Earth Day: Environmentalism is now LOHAS

One-Environment Philippines Portal (www.one-environment.ph)

Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States has dramatically changed the discourse on the environment for the country and the world. As religious studies Prof. Ira Chenus noted in his three part article, a sitting president can set what topics are discussed, can prioritize the issues to be addressed, can choose what symbols to highlight, and can set the tone for the country. Prof. Chernus prophetically wrote a week before Obama was elected; “… the President of the United States does a lot more than make decisions about specific policies. He (or she) is an immensely powerful symbol, doing more than any other person to set the mood and tone of political life for the whole nation, as well as signaling to the whole world what the USA is really all about. Symbolism and mood-setting are a huge, though often overlooked, part of the president’s role…”

In just 100 days of office Barack Obama has radically changed the national discussion on the economy, scientific integrity, foreign policy on Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba, among others, alternative energy, global warming, and climate change. Whether one agrees with his actions and policies or not, he has been inspirational to say the least.

For the environment, Obama is the welcome rain after an eight year drought.

Do remember that during the Bush years, vapid denials of climate change, an assault on scientific research and integrity, support for pollutive corporations, and environmental discrimination were the norm. Afterall, Bush and the Republicans were pro-business with their eyes closed. Further, corporations, legal and man-made creations, argued forcefully in court numerous times that they had the same rights as human beings and citizens of the United States. It is no surprise then that greed and profit-taking no matter what were virtues during the Reagan and Bush years.

For environmentalists, the years after the 1992 U.N. Conference of Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro were a steady decline in their influence and effectiveness. There was a lot of hand-wringing and introspection, best summarized in the article Death of Environmentalism.

Today, it seems we are hopeful. The economic and environmental crises have forced all of us to rethink how we do business, consume, and live our lives. It is simply more costly in terms of money, health, safety, and security to continue on a path of unsustainable energy and conspicuous consumption. In the United States, some of the biggest companies have disappeared because of a lack of foresight. Auto companies, for example, have long used their Washington connections and paid lobbyists to delay the updating of emissions standards and auto efficiency. They look pathetic these days begging for money just to survive. Agrochemical companies look like corporate bullies trying to pressure Michelle Obama to use agrochemicals in the White House organic garden she recently established.

With scientific paper after scientific paper coming out warning us of the dire effects of greenhouse gases and climate change, the climate change denialists have returned to their villages or rather caves and have wisely decided to keep quiet. Has their funding run out?

As a participant and witness to the surge of environmentalism in the 1980s and early 1990s, only to watch it wane with the rise of the go-go neoliberal years worldwide, I am amazed at the comeback of the global environmental movement. I look back at the hand wringing of the environmental activists and debate whether the analysis in Death of an Environmentalist was correct. There are differences and the following show why this time around, environmentalism is here to stay.

1. Mainstreaming of environmentalism

Environmental issues are now part of everyday language and debate. It is now neither esoteric nor the domain of specialists. Environmentalists are no longer the highly educated, snooty, and condescending experts they were perceived to be. Today, the urban gardener, the cancer survivor, the worried mother, the last of the farmers, and the fisherman are all environmentalists and rightly so. Protecting the environment and conserving our finite natural resources are a concern and responsibility of all. More people are now conversant and understand environmental issues. Public education and the mass media, of course, had important roles to play in the mainstreaming of the environment.

Take Earth Day for example. Celebrated every April 22, first held in 1970, and founded by then U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson and Denis Hayes, and separately by peace activist John McConnell, the Earth Day Network has more than 17,000 partners and organizations in 174 countries. They estimate that over a billion people participated in Earth Day activities, possibly the largest non-religious event in the world. For 2009, Earth Day celebrations include the launch of the two-year Green Generation Campaign on carbon footprint reduction and the creation of a new green economy.

2. Rise of LOHAS

LOHAS

Affluence, access to better medical facilities and services, better nutrition, and hygiene have extended lifespans and improved quality of life indicators. Accessible information on the deleterious effects of unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, chemical drug use, and alcohol as well as that of industrial pollution have forced individuals and communities to confront these challenges.

Today, demographic shifts are towards an increasing number of people have chosen lifestyles of health and sustainability (LOHAS). Not only is this healthy, but in many cases, cheaper and gentler on the environment. The LOHAS sector is a fast expanding market estimated at $209-400 billion.

Lastly, I am also of the view that most people, deep down, have values that are environmentally conscious and consistent with a sustainable, socially responsible, and/or healthier lifestyle.

