Cebu’s top designers advocate usage of sustainable materials

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu’s top designers in furniture, fashion accessories, and home furnishing are heading the advocacy of employing the sustainable consumption and production (SCP) principle to breach into the European Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) market.

Outstanding design-entrepreneurs from Cebu, the likes of Kenneth Cobonpue, are now making designs that are only made from sustainable materials, encouraging more designers and manufacturers to align their creations along with SCP principles.

In a report by the Smart Cebu program, sustainable materials serve as the basic foundation of Cebu’s new eco-product lines.

“The island (Cebu), being rich in natural resources, home to skilled craftsmen and a habitat of creative designers is a paradise of inspiration that brings wellspring of material and product innovation,” said European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ECCP) ECCP executive vice president Henry Schumacher.

The Smart-Cebu is a Switch Asia Project, co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry o Economic Cooperation and Development that is being implemented in Cebu and will culminate this year.

The project aims to increase the competitiveness of the Cebu home and lifestyle industries and to promote a cleaner environment in Cebu. It also aims to shift mindset o SMEs and businesses organizations towards promotion of sustainable consumption and production (SCP).

Although, the program is about to end, Schumacher hopes that designers and export players in Cebu will take the lead in promoting SCP, in order to also to increase this particular market, which is not much affected by the debt crisis in Europe.

“There is still a market for exports in furniture, home furnishing, fashion accessories in Europe, only that exporters should be able to tap this kind of consumer based who prefer to buy only eco-friendly products,” Schumacher said.

Having full access to the rich supply of natural materials all over the country, Schumacher said Cebu is the nucleus of trendsetting eco-creations in the country bringing to global supply chains a diversity of materials applied in home and lifestyle designs.

Smart Cebu creations pave the way to making the island a hub of sustainable lifestyle in the Philippines, he said adding that ECCP hopes that Cebu, especially the designers will be able to encourage more exporters or furniture and home and lifestyle product makers to implement SCP in their respective plants.

In the three-year process of Smart-Cebu program, the program identified 450 companies that will be introduced into Resource, Efficiency, and Cleaner Production (RECP) platform, for them to appreciate the benefits of operating an environment-friendly value-chain in their respective companies.

Of the 450 identified export companies, 150 have already undergone a thorough assessment from the experts, while 50 companies from each industry sector are being used as the example for good sustainability practice.

Because of this, Schumacher said Cebu is now considered as the “heart” of sustainable designs, and that it is expected to lead and stay ahead in the competition from other Asian countries like Thailand, among others.

According to Schumacher the success of the program should only be contained in Cebu, but it should be shared in other potential areas in the Philippines.

He said the Philippine exports in furniture, fashion accessories, as well as gift, toys and housewares, is still seen to gain considerable market interest in the European market despite the ongoing financial woes, while manufacturers here are leading in providing sustainable green products.

“Although there is a crisis in Europe, it doesn't mean that people don't have money. The market is there, not everybody is broke,” said Schumacher.

Schumacher reiterated that the huge European market is still there, however, he warned that exporters will have to see where the market is heading. And introducing a certified eco-design is one of the effective niches the Philippines should seriously take.

Aside from Europe, Schumacher also mentioned a good consumer based in eco-design products in China, Thailand, Singapore and Japan. (FREEMAN)