Cebu retailers urged: Go green

Cebu retailers are urged to adopt environment-friendly practices to sustain their businesses.

Architect Gene Arthur Go, senior managing partner of GSN+p, said that going green wouldn’t be for a greater return of investment but it would be for “our children and our children’s children.

Go, who was one of the speakers in the recently held 6th Cebu Regional Retail Conference, shared his views about “Sustainable Green Designs for Retail Spaces.”

He said that sustainability, apart from competitiveness, should be upheld by retailers.

He made the call to go green because most retailers would back off from the whole idea of going green because it would entail more investment.

“Going green means being conscious of what you are doing as far as energy is concerned,” Go said.

He gave environment-friendly alternatives to retailers who didn’t have shops inside malls such as the use of solar air conditioning.

Solar airconditioning units vary in size and can be bought online from companies based in China, Sweden and the United Kingdom, he said.

He also discussed putting up recycled, locally sourced and eco-friendly materials that could be used by retailers in their shops.

He encouraged retailers to practice eco-branding and recyclable packaging in their businesses.

“To change the world, we need to change our mind,” Go said.

The conference also focused on the popularity of online marketing and shopping and how retailers take advantage of the benefits of the trend.

Jun Yap, president of PRA-Cebu, also said Cebu had been in the forefront of the retail industry with a good number of Cebu’s home-grown retailers managing to penetrate the international market.

“The advantage now belongs to us. We’re resilient to crisis, determined to succeed, which is the spirit of every Cebuano retailer,” said Jun Yap, president of PRA-Cebu.

Jack Madrid, president of the Digital Commerce Association of the Philippines and country manager of Multiply Philippines,  said that he was excited about the online shopping business in the country.

Madrid discussed the “State of the Philippine eCommerce.”

Janette Toral from Digital Filipino, who’s also known as the mother of eCommerce law in the Philippines, discussed about the power of social networking sites on sharing of information and how it can be harnessed to promote your product./Correspondent Jose Santino S. Bunachita