ECCP advocates eco-friendly movement

CEBU, Philippines – The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines’ (ECCP) Materials Research and Development (R&D) project is now gearing towards the promotion of the eco-friendly movement through advocating green manufacturing and design to Philippine export companies.

Materials R&D project according to ECCP’s branch manager Roselu E. Paloma began as a “boy scout” project just like most of their out-of-the-box projects but it has so far grown to become a prime mover in aggressively seeking out new materials and bringing them closer to home tapping interest and fund support of various public and private sectors.

Ingrid M. Haufe, Materials R & D project manager said that they have introduced and developed new ways to rejuvenate indigenous and industrial materials as well as provided insights on the latest European trend to help Cebu’s creative sectors composed of furniture, jewelries and gifts, toys and housewares.

And having taken into consideration the latest movements of the consumer mindset in the European and American market which changed to embrace a more conscious and eco-friendly lifestyle, they are now taking initiatives to take the project towards the eco-friendly movement.

“Consumers are beginning to understand that resources are slowly becoming scarce thus increasing the demand for eco-friendly products. International governments are taking the cue to support this new trend in development and thus created internal regulations to guide its production,” said Haufe.

She said that Materials R&D will foresee that these guidelines and growing market trends will have an impact to the country’s export companies.

And with this new direction, the project is seeking assistance from the European Fund as well as the country’s Export Development Council to help support their capability building projects to come up with more materials geared towards the promotion of the green designs as well as allow export companies to fully embrace and comply with the strict and costly requirements of going green.

The funding will also support their plans to create more enhanced projects directed to waste products, green production, green design process, green marketing, and achieve compliance of green certification said Haufe.

She said that they target to spread the eco-friendly movement across the three creative export sectors in Cebu so that the industry will now move into eco-friendly consumption and production.

Haufe said that in terms of the awareness level in the part of our export companies, there is only very little awareness and compliance; however, they are glad to note that the three creative export sectors are collaborating with their efforts to start the initiative. — Rhia de Pablo