Battery recycling project helps ecology, students

July 19, 2008 10:18:00
Bernadette Parco
Cebu Daily News

A battery manufacturer and distributor firm launched in Cebu a campaign to collect and recycle used lead acid batteries.

The Balik Baterya campaign is Oriental and Motolite Corp.’s flagship project for corporate social responsibility that would benefit the ecology and public school students.

“We wanted proper disposal and recycling to prevent toxic material from being ingested by animals, plants and from contaminating our water supply,” said Noly Cayabyab, vice president for corporate social responsibility.

Lead acid batteries are the ones used in motor vehicles and industries.

For every donation of a used battery, payment of P325 to P500 will be made by Oriental and Motolite Corp. to the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), with proceeds to be used for the improvement of education services of public elementary schools.

The donor can even specify which area the education assistance can be focused on.

The firm is one among 25 companies which joined the PBSP Visayas Corporate Social Responsibility Expo held at the SM Cebu from July 17 to 20.

The expo called "A Better Life: PBSP's Celebration of Corporate Social Responsibility" includes a photo exhibit, lectures, the relaunch of a coffee table book project and the Visayas launching of the Motolite Balik Baterya Program.

Levi S. Villanueva, vice chairman of the PBSP in the Visayas, said the expo shares a wide range of experiences of companies engaged in CSR.

In his speech opening the expo, he invited the public to also see products of PBSP-assisted cooperatives and companies in the ongoing Best Visayas Trade Fair at SM City.

Learning sessions were held on enterprise development, corporate-community partnerships and health options in the workplace.

In the battery recycling project, proceeds will go to textbook donations, organizing teacher training seminars and remedial reading camps.

A deed of donation will be issued for the used batteries and this can be translated to tax credits for the donor company.

Cayabyab said the PBSP and Motolite will set up drop off points and arrange for the the hauling of the used batteries.

These batteries will be sent to the Philippine Recyclers Inc. (PRI), which converts the batteries into pure lead, lead alloys and plastic chips while the sulfuric acid in the batteries are treated. The PRI will then issue a Certificate of Treatment to the donor company.

In the Visayas, the focus is on the setting up of learning resource centers in the name of the donor company that would collect 100 ULABS and a donated value of P40,000.

Used dry cells that contain nickel, cadmium, and mercury, the kind used in appliances, are also accepted.

However, there is no cash value to be exchanged because the Philippines lacks the technology to recycle the batteries.

“We will only be able to store them,” said Cayabyab to keep them from contaminating the ecology.

During PBSP's CSR celebration, nine (9) Metro Cebu companies and organizations signed a memorandum in support of the Motolite-PBSP Balik Baterya Program. They are: Airlift Asia - Cebu; Cebu Daily News; Fairchild Semiconductors; Lear Corporation - Philippine Engineering and Technology Center; Petron Corporation; Shangri-la's Mactan Resort & Spa; Union Bank of the Philippines; Villa del Rio Homeowners' Association; and Wellmade Motors and Development Corporation.


Mr. Rito Apas, Mandaue Terminal Manager of Petron Corporation and member of the PBSP Visayas Executive Committee, helped launch the Motolite-PBSP Balik Baterya Program.

CSR not just for good times

Sun Star Cebu
July 18, 2008

CORPORATE social responsibility (CSR) is more vital when there is a slowdown in the economy.

Jose Antonio Aboitiz of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) Visayas Executive Committee said CSR programs should not be limited only to “times of plenty.”

“If the companies are hurting a bit (when the economy is not good), then more so the community,” he said in an interview with Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.

Aboitiz, together with other members of the PBSP Visayas Executive Committee, opened a four-day CSR expo yesterday as part of the organization’s 20th anniversary celebration at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall.

The expo aims to promote the CSR efforts of PBSP and to invite more companies to take part by investing in the different products of PBSP-assisted cooperatives, community-based organizations and the micro, small and medium enterprises in the Best of Visayas Trade Fair.

Aboitiz confirmed that there has been a slowdown in CSR efforts among PBSP’s member-companies in the region not only because of the current economic situation. He said CSR efforts are now competing with sponsorship activities for conventions, concerts and even class reunions—activities which Aboitiz referred to as “less noble and less altruistic in purpose.”

Harder

“It has become harder and harder to get companies to support (social progress),” he added.

He said, though, that CSR efforts are not just about giving of funds for different projects. For one, a company may align its business practices towards being more responsible to the community it serves. He added that companies can also encourage its employees to volunteer in CSR projects.

During the opening expo, PBSP also introduced its coffee table book project dubbed, “A Better Life, Stories of Corporate Social Responsibility.” The book, which is set to be released in the first quarter of next year, features over 200 full color pages showing the different success stories of PBSP projects.

The proceeds of the book sale will go to an unrestricted funding for the Visayas group to be spent on programs in the region. The programs include “orphan projects” or those that need to be done but nobody wants to do,” Aboitiz said.

Yesterday afternoon, Aboitiz also gave a talk on “Corporate Citizenship 101,” where he clarified that CSR is not just for large corporations but is a cooperative effort of the government, civil society, the private sector and media. (DME)

A Better Life: PBSP Celebrates Corporate Social Responsibility

PBSP expo to raise funds for community projects

Cebu Daily News
July 16, 2008

A four-day expo is set to begin on Thursday at SM City to generate funds for the corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects of the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP).

The projects include: Save the Buhisan Watershed Project, an environmental conservation initiative in line with the United Nation's Millenium Development Goals; the Motolite-PBSP Balik Baterya Program, which aims to improve basic education in the Philippines through the provision of learning resource materials, training of teachers, supplemental feeding and conduct of reading camps; and A Better Life: Stories of Corporate Social Responsibility, a PBSP coffee table book.

