SM Hotels and Conventions unveils Tela Tales initiative

SM HOTELS and Conventions Corp. (SMHCC) celebrated World Recycling Day last March 18 with the launch of Tela Tales during a sustainability briefing and exhibit entitled “SMHCC Road to Zero.”

Launched together with social entrepreneur Zarah Juan, Tela Tales is a recycling program that advocates environmental stewardship aimed to create a circular economy for condemned linens. Inspired by its precept, “Transforming lives, one textile at a time,” this initiative endeavors to uplift the lives of communities near SM hotel properties by equippping them with a new skill to improve their socioeconomic conditions. In collaboration with Ms. Juan, used textiles will be transformed into fashionable and sustainable bags, which will be sold at a competitive price, to help women have a source of livelihood.

“I am grateful to be given the opportunity to work with SM, empowering communities and caring for the environment through Tela Tales,” Ms. Juan shared. “We are closing the gap in circularity, providing livelihood and ensuring a wonderful place for future generations to live in.”

On top of this launch, Leah Magallanes, SMHCC Vice-President for Quality and Sustainability, shared the company’s sustainability efforts that center around various environmental, social, governance practices and metrics, which are all directed towards achieving “zero waste, zero green washing, and zero biases.”

Particularly in achieving zero waste, Ms. Magallanes shared, SMHCC has employed four key strategies, namely energy conservation mainly through smart room technology, water management through proper recycling and desalination, green procurement by looking for suppliers that are sustainable in nature, and circular economy and waste management.

“Doing those four strategies, we are able already to reduce our carbon footprint by 40% [from initially 70%],” Ms. Magallanes shared during the briefing.

Alongside this briefing was a showcase of completed projects and actual outputs in partnership with key stakeholders SMHCC has partnered with, namely Hope Water, Diversey Philippines, Greenspace PH, and Green Trident Services.

SMHCC shared that over P300,000 was contributed to help build classrooms while also enabling the clean up of over 7,100 kilograms (kg) of plastic wastes since 2022, diverting them away from nature. Over 253 kg of used bar soaps were diverted and converted into new ones; while a total of 198,640 kg food was diverted using the bokashi composting technique.

Over 10,000 kg of paper wastes and 2,000 kg of plastic wastes were also diverted by SMHCC. These wastes were then used to produce sustainable products, such as Papel ni Juan recycled bond paper and Poly al Eco Boards. In addition, by using Dunbrae Philippines’ Orca Biodigester, Taal Vista Hotel diverted a total of 11,672 kg of food wastes since the installation of the biodigester last July 2023.