Cebu’s champion of green products

ADVOCATE Mary Rose Arnejo, an industrial engineer by profession, started Eco Hub Cebu to entice more people to switch to a greener lifestyle. —JOSE SANTINO S. BUNACHITA

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Mary Rose Arnejo walks the talk in championing a green lifestyle.

The 25-year-old industrial engineer has been creating environment-friendly products, ranging from metal straws and reusable stainless steel cutlery to bamboo toothbrushes, eco shampoo bars and organic soaps, to spread awareness on the need to have a more sustainable lifestyle.

She sells the inexpensive products through a Facebook account — Eco Hub Cebu — she opened in October 2018, so people “won’t have to choose between affordability and sustainability.”

“I started Eco Hub Cebu because I wanted more people to switch to a greener lifestyle. I realized that we can only be truly effective in mitigating climate change if we do it collectively,” Arnejo said.

Social media sensation

Her latest product — the plantable pencil — has risen to social media popularity since it was introduced on May 22. It sells for P20 apiece.

“By God’s grace, the response has been positively overwhelming. I didn’t realize how powerful social media is until I experienced it first-hand,” Arnejo said.

LOCAL PRODUCTS Amgu sells locally produced products to help small entrepreneurs and farmers. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

It looks like a regular pencil, but instead of a small eraser at the tip is a gelatin capsule containing the seeds of a plant as labeled. When the pencil is too short to be used, simply plant it in potted soil and let it grow.

Arnejo said the concept did not come from her but was inspired by a similar product pioneered by Sprout World, a company based in Europe.

There are seven seed varieties—sunflower, mint, basil, carrot, morning glory, lucky clover and tomato—with basil growing the fastest based on Arnejo’s experience. And there is a plan to add more.

Eco notebooks

Eco Hub Cebu launched the plantable pencil a few days before its staff held a session on how to make eco notebooks with children from Barangay Tingub in Mandaue City.

After receiving a number of inquiries, it looked forward to growing its production assembly despite the foreign sources of materials.

GREEN HUB At Amgu, the first zero-waste store in Cebu, customers are encouraged to avoid single-use plastic and wasteful practices through food and home product refills (center) and reusable utensils (right), containers and bags. “Amgu” in Bisaya means “awareness.” —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

A majority of the buyers are those who cook a lot and raise their own vegetables and herbs. Some companies buy the pencils for office use and giveaways.

At Amgu, the first zero-waste store in the province near the Redemptorist Church in Cebu City, Eco Hub Cebu sells the plantable pencils and other sustainable products, including detergents, shampoo and food refills.

For Arnejo, the success of the plantable pencils is just surface-level. More than anything, she hopes to instill awareness among people on the need to switch to greener ways in order to help protect the environment.

“We have to transform apathetic people into proactive ones, and if we have to do it by encouraging everyone to switch to eco products, we will. After all, the effect of climate change is not selective but universal,” she said.

Community projects

Aside from running the business, Arnejo is completing a master’s degree in industrial engineering. Since her undergraduate days at Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT), she has been very active in her school and her community.

PLANT ’EM Eco Hub Cebu’s plantable pencils come in different seed varieties and are sold for P20 apiece. —JOSE SANTINO S. BUNACHITA

She headed several organizations, like the Industrial Engineering Council’s Project Nowtbuks (Now is the Time to Build Up Kids for Sustainability), which won the Best Flagship Award during the International Assembly of Youth for Unesco in 2014. Among its activities was recycling used paper and cartons into notebooks.

Arnejo was chosen the 2015 Most Outstanding Unesco Club Youth Leader of the Philippines and among the outstanding graduates of CIT for school year 2015-16.

Now, she is making her mark in her community.

“It is my hope that Eco Hub Cebu will be seen as more than just an eco shop, but rather a statement of grit, determination and innovativeness of Pinoys in solving environmental issues,” Arnejo said.