HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPE-VINE
On Nov. 19 and 20, we’ll be mounting our third Manila Bulletin Sustainability Forum; and it’s been an exciting, fulfilling three-year ride — promoting awareness, information, and understanding on the topic.
One approach we agreed on back in 2022 was to earmark university students as our primary live audience, as we felt there was a need to go back and trickle down the message to those to whom it would be most meaningful, and could help “proselytize” the message. Already a buzzword back then, it seemed that people here had only gained a partial appreciation of the concept of Sustainability, as couched in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and as reflected in Environment Social and Governance (ESG) agendas.
Most of the general public we spoke to would express their understanding solely in terms of environmental action, and that’s precisely why the first Forum in 2022 was themed “Beyond Green.” In 2023, we subtitled our forum “If Not Now, When?” to emphasize the urgency of going sustainable. And sure enough, COP 29 will be talking about the 1.5 degree increase in global temperature projected for 2025 — which means we’re still not reversing the global warming trend, and that is worrisome, as it impacts our vulnerability to natural disasters, and our agriculture output, for starters.
Our 2024 Forum is called “Bridging the Gap,” and there are multiple reasons for how that will apply to the current situation. For our participating sponsors of the two-day forum, we’re leaving it to them to interpret and apply this theme. They would best know how their Sustainability initiatives and programs have fared over the years that they’ve been in practice; and can discern what kind of “gap” may still exist between intent and execution.
For us at the Manila Bulletin who have put this forum together, one application of Bridging the Gap would be the obvious one of communication. So many corporations are championing Sustainability, but one significant gap that remains is in effectively communicating this to the public and being appreciated for the effort.
For example, in the real estate sector, accreditation is one way to acquire measurable third party confirmation of your “Sustainability quotient.” So they go after LEED, BERDE, IFC-EDGE and WELL badges; and I’ve often wondered if the general public are aware of what these badges represent, and appreciate the differences between them. How LEED refers to the US Green Building Council, BERDE is our local Philippine Green Building Council, IFC is the International Finance Corporation, and a WELL certification refers more to the design and thought put into the living and working conditions of the occupants of a building.
When we talk about a communication gap, I know I can sound like a broken record, but I go back to my observation that it’s hard to expect understanding of Sustainability to trickle down, if the conversation is exclusively couched in English. We can’t fall back on saying Filipinos understand English, as that’s more a conversational, rudimentary English. I very much doubt that when Sustainability is talked about in Japan or Indonesia, they resort to English. And it’s not us in media who should be burdened with creating that language, only to be told by the government that we’re using the wrong terms — it’s the government that should get together, and give us the official terms in the vernacular.
In my eyes, this trickling down is important. We just hosted the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction; and it’s been repeated how we are one of the most vulnerable nations when hit by natural disasters. The ones most affected when these calamities happen aren’t the educated and well-off; and that for me demonstrates how important it is that those in the lower income demographics gain an understanding of Sustainability programs and efforts — especially those in the coastal areas and countryside.
Then, there’s the gap between lip service supporting Sustainability, and actually adapting it into one’s lifestyle. The knee-jerk reaction is to acknowledge sustainability as a wonderful framework for today and the future; but even if only on a soft impact basis, do we imbibe it and make it part of our decision-making? Or do we fall back on the excuse that as a country, we contribute so little to global carbon emissions? It’s the classic question of whether we actively seek to be part of the solution.
The danger with buzzwords can be that they’re heard so often, people presume they understand the terms because they’re familiar. It’s platforms such as our forum that we hope keep asking the right questions, help keep the public informed, and make them appreciate the multiple touch points with which they can invest in the concept.
Good luck to us next week, and my thanks to all the parties and companies that showed their support, and are participating. The gap I love to observe shrinking at our forum, is that of our partners being competitors — a status that disappears, when they all come together, joining these sustainability-driven initiatives.