Dubbed “A Better Life: PBSP Celebrates Corporate Social Responsibility,” the exposition will run until July 20 at the SM City Cebu Trade Halls 2 and 3 and Conference Centers.

The exposition will feature the stories of corporate social responsibility of PBSP, its member companies, business partners and donors.

It will also feature learning sessions on corporate citizenship, how to make the business grow, and how to keep a happy and healthy workforce.

The Best of the Visayas Trade Fair will also be held showcasing various products of PBSP-assisted cooperatives, community-based organizations and micro, small and medium enterprises.

PBSP is a pioneer in the practice of corporate social responsibility in the Philippines.

It was organized in the 1970s by 50 of the country's most prominent business leaders and has since grown to become the Philippines most dynamic partner in nation building with more than 230 members.

It is the country's largest corporate-led foundation dedicated to uplift the lives of the poor and help the communities become self-reliant.

PBSP has supported more than 6,000 social development projects and benefited more than four million beneficiaries nationwide.

PBSP Celebrates CSR

July is the Philippines’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Month. PBSP, the country's largest corporate-led non-profit social development foundation, will take part in the national ceremony by hosting a four-day expo called A Better Life: PBSP Celebrates Corporate Social Responsibility. PBSP invites companies and enterprises, government units and line agencies, schools and civil society groups to attend the event and avail of the free seminars.

A Better Life
PBSP Celebrates Corporate Social Responsibility
July 17 – 20, 2008
Trade Halls 2 and 3 & Conference Centers, 3rd Level, SM City Cebu

Day 1: July 17, 2008

10:00 a.m.

Registration

Conference Center ABC

10:30 – 11:15

Opening of the Best of Visayas Trade Fair &
A Better Life: Stories of CSR Exhibit

Trade Halls 2 & 3

11:15 – 11:45

Re-Launch of PBSP’s
Coffee Table Book Project -

A Better Life: Stories of Corporate Social Responsibility

12:15 – 1:00

Lunch

1:00 – 1:45

Corporate Citizenship 101

1:45 – 2:30 p.m.

Visayas Launching of the

Motolite-PBSP Balik Baterya Program

Day 2: July 18, 2008

Options for Health in the Workplace

8:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon

Venue: Conference Center AB

SCOPE: Strategic Corporate Community Partnership

for Local Development Program
1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Venue: Conference Center AB

Business Clinic
1:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Venue: Conference Center D

Best of Visayas Trade Fair &

A Better Life: Stories of CSR Exhibit
Trade Halls 2 & 3

Day 3 & 4: July 19-20, 2008

Best of Visayas Trade Fair &
A Better Life: Stories of CSR Exhibit

Trade Halls 2 & 3

For confirmation, please call PBSP at (032) 232-5270 or 232-5283

Email at pbspvro@pbsp.org.ph

Please look for Ella or Malu

See you!

572 reforest 8 hectares

Mt. Manunggal is best remembered as a memorial site for one of the Philippines’ most beloved Presidents, Ramon Magsaysay. President Magsaysay was aboard the plane Mt. Pinatubo when it crashed in Mt. Manunggal, Cebu’s highest peak, 51 years ago. At that time, 90% of the area was forested hence several days had lapsed before the rescuers could safely remove the lone survivor, Nelson Mata, from Mt Manunggal.

The untimely demise of President Magsaysay, however, was just the beginning of many slow, unfortunate, yet unnoticed events in Mt. Manunngal and the rest of the 29,000-hectare Central Cebu Protected Landscape. For years, logging and conversion of forests into farm lands, among other harmful human practices, had vastly denuded the CCPL, better known as the Cebu hillylands. Continuous supply of water for Metro Cebu’s household and industrial consumption depends on a healthy hillylands. Its conservation must be a major priority to ensure a better future for Metro Cebu.

Last June 28, 2008, PBSP kicked off its Cebu Hillylands Reforestation Caravan 2008. 572 individuals from 28 companies and organizations joined PBSP in planting 20,000 trees in Barangay Magsaysay, Municipality of Balamban, Cebu. Eight (8) hectares were planted with indigenous tree species such as almaciga, bayog, lawaan, lumbang, narra and tagilumboy in the barangay where Mt. Manunggal is located and named after the Philippine president. Mahogany, a fast-growing exotic tree species, was also planted.

Metro Cebu extracts its water from the aquifer, a groundwater reservoir, and the presence of forest cover sustains the water stored in the aquifer. Since 1991, PBSP’partnerships with the business sector, government and community-based organizations resulted to the planting of over 12 million forest and fruit tree species in 4,900 hectares.

PBSP’s Cebu Hillylands Reforestation Caravan 2008 is happening every Saturday until October. Companies, NGO’s, schools, local government units and government line agencies are invited. For more information, please call (032) 232-5270 or 232-5283.

Thank you very much!

Aboitiz and Company
Cebu Daily News
Cebu Private Power Corporation
Center for International Education
East Asia Utilities Corporation
Janice Minor Export Inc.
Lear Automotive Services (Netherlands)B.V. Philippine Branch - Philippine Engineering and Technology Center
Pacific Traders Manufacturing Corporation
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Smart Communications
Shemberg Marketing Inc.
BUKID Multi-Purpose Cooperative
Campinsa-Manipis Multi-Purpose Cooperative
Cebu City Government
DENR Region 7
Department of Education
Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation
Fiber Industry Development Authority
Habagat
Kadangyan
MALTAJ Multi-Purpose Cooperative
Municipality of Balamban Government
Philippine Army 7th Infantry Batallion
Sudlon Marketing Cooperative
Tabok Multi-Purpose Cooperative
Tabunan Marketing Cooperative