ArthaLand to teach barangay folk how to earn by going green

Less than a month after launching their P8-billion investment, the 38-storey green building in Cebu City called the Cebu Exchange, which is scheduled to be completed by 2020, green developer, ArthaLand, is also investing in another undertaking –sharing their environmental expertise to uplift lives of villagers in Bantayan town in northern Cebu.

ArthaLand will teach families of one of the barangays in the northern town on how to earn additional income through environment-friendly methods.

At least 60 families from a Bantayan town barangay are seen to benefit from the company’s environmental education program called “Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan” which will run from Nov. 24 to 25.

“We will be teaching them about vertical gardening, in consideration of limited space. Since they are in a fishing village, whatever they produce will supplement their income and can be used for personal consumption as well,” ArthaLand communications manager Ken Lerona told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview.

The company’s corporate social responsibility program is in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-Philippines and the local government of Bantayan, Lerona said.

Bantayan is a first-income class municipality on Bantayan Island, located 136 kilometers by road and sea from Cebu City, and is considered to be the largest and most populous town on the island.

The town is bordered to the north by Madridejos and to the southeast by Santa Fe. While the whole Bantayan Island boasts of a thriving tourism industry, most of the residents of all three towns largely depend on fishing as livelihood.

Last year, ArthaLand launched the Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan program to teach close to 500 elementary school students from three public schools in Taguig City about how to intelligently use fresh water.

The program was projected to have touched 2,500 lives as these children were expected to share what they learned in their own homes and communities.

The Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan program was recognized as among the best socially responsible programs in Asia during the 2016 Asia Responsible Entrepreneurship Awards held in Singapore.

Aside from that, the firm was also given the Green Leadership award for implementing stringent measures in its operations.