Some may think it’s impossible for people to fully understand the living planet well enough to know how to manage it. But the world’s experts and leaders have recently converged in Cebu, Philippines for the 8th Asia Pacific Round Table for Sustainable Consumption and Production (APRSCP) to study new ways on how human needs can mesh with the limits of the planet and future generations.
The concept, called sustainable development, has become a goal of the United Nations (UN) as well as a growing list of private corporations like Hunter Douglas –who in recent years has become a leading proponent for green building technology in the Philippines.
“It has come to point that the public now understands the nature and magnitude of how humanity can affect the environment,” says Gigi Lapira, president of Hunter Douglas Philippines, who was one of the representatives of the private sector’s initiative to balance economic development, technological advancement and sustaining the earth’s ecological webs alongside HRH Prince Willem Alexander and former President Fidel V. Ramos. “People now realize how important it is and if we make a collective effort, at a big enough scale, we can become the catalyst that will jumpstart and maintain this progress.”
For Hunter Douglas, whose efforts champion the private sector’s initiative for the cause, it is about lobbying and advocating sustainable building practices, both on the individual and international scale.
“After generations of urbanization, people are now hemmed in heat and concrete—leading them to question the definition of progress as they attempt to find a balance between advancement and the earth’s limited resources,” Lapira adds.