Press Release
SMART partner schools face the inconvenient truth
[June 21, 2010/ Manila] - Officials of 32 colleges and universities nationwide gather with SMART officials led by Network and Platforms Services Division Head Mario Tamayo (center) at the SMX Convention Center to attend the 3rd Leadership Conference Series which featured former US Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore.
In Al Gore’s opening remarks at the recently concluded 3rd Leadership Conference Series where he presented an updated version of his 2006 award-winning documentary film “An Inconvenient Truth”, the former US Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate said, ““I’m here not just to lecture to you but to ask you to be part of the solution.”
Among those in the audience were top officials from 32 colleges and universities nationwide that are among the partner schools of Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) under the Smart Wireless Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) and Application Developers’ Intro School (ADIS) elective program.
“As leaders of their respective institutions, they are in the best position to influence the creation of learning environments that will produce the next generation of leaders who we hope will not only be schooled in terms of academics, but who will also be concerned and responsive to the needs of the environment,” said Mario Tamayo, head of SMART’s Network and Platforms Services Division who welcomed and hosted the academic contingent.
It is the second time the schools have been represented in the leadership conference courtesy of SMART. Last year, they listened to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair talk about “The Leader as Nation-Builder in a Time of Globalization”.
This year’s theme, “The Leader as Environment Steward” is the third instalment of the leadership conference, presented by SM Prime Holdings with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Co., Philippine Star and BusinessWorld. The conference theme reinforces the partner-schools’ existing pro-environment policies as well as supports the environment advocacies of SMART.
“We have integrated environmental education into our curriculum. This is in all courses since caring for the environment is everybody’s responsibility. We want to form our students into responsible stewards of God’s creation,” says Assoc. Prof. Giovanna Villarama Fontanilla, Director of Public Affairs at the University of Santo Tomas (UST).
Attending Al Gore’s lecture, she says, is an “unending grace” which inspires her to do even more for planet Earth. “When you know the problem, then you are able to do something about it. We have to work together so that the future generation can still enjoy our planet.”
As pointed out by Al Gore, stemming global warming is a moral issue that goes into the heart of who we are as God’s children. “We have an obligation to those who come after us that is fundamentally different from what has been shouldered by any other generation that has ever lived.”
In contributing to the good of the environment, Ateneo de Zamboanga University has further made improvements in its five year-old solid waste management program. “We redesigned it in such a way that it will be a total school approach. This means that the sole responsibility of running, designing, and evaluating the program will not be under our office, but will be under a core group that constitutes administrators, janitors, advocates, teachers and students,” says Cellyn Aron-Verallo, Director of the university’s Social Awareness and Community Service Involvement Office.
She adds that their office is trying to bring the program outside the Ateneo community, to public schools for instance.
This confirms what Al Gore believes to be true. “We can do it. We can do great things in this world… Surely God has given us the ability to do what is right.”
It is this encouragement and message of optimism that Dr. Gloria G. Fuentes wants to bring into the environment program of the University of St. La Salle (USLS) in Bacolod. “There are solutions if we just start facing the inconvenient truth. We probably need to review the design of our program, not just to breed awareness among our students but to bring about a change in attitude as well,” says the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
USLS uses “An Inconvenient Truth” as an introductory material to environmental preservation integrated in the General Education courses and specific subjects of major courses. Part of the requirement is for the students to undertake community projects that could either be one-shot activities like tree planting and clean-ups, or sustainable projects like mangrove preservation and solid-waste management.
Under its advocacy program Kabalikat sa Kalikasan, SMART has and continues to pursue initiatives to help address global warming and save Mother Earth, which Al Gore refers to as “our home”.
In 2009 alone, close to 350,000 seedlings and mangrove propagules have been planted in selected provinces across the country through the joint efforts of SMART employee-volunteers and community partners.
In December 2006, SMART installed the country’s first wind-powered cell site in Malapascua Island in Cebu. Its “Alternative Power for Cell Sites” program has since resulted to the installation of more than 100 eco-friendly cell sites that run on wind energy, and hybrid wind- and solar-powered cell sites in different areas across the Philippines.
Internal campaigns such as recyclables collection activities are likewise conducted to promote environment-friendly practices among SMART employees.
