Taiheiyo continues to promote Greening Prog
Tree Planting. Company scholars and volunteers plant trees in a buffer near the plant of Taiheiyo Cement Philippines, Inc. in San Fernando, Cebu.
SAN FERNANDO, Cebu (April 18, 2015) — Taiheiyo Cement Philippines, Inc. (TCPI) continues to promote and realize the National Greening Program (NGP) of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) as it had been conducting tree planting and seedling development activities for years.
Over the past 10 years, TCPI had planted some 75,000 trees of various species with the collaboration of Solid Earth Development Corp. (SEDC), its supplier of earth materials and operator of the port that ships out its produce.
About 80 percent of those planted have survived, according to Joel Sombelon, SEDC head of mining operations.
These have grown well as SEDC’s former mined-out areas and at the buffer zones within the TCPI, he disclosed. The specie include acacia, aure, mahogany, narra, neem and mango.
With a fully developed nursery in Magsico-Bugho area, TCPI with SEDC often provides the Municipality of San Fernando and some organizations with seedling to plant young trees. It had donated more the 6,000 seedlings.
Sombelon said TCPI and SEDC have invested a lot in the environment, not only as a corporate social responsibility for the host communities but to ensure sustainable business operations.
Dr. Eddie Llamedo, spokesperson of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Central Visayas, had acknowledged that TCPI and SEDC for their support to the NGP, noting that they have greatly helped DENR achieve its NGP targets.
DENR hopes the NGP will improve the country’s air quality and reduce greenhouse gases towards the end of next year by absorbing 38 million tons of carbon with improved forest cover from watersheds in the uplands down to the mangrove forests along the coastlines.
Even in just a year after tree planting initiatives started, coupled with other environmental initiatives, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry honored the cement operations at the plant in San Fernando with the 1997 Business for the Environment Award.
Under Japanese management, TCPI is also among the first cement company in the country to implement an Environment Management System that further got certified since 2005 as having attuned to ISO 14001.
Nursery. Seedlings are prepared here at the border of Magsico and Bugho for the tree planing activities of Taiheiyo Cement Philippines, Inc. and Solid Earth Development Corp.
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