Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan (Youth Friends of Nature)
Arthaland Corporation
Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan is part of the umbrella corporate program, We are ArthaLand: We are Green, a recipient of the 2015 Asia Responsible Leadership Award for Green Leadership Category. This corporate program aims to instill the environmental sustainability philosophy of the company in all aspects of its business planning, design, construction, manpower training and management, daily operations and property management.
INTRODUCTION
For the past six years, ArthaLand has been carrying out annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities which involve voluntary manual work by its employees. The usual beneficiaries are elementary schools in poor communities. Under the initiative, employees will visit the schools for a day to donate educational materials and computers, and repaint their learning resource centers (LRC) and classrooms. In 2014, it started to involve communities by teaching household volunteers how to do backyard composting and gardening to help them with their livelihood.In 2015, the company designed a more engaging, long-term and high impact program which involved its employees, the schools, students and the community. Together with WWF Philippines, ArthaLand developed and implemented Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan (Young Friends of Nature).ArthaLand believes that its business philosophy that is rooted on environmental sustainability must be communicated extensively. Beyond just corporate social responsibility, the company believes that being green is the right thing to do. To achieve this, the company organized a project that involved both its internal and external stakeholders in an engaging, practical and sustainable learning experience.
FRAMEWORK AND STRATEGY
Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan is part of the umbrella corporate program, We are ArthaLand: We are Green, a recipient of the 2015 Asia Responsible Leadership Award for Green Leadership Category. This corporate program aims to instill the environmental sustainability philosophy of the company in all aspects of its business planning, design, construction, manpower training and management, daily operations and property management. ArthaLand worked with WWF Philippines to develop an inclusive program to educate the communities on water conservation, with focus on school children. With Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan, ArthaLand was able to help these communities through practical and inexpensive ways. Focused classroom sessions were carried with the volunteer trainers to prepare them to teach elementary pupils in selected schools. The company foresees that in the long run, the recipient communities may also be able to save not only fresh water but also on monetary cost. The money that they were able to save may be used for other needs such as food, medicine and education of their children.ArthaLand’s main business philosophy is rooted on sustainability. Its real estate projects are on target to achieve dual green building certification from the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program as well as the Philippine Green Building Council’s Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE) program. These bodies monitor and calibrate the projects’ efficiency on resource utilization and this is what Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan espouses. Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan’s focus on green practices cements the company’s serious thrust on its brand proposition: green is integrated in all its business processes and culture.To ensure seamless integration in communications and actual implementation, the Marketing Communications Department, Marketing Services and the Human Resources Department worked together to draw the program’s framework with WWF – Philippines.
Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan is a hybrid program which involves multiple sectors of the community to ensure its effectiveness and sustainability. Unlike other programs which focus on just one sector, the education program walks through the natural journey of the recipient students from their school, to their own homes, and to their villages. By doing this, whatever they learned will be actively practised and shared to influence the larger communities that they belong to.
ACHIEVEMENT AND IMPACT
Kabataang Kaibigan ng Kalikasan was able to benefit up to 2,500 individuals including close to 500 school children from three public elementary schools. More than half of the company’s employees participated in the volunteer program. Based on a qualitative post-activity survey, the recipient school children were able to fully understand the value of water conservation and committed to practice what they learned in their schools, homes and communities. Employee volunteers reported positive impact on their own professional and personal lives. They are more involved and committed to the environmental thrust of the company.FUTURE DIRECTION
More activities and services will be implemented in 2016. ArthaLand remains committed to further reach out to communities and partners to spread the green message. It will go back to the schools where last year’s project was implemented to ensure sustainability and teach more pupils. It also plans to bring the philosophy of environmental sustainability and livelihood to a fishing community in the South.
ArthaLand is a boutique Filipino real estate developer that is recognized by various global organizations for quality and sustainability. ArthaLand is a world class developer of unique and sustainable projects in the residential, office and leisure segments.
