‘Para Sa Bata’ advocacy includes use of solar power
WHILE corporate social responsibility endeavors have become a trend where proponents pursue a variety of advocacies like social awareness, charity, and environment, a company known for its more than 60 years of producing learners’ materials goes back to the person that matters most — the child or bata — who is nurtured by the knowledge and wisdom that these books provide.
“Part of our responsibility as an educational company is to educate children on our core values of integrity and discipline. After all, the child is the center of all our endeavors,” Rex Publishing House chief operations officer Don Timothy Buhain explained about the company’s “Para Sa Bata” advocacy.
Launched as part of Rex Book Store’s 65th anniversary, “Para Sa Bata” aims to educate each Filipino whole child through the community of stakeholders like families, schools, communities, institutions and agencies imagined collectively as “Isang Nayon (One Village),” inspired by the adage, “It takes a village to raise a child.”
One of its thrusts is to lead the way to a printing industry that is committed to responsibility for the environment.
“We are a printing company, and the paper that we use comes from Mother Nature. That alone, we already owe it to her,” Buhain said.
Through its subsidiary