BACOLOD CITY, March 21 (PIA6) – The Earth Hour Core Group and SM City Bacolod are one in advocating for the environment in order to reduce the effects of climate change.
 
During the Earth Hour event in this city, March 19, the Core Group and SM partnered to hold the activity to give awareness on the effects of climate change and how the public can lend a helping hand to reduce its effects.
 
Desiree Diel, Community Extension Program Head of Colegio San Agustin – Bacolod, representing the Earth Hour Core Group, gave a message in front of hundreds who attended the event.
 
“Indeed, eight long years, Bacolod and Negros have come a long way in making people more aware of the urgent need for everyone to work together to mitigate, if not completely eliminate, the destructive and unpredictable effects of climate change,” she said.
 
She said climate change does not choose its victims as it affects everyone from the children to the elderly, to those from the rural to the highly urbanized communities.
 
She said that the small acts, such the planting of mangroves and switching off of lights as part of the Earth Hour Event, can help save lives.
 
The Earth Hour Core Group held a mangrove planting activity at Brgy. Punta Taytay, led the environmental talks and the switching off of lights at the car park area of SM – Bacolod.
 
For their part, SM Mall Manager George Anthony Jardiolin said SM engages in many projects geared towards sustainable living.
 
“The environment and the people we serve are our top priority,” he said, adding they enlist the best and most advance strategies and technologies when designing their malls and building structures to protect them and our valued customers from damage and harm.
 
SM recently bagged 56 awards, eight more compared to the previous year, during the Don Emilio Abello Energy Efficiency Awards granted by the Department of Energy.  
 
According to Jardiolin, SM saved P320 million in energy costs in 2015, largely due to the utilization of renewable sources of energy.
 
To date, SM approximately has 30,000 solar panels powering three malls – SM Xiamen in China, SM North EDSA and SM Mall of Asia. (JCM/CBA/PIA – Negros Occidental)