any tree but earth-balled about 40 alnus and pine trees under the supervision of forestry experts and representatives from DENR.

DENR has required SM to plant over 5,000 trees to replace the 182 of the 2,000 trees within the mall property that would be relocated. Aside from the roof garden that will be filled with over 300 trees that will serve as an elevated park, SM will plant over 50,000 trees in the next three years.

As planned by its US Green Council adviser, SM City Baguio will build a huge rainwater collection tank to prevent raging rainwater from causing flashfloods and soil erosion.

Meanwhile, a forestry expert who conducted tree health assessment inside the SM City Baguio property at Luneta Hill has supported the mall’s expansion project, claiming that the area covered by the SM property is not within the environmentally critical area, neither a heritage site nor culturally and historically significant area.

Armando Palijon, an arborist or a specialist in the care and maintenance of trees and an urban forestry practitioner, said there will still be more than enough space in the premises of the property that will be saved and continuously be used as green space if the SM expansion and redevelopment project is to be pursued.

The SM City Baguio property at the Luneta Hill has a total area of eight hectares, with the existing mall covering 1.9 hectares while the expansion area is only 1.1 hectares or a total of three hectares built-up area. This means that SM has five hectares of open space or 62.5 percent which is more than double than the 30 percent open space that is required by law.

As a show of sincerity and willingness to compensate the 182 trees to be removed from site, SM committed to plant 50,000 saplings of Benguet Pine or other native species in and around Baguio City. Moreover, it is willing to adopt parks in Baguio City.

Accordingly, SM has already planted 2,000 saplings of Benguet Pines at Busol Watershed and is supporting the maintenance of the trees and protection of the area. There will be 48,000 more saplings that will be planted by SM in collaboration with DENR and the Baguio re-greening movement.

The SM multi-function building is also a green building. It has a sky garden that can compensate for the 182 trees in terms of CO2 sequestration. It also has rainwater harvesting, park finders and others, SM explained.

The parking building meanwhile will help solve Baguio’s traffic situation, which is expected to get worse with the expansion of the Tarlac-Pangasinan road and the completion of TPLEX (Tarlac-Pangasinan La Union Expressway).

Miners as corporate citizens

 When people say that mining should be banned outright because some mines have polluted the environment, it’s really a non-sequitur rather than a sound argument.

They’re really saying that corporate farms, including the organic ones, and modern real estate around the world should be banned as well for occupying huge swathes of land, and that the world’s refrigeration industry should be banned for contributing to global warming, and that shipping should be banned for all the oil leaks that have poisoned our blue oceans. That’s inane, if not insane.

That’s also assuming all mines, to begin with, are predisposed to fell entire ecosystems. All things being equal, there may be a few rogue exceptions, all industries being imperfect. But operators of big mines, the responsible ones, to be sure, invariably steer clear of environmental glitches. It’s simply good business to be proactive and responsible.

Environment Australia, that country’s public agency overseeing ecological concerns, stated in 2002 that “the benefits of best practice include preventing harmful environmental and social impacts… Best practice methodologies make up about five percent of the capital and operating costs for new mining projects. However, these costs can commonly be offset against the many benefits that best practice brings.” Twenty mining companies were subsequently identified by Environment Australia as having documented best practices in environmental management.

This is not surprising. Mining companies, not unlike any other private enterprise, are typically mindful of their key role in society. This role is defined not only in terms of taxes which contribute to government’s poverty alleviation programs, but in terms of empowering people and protecting the environment.

But while ecological stewardship is a matter of formal training for some, for others it is par for the course. Philex president Manuel V. Pangilinan revealed last month that the land on which his company was to operate in Silangan, Surigao del Norte was as barren as one could get when they first came in. “Deforested and denuded” was how he had described the place. “Who would want to go there and develop a tourism site? There’s nothing there,” he said.

Philex had entered an arid location and did its business responsibly. “We’ve planted seven million trees,” he reported, adding that to date, Philex has “a self-contained community, free housing, free hospitals, free education up to high school.” There’s also a post-rehab plan. “Whether by law or not, we do.”

Organizing people to become real stewards may be tedious work. But it is better than ranting against an industry that, in more ways than one, has the intent and wherewithal not only to preserve the environment but to strengthen the social fabric.

The New Crime Capital?

 Just recently, a businesswoman driving her own SUV parked along Bautista St. in Makati to have her fitting for a dress she had made.  It was a very short trip to the shop, 10 minutes max, and when she went back to her car, there were people huddled around it.  Apparently, a thief smashed her car window and took her bag that contained her Macbook Pro.  It was a clean and experienced heist wherein the alarm system was disarmed, window smashed probably with a hammer, grabbed the bag, and left the scene all within 10 minutes, in broad daylight. No witnesses, no tanods, no police.  I’ve been hearing so many horror stories about the alarming increase of the crime rate in Makati.  Apparently, the business capital of the country is no safe haven anymore.