MANILA, Jan. 21 — Several independent groups and local government agencies in Baguio continue to reinforce SM City Baguio’s re-greening initiatives through a series of tree planting activities as part of a project called “Green Road to 50,000”.

The project aims to plant 50,000 trees throughout the city and surrounding communities within the next three years. The project also answers the government’s call for support for its own National Regreening Program.

Since the project began last year, there are now more than 23,000 tree saplings that have been planted by the mall in coordination with the DENR. These trees are distributed among Busol Watershed, Buyog Watershed, Tuba Benguet, Burnham Park and within SM City Baguio mall premises.

For this year, the project started during the second week of January and will continue every week thereafter until the last week of February 2013.

Around 4,000 trees will be planted for the next two months by community leaders, residents and students.

Similar activities will follow as SM continues to explore other groups who would like to join the re-greening plan.

“Green Road to 50,000” initially took form to comply with a DENR directive in relation to SM Baguio’s redevelopment plan. However, the mall decided to plant more than what is required to be consistent with SM’s commitment to help preserve the environment not just in Baguio, but in all communities nationwide where SM operates. Prior to this particular project, SM Baguio has already been planting trees within the province since 2005.

 An SM Cares initiative for the environment, this tree planting activity seeks to help make Baguio a greener place. The company also created programs on waste management and recycling to ensure the cleanliness of its mall surroundings and the entire community where SM City Baguio operates. SM Cares is the flagship CSR program of SM Supermalls. (PNA)