TOP fashion-design students vying for the Aboitiz Green Fashion Revolution (GFR)on April 22 (Earth Day) showcased their environment-friendly creations, following their completion of a three-month learning session conducted by the diverse company.
The finalists from Asia Pacific College, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde and SoFA Design Institute were given practical tips and tricks by Project Runway Philippines Season 4 winner Joy Chicano and members of the Aboitiz Group Sustainability team during the series of workshops that ran from January to March this year.
Aboitiz Foundation First Vice President and COO Maribeth L. Marasigan felt honored to impart useful and valuable knowledge on fashion design to budding fashion designers.
“With this kind of training, coupled with their talent, we are definitely looking forward to seeing on the fashion runway their homegrown designs that highlight and manifest sustainable, eco-friendly living,” she said.
Conceptualized by a group of the company’s beneficiaries during the Aboitiz Scholars’ CSR Summit six years ago, GFR was first staged in Cebu and Manila in 2012 and 2016, respectively, through Aboitiz Foundation, the corporate arm of the conglomerate.
It has since then become a yearly event, challenging students to create recycled clothing, footwear and accessories, which are anchored on the principles of 3Rs—reduce, reuse and recycle. At present this undertaking forms part of the Group’s Wealth on Waste Program that promotes creative recycling of waste materials after their useful life.
To date around 1,600 kilograms of waste material from various Aboitiz subsidiaries have been repurposed annually for the competition. The contest this year remained supportive of two of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Life Below Water (conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development) and Life on Land (protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss).
The UN said oceans cover three quarters of the Earth’s surface, contain 97 percent of the Earth’s water and represent 99 percent of the living space on the planet by volume.
About 40 percent of the world’s oceans are heavily affected by human activities, including pollution, depleted fisheries, and loss of coastal habitats.
Themed “Life Flourishing on Land and in Water,” GFR Manila 2017 unfolded at around 7 p.m. at the SMX Convention Center, SM Aura Premier in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.