3. Legislation and litigation have reigned in excesses

In the past 40 years, very public and decisive legal cases in numerous countries, both developing and developed, have forced legislatures to pass environmental laws. In the United States, there is the NEPA, Endangered Species, Clean Air Act, among many others. In the Philippines, which has similar a environmental regulatory framework, the EIA, air and water pollution control, mining, and wildlife laws among others have provided regulatory guidance to officials, corporations, and communities.

Civil society has been proactive and innovative in environmental actions. Governments, corporations, and civil society have been at the forefront and receiving end of legal action on environmental issues.

Thus, pollution and environmental degradation are now perpetrated by outliers. The first outliers are the very rich and powerful sectors, mostly corporations, who bribe and corrupt their way into exploiting natural resources and public goods. The second would be the very poor with limited options and access to environmental, social, and economic services and resources. For the former, their actions are illegal, criminal, and immoral and can be addressed with law enforcement. They can also be societally ostracized.  For the latter, it is addressing poverty and making them partners in development.  

4. Environmental and economic crises are pushing for a green economy.

As noted earlier, energy and fuel consumption has increased significantly worldwide. However, fossil fuels are a finite resource. With greater demand and limited supplies, fuel prices are bound to increase at worse, and fluctuate at best. Also, fossil fuels contribute to global warming with disastrous consequences. As New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said recently, it makes economic sense to invest in green technology, a green economy, and a green lifestyle.

A green economy that generates green jobs is what will start the economic recovery caused by an unregulated FIRE (finance, insurance, and real estate) economy.

FIRE economy (Figure from www.fireeconomy.com)

Obama has pledged $10-15 billion a year for the next decade to fund the green economy. This will have multiplier effects worldwide as other countries follow suit.

5. The environmental-LOHAS revolution will be digital

Information and communication technologies (ICT) and social networking media will support and expand the above four phenomena. ICT will facilitate information exchange and importantly, mobilizing and organizing for the environment- LOHAS. For those in the green economy, ICT will be important in not only branding and marketing, but in service provision. ICT will open up new opportunities and vistas for environmentalists.

Like the United States, the Philippines is in a unique position to ride this green wave. We have the demographics, a young, educated, and literate population that can harness the opportunities and technologies. We can organize and mobilize to the community level-Gawad Kalinga has shown this- to become environmental and green economy leaders.

The Philippines can leapfrog into a green economy uplifting itself from the morass of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion.

The dawn of LOHAS and the green economy has arrived.  What will you be doing?

Entrepreneurship opportunities, both capitalist and social, in the Philippines

Escaping the scorching Arizona heat, visiting family and friends, and continuing my research on Gawad Kalinga, led me to Manila during the summer. Being the nosy applied anthropologist, I didn’t refuse any invitation to visit GK sites, do consulting research, revisit the great outdoors, and eat and drink with some of the most fascinating people there. In the process, I got updated on what’s going in the country.

The Philippines and the United States have serious economic and environmental challenges. Both have a rapidly widening gap between the rich and the poor. The middle class is being gutted. Migration rates are intense; out of the country for Filipinos and from the rural to urban areas and within urban areas for Americans. As one columnist wrote; “at the rate Filipinos are migrating, we will be left with the poor and the corrupt.” The ecological footprint of Americans due to internal migration, on the other hand, is one of if not the highest in the world. The financial, insurance, real estate (FIRE) sectors characterize both economies. In the United States however, the sub-prime mortgage debacle is threatening its, and possibly the global, financial system. For the Philippines the OFW remittances, which is fueling the real estate boom and the import-laden semiconductor sector are keeping the economy afloat. Foreign investment in the mining sector and illegal mining are also helping the rural economy in complex ways.

The negatives though are not what I want to dwell on. My conversations with myriad peoples from farmers to miners to bankers, engineers, and yes, even community organizers in both countries, as well as my observations, lead me to believe that there are opportunities for entrepreneurship, both capitalist and social, in the Philippines.

At the outset, let me state that the strength of both countries rests on its human resource. Despite numerous corrupt politicians and bureaucrats and the political-economic crisis, there are many more creative, educated, disciplined, innovative, and energized people and groups that inspire and can convert one into an optimist. Civil society remains strong in both countries. This important resource is the presence of creative and innovative people and groups. One example that I’ve written about are the U.P. Mountaineers who organized Padyak.org, the P500/bike/semester “rental” scheme for U.P. Diliman students that is promoting biking and a healthy-environmental lifestyle.

Media attention and social acceptance are leading to corporate sponsorship, more bikes for students, possible replication in other campuses, rising popularity of biking and increased bike sales. What gets me excited too is that by the second semester, they hope to launch a bamboo bike in partnership with Carolina’s Bamboo Farm. If it passes the trials, we will look for corporate sponsors for at least 100 bamboo bikes. That will highlight the possibilities of bamboo and increase demand for bamboo woodworkers, bike designers, and builders. Do you see the link between social entrepreneurship and the economy?

Outside of Manila, I did some short term applied research on a mining firm and was taken aback at the quadruple shocks that upland, agricultural, mining communities are experiencing. These are; (a) the fuel price increases have increased product transportation costs with resulting inflation; (b) petrochemical fertilizers have increased 300% in the last five years; (c) logging, mining, and extensive upland farming have degraded soil fertility increasing dependence on petrochemical fertilizers leading to a downward spiral; and, (d) lack of irrigation and underinvestment in irrigation facilities make rural farms underproductive. Because of these shocks, upland farmers, at least in this mining area, have abandoned farming and gotten into small scale mining increasing tensions with big mining firms. Local and foreign buyers have entered mining areas and prefer buying from small scale miners, rather than engage in capital-intensive mining.

While these external shocks are indeed shocking, there are underlying opportunities. First, probable high permanent oil prices are increasing demand for alternative fuels and energy sources. AltEnergy Systems Inc. of Chips Guevara reverse engineered and adapted to Philippine driving conditions conversion kits that enable diesel vehicles to run on used cooking oil. The conversion kits cost P40,000 each and cut by more than half the daily fuel cost of, for example, a jeepney driver. He is also setting up the fuel supply chain by buying used cooking oil and filtering it, while establishing pilot jatropha farms.

For gasoline vehicles, GreenFuel is a newly established LPG conversion company. For also about P40,000, ANY gasoline vehicle can be converted to run on gas and LPG. LPG is cleaner and better for gasoline engines. It is also roughly half the price per liter of gasoline. LPG refilling stations are beginning to sprout.

Note that in 2006, there were 5.33 million registered vehicles in the country.

LPG kit on a late model Toyota Camry

While we discussed technology at the retail level, the question of fuel supply needs to be addressed. Now is a good time to invest in farming and/or reforestation that produces alternative fuels. These include coconut oil, jatropha-sourced biofuels, and other indigenous plants and trees that can produce biofuels. The barriers are land, capital, and labor. A people’s association (PA) in northern Luzon showed me how to do it. It took them years to apply, but they were successfully awarded a 1,000 hectare community-based forest stewardship agreement (CFSA) by the DENR. DENR then linked them up with a foreign technical investor (FTI) that trained them on how to establish a jatropha farm. It is paying the salaries of the farm laborers,. It commits to bring in the harvesting and fuel processing equipment. Lastly, it will give at least 10% of the biofuel sales to the people’s association. A nursery has been established and planting is proceeding. It’s a win-win for the FTI, the PA, the environment as denuded slopes are being replanted, and the upland economy. This should be the model for an agroindustrial-environment entrepreneurial program.

Many more CFSAs exist. What are you waiting for?

The third is food security. The government, private sector, and civil society need to invest in irrigation and fertilizer production, preferably organic. One model I saw involved a carbon credit company I’m involved with. Hog farms are constrained by pollution charges, high power costs, high feeds, and high waste management costs. This company provides the technology and financing that will capture the greenhouses gases, which it sells as carbon credits. Everyone wins. The hog farms gets a biodigester without capital investment, 30% cheaper electricity from the steam produced, a cleaner operation, and up to 10% of the carbon credits. A biodigester system produces fertilizer that farms need and which this company hopes to sell and distribute nationwide. Wastewater is treated and can be reused.

There are at least 30 million hogs in the Philippines and carbon credits sell from $7-30 per metric ton. This is literally making money out of hot air.

There are other initiatives that I can discuss, but I’d like to end this article by discussing the opportunities arising from Gawad Kalinga villages. From an entrepreneurial perspective, GK villages present a labor force and market. GK supporters, partners, volunteers, and beneficiaries are all being educated (in different areas), appreciating various aspects of discipline, organized, and have high levels of communication and coordination (EDOC). Thus, ALL participants can be tapped to be productive. GK villages are an emerging market, especially if the 700,000 homes / 7,000 villages in seven years materialize.

Since one component of the seven-point component of GK is productivity and livelihood, the opportunities are boundless. A productivity program is required of all GK villages. Rural GK sites also have to allot one hectare of the two hectare site for productivity initiatives. A GK village in Taguig has two internet cafes, one sponsored by SMART, the other by Rotary International, an alumni UP class, and an e-commerce start up. Another GK village in Bagong Silang started its own purified water bottling business. A GK village in Quezon is known for its wood carving. Other Taguig GK villages will be tapped to provide the landscaping and waste management services to the rich Ayala villages. A GK village cum relocation site has a working wastewater treatment plant using reed plants that can be replicated elsewhere. The recycled water is pumped into an overhead tank used for firefighting and designed as a welcome arch. A GK village in Rizal borrowed a plot of land from the parish and established an urban organic pick-and-pay farm and fishpond. GK BASECO has a coffee shop using donated Starbucks chairs and tables. GK Reunion Village has an organic farm and nursery, a hotel, guest villas, and a retirement village for GK supporters who want to retire and live near a GK village. The carbon credit company I mentioned earlier is donating a biodigester system to a GK village that will treat kitchen wastes and sewage. The steam generated can power a bakery. The village will now also be able to raise hogs and not worry about waste management. GK and a business school have also sponsored an entrepreneurship competition among its classes in partnership with GK sites. The list of examples goes on. GK has also started to ramp up its productivity and livelihood component with big names in business and finance volunteering their talent, time, and resources. Merchandising is emerging as a feasible productivity sector. A big announcement will be made this October.

GK Reunion Village guest villas

What are the lessons gleaned here, aside from standard business school pointers of market, leadership, drive, financing, strategy, etc.?

One, we need to focus on the needs of the people. There is strong demand for basic household needs of food, water, energy, housing, infrastructure, education, and livelihood. Government and the private sector are not up to par so there are opportunities. Financing needs to be creative to meet these needs.

Second, in working with the poor, provide capital not only for the business, but also to meet the worker’s basic needs. Chips Guevara subsidized the jeepney conversion. He is willing to partner up with anyone, especially jeepney drivers groups, in setting up the supply chain of used cooking oil. The jatropha FTI paid for the training with stipend, hired PA members to do the farming, is funding the establishment of the jatropha farm, and is willing to share profits with the PA in exchange for access to their 1,000 has. CFSA area. The carbon credit company is willing to provide 100% funding, technology, and a build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangement in exchange for the carbon credits. Gawad Kalinga is promoting entrepreneurship at the village level. It is also inviting entrepreneurs to do business with GK villages and split the profits. When partnering up with the poor or tapping their labor, presence, or time, you need to provide for their basic needs, since the next meal of their family is always in flux.

The poor can be an economic engine and a market. Why not make them a partner in development?

Third, business opportunities, even in a country with dysfunctional politics and political leadership, can arise if the micro-environment encourages a convergence of capital, labor, and technology in a setting of mutual trust and benefit. GK villages provide this setting. The partnership between the CFSA holder and FTI is another. The model of the carbon credit company is further proof. Affordable and equitable provision of financial services including “banking the unbanked” and “providing the last mile of financial services” to the rural poor are needed.

Fourth, investing in lifestyles of health and sustainability (environment) or LOHAS makes good business sense. The market is growing in proportion to the need and demand. Organic food, alternative energy, alternative transportation, urban renewal, ecotourism, etc. are fast growing sectors. An aging population in the United States and the Philippines, coupled with high medical and insurance costs, present the country with retirement and health services that can be at par, yet cheaper than in developed countries. We are looking at least 70 million retiring Americans and at least 300,000 Fil-Ams. Where will they live? What will they be doing in the next ten years?

Fifth, creativity will enable entrepreneurial initiatives that have multiple benefits. The examples above show how organizing the poor address poverty and environmental problems, while contributing to capacity development and empowerment. Creativity, a focus on LOHAS and needs of the people, and convergence zones and situations of capital, labor, technology, spur sustainable development.

Per the insightful economist E.F. Schumacher, initiatives that increase levels of EDOC (education, discipline, organization, and communication) leads to sustainable development as a critical mass stirs the reservoirs of creativity and innovation. The EDOC process itself is an entrepreneurial opportunity. Imbibe culture in it and the opportunities multiply. Padyak.org is a good example. The booming Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) sector in the United States is another one that involves paid teaching, seminars, tournaments, “pilgrimages” to the Philippines, interest in all things Filipino, FMA equipment, t-shirts, videos, etc. The advertising giant McCann-Erickson reported that there are 2.3 million bloggers in the Philippines, at least three million Filipino internet users, most of whom are very active users of social networking sites such as Facebook and Friendster. What does this say about information, communication technologies (ICT) and its opportunities? The call-center, medical transcription, and other business process outsourcing (BPO) business have yet to be fully exploited.

If we can lift the five million poorest of the poor to moderate poverty and assist them to enter even just the lower middle class, we will see a resurgent Philippines.

Profit with honor exists. Try it.