MARILAO, Bulacan-The SM malls in Valenzuela, Baliwag arid Marilao yesterday spearheaded a ‘green conference’ for environmental protection dubbed as ‘Green Retail Agenda: Shaping the Future,’ at the Cinema 2 of SM City Marilao.

Participants included SM business partners-tenants, suppliers and ‘contractors-as well as mall employees and guest government officials.

Dennis Martel, SM Marilao mall manager, said in his welcome remarks that: ‘We are doing this not just to present our environmental programs but to encourage others to think green and do their share for the environment.’

He added that ‘we realized that we no longer just see ourselves as mall administrators only but rather we see our roles getting bigger. We began to enlarge our duties and began to integrate the role of being public servants as well. We see the need to transform to become an environmentally friendly mall.’

SM operates 34 shopping centers in the Philippines. Apart from all its SM Cities and SM Supercenters, the company is also operating another mall called The Podium in Ortigas, which is a joint venture with Keppel Singapore.

In 2007, SM Prime Holdings included in its roster, three malls in China, namely SM City Xiamen, Jinjiangand Chengdu.

This move has allowed SM Prime to gain a foothold in China’s fast-growing economy and use this as a platform for long-term growth outside of the Philippines. 
 
Sheryl Baltazar of SM Marilao said the Supermalls has, to date, over 12,000 tenants and has generated about 160,000 jobs nationwide.

Speakers in the conference include Exuperio Lipayon of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Mario Pinto, Solid Waste Management officer in charge of the city government of Valenzuela; Marilao municipal councilor Alan Aguilar, who talked about the E-Trike, his green vehicle innovation which uses rechargeable batteries; and municipal councilor Alexis Castro, who explained about the Save the Marilao River movement.

SM business partners Ecosystem Technology Inc. represented by Joseph Bacud, and Tropical Focus Philippines, represented by Lawrence Todd, discussed how their companies’ technologies in recycling water and saving energy help in environment preservation efforts.