5,350 more trees planted in San Fernando uplands
Mined-out. Volunteer employees Solid Earth Development Corp. plant trees at what used to be a quarry site at Sitio Dubdub in the hinterlands of Barangay Magsico, San Fernando, Cebu.
Solid Earth, Taiheiyo conduct separate tree-planting activities
SAN FERNANDO, Cebu (July 2, 2016) — Employees of two allied companies with their suppliers and some community volunteers planted 5,350 more trees in separate occasions at different sites in this town recently.
Those of Solid Earth Development Corp. (SEDC) first planted last June 25 at least 5,000 Mahogany seedlings at what used to be a quarry site at Sitio Dubdub in the hinterlands of Barangay Magsico.
The fieldmen of SEDC subcontractors F.A. Manpower Corp. and Triple 8 Resources Development Corp. joined the activity that was attuned to the National Greening Program (NGP) of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).
Tree planting. An employee plant a jackfruit tree within the buffer zone of the TCPI plant in South Poblacion, San Fernando, Cebu.
A week later today, Taiheiyo Cement Philippines, Inc. (TCPI) organized 30 employees and friends to plant 350 seedlings on a vacant lot beside the junior staff house and the plant’s 69-KVA transformers covered within TCPI’s buffer zone.
The young trees included 150 fruit-bearing jackfruit and 200 acacia aure trees, disclosed Eng’r. Dwight Avila, safety section head under the environment and safety division (ESD) at the TCPI plant is Barangay South Poblacion.
TCPI plant manager Kazuhiko Ichizawa, also senior vice president for operations, and his operations division manager, Kazuhiko Soma led the employees in the activity pursued under the Environment Protection and Enhancement Program (EPEP) of the company.
Ichizawa had noted that the demand for cement dramatically increased over the past three years in the country which compelled the company to upgrade its facilities and improve its productivity.
“All the more that we, at TCPI, contribute more to promote and keep our environment,” he said, pointing out that it has been the commitment of the global Taihieyo group to uphold its corporate social responsibility.
Air quality
An employee of an SEDC supplier help in planting Acacia aure trees in Dubdub, Magsico.
Meanwhile, Avila explained that planting trees can help suppress carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and other greenhouse gases that have notably already affected climate change, particularly in the country and in some parts of the world.
“We owe it to our future generations to lower man’s carbon footprint,” he stressed.
Eng’r. Romeo M. Gebilaguin, TCPI ESD division manager, emphasized that TCPI is not only focused with tree planting but with tree growing as well.
“What is more important is to maintain and watch these seedlings grow,” he said.
He noted that there should now be some 65,000 trees that have survived from those planted in various EPEP activities TCPI and SEDC jointly and separately organized over the past 10 years.
SEDC sources and supplies TCPI with minerals needed for cement manufacturing as high-grade limestone to extract calcite as well as clay, gypsum and silicon, among others; and operates the port used to deliver cement products at sea.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Central Visayas had acknowledged TCPI and SEDC for their support to the NGP.
Upon its completion this year, the NGP is expected to improve the country’s air quality and reduce greenhouse gases by absorbing 38 million tons of carbon with improved forest cover from watersheds in the uplands down to the mangrove forests along the coastlines.
Under Japanese management, TCPI is among the first cement company in the country to implement with SEDC an Environment Management System (EMS) that has been certified since 2005 as having attuned to ISO 14001.
VOLUNTEERS during the July 2 TCPI tree planting (above) pose before the activity, while those of the June 25 SEDC activity (below) did after.
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