Tagaytay Highlands gives back to Mother Nature
Manila, Philippines - Blessed with abundant natural surroundings, Tagaytay Highlands is proving that it is more than just an exclusive leisure destination but can also do its share in saving the environment in many ways. Last May 26, Tagaytay Highlands held its third “One Tree at a Time” tree-planting activity to coincide with its 18th anniversary. The activity also serves as a kick-off to the leisure complex’s goal to plant 1,800 trees by June 2012.
Under the Green Wave campaign of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the tree planting is likewise a part of the vision of Willy Ocier, founder of Tagaytay Highlands, to plant one million trees in 50 years inside the Tagaytay Highlands Complex. For the last 18 years, a series of tree-planting activities has been conducted inside this enclave for a greener Tagaytay Highlands. This year’s activity had a total of 150 seedlings of fruit-bearing trees such as atis, duhat, guava, guyabano, and star apple while last year yielded 200 and the first tree-planting activity in 2010 completed 100 saplings. “Planting trees is part of our thanksgiving to Mother Nature. The trees that we planted would also provide Tagaytay Highlands’ various species of birds and insects a new home. More importantly, we will pass on an important legacy to the future generation,” says Ocier.
Officers and employees of Belle Corporation, Highlands Prime, Inc., Tagaytay Highlands, the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and diplomats from the Asean nations also graced the activity and voluntarily did their share in preserving the bounty Mother Nature gave us.
Tagaytay Highlands was acknowledged as a “Friend of Biodiversity.” Highlands was the first firm from the business sector to support the Green Wave campaign, which aims to generate awareness among the youth for biodiversity conservation.
“Apart from planting trees, we also conserve energy in significant respects. During off-peak days, Tagaytay Highlands splits up the lighting of the street lights and turns on the lights only in the important areas to minimize electricity consumption. To reduce this even more, incandescent lights have been replaced by compact fluorescent ones, which cut down energy usage by up to 60 percent. Likewise, heavy equipment are operated and maintained on a set schedule to minimize power consumption. We also promote the use of renewable resources,” says Club president Jerry Tiu.
