BEING the country’s biggest in terms of number of malls and supermarket outlets nationwide, SM Prime Holdings is aware that it has an important role to play in creating the habit of using environment-friendly shopping bags by their customers.

“We started on Jan. 16, 2009 and it was Herbert Sy who first suggested it,” said Sherry Tuvilla, SM City Cebu mall manager.

Banking on their numbers, Tuvilla said they believed they could create a bigger impact if they did it as one. Thus, all SM malls and supermarkets nationwide now use what they call the “Green Bag” which could last for two years even if used every week.

The bag is made of a non-woven material which is affordable and environment-friendly as it can be reused many times, unlike plastics. “The bags are sourced from China and are made of 100 percent polypropylene which is non-toxic and allergy-free and don’t react to human skin.”

To make the bags look presentable, SM commissioned renowned painter Manuel Baldemor to make four exclusive designs to be featured in the bags.

SM has started offering the green bags to their supermarket shoppers who would earn two points for every bag used. “Two points are equivalent to P200 worth of goods shopped at the department store and supermarket so that’s something very catchy for our shoppers already.”

The green bags are sold at P35 each on a regular day. However every Wednesday, SM has a buy-one-take-one promo. “So they will have two bags and pay only P35 if they buy it on Wednesdays when we don’t give out plastic bags,” Tuvilla said.

Every Wednesday is now called “My Own Bag Day” in SM City Cebu as part of its promotion campaign to encourage buyers to use their own green bags and earn points at the same time.

Tuvilla said that at first, they got mixed reactions from customers. Others got mad at being told about their Wednesday promo while others supported the campaign. “We even got a letter from one of our customers suggesting that why don’t we put up a plastic collection depot within the mall to encourage people to give up their plastics and eventually use the green bags when shopping or boxes if they bought many items?”

After a year of promoting the green bags, Tuvilla said they had noticed higher acceptance of the bags by customers. “Even male customers don’t feel embarrassed carrying green bags around and we also noticed people really bringing their own green bags when shopping, which is a good sign.”

SM Cebu has partnered with the Philippine Retailers Association – Cebu Chapter by supporting the organization’s “Every Bag Counts” program which was launched at the mall in December 2009.

“We know for a fact that some other retailers here in Cebu are also doing their own initiatives already and we’re just glad to be one of the first to offer the green bags.”

Tuvilla said they hoped to see the day when people would no longer ask for plastic bags and instead use the reusable bags as what other countries are doing to help protect the environment.

“I think it’s high time for us to do the same also,” she said.

Because of the “My Own Bag” campaign every Wednesday, SM Cebu saved at least 1,100 plastic bags and recorded an average of 470 green bags used everyday.

“Last year we were able to dispose three million bags in all our malls and supermarkets nationwide. This year we hope to make it bigger,” said Tuvilla.

She said there might be something more happening this year for their green bags. “At the rate that we are going now, it’s possible that we will be adding another day, not only Wednesdays for our campaign. We don’t know, but that’s possible.”

Staying true to its promise of being ambassadors of green initiatives, Tuvilla said SM will hold a Green Film Fest on Feb. 10, targeting public school students to make them aware about the issues concerning the environment.

“We are also continuously looking at other means of helping protect Mother Earth aside from what we are currently doing,” she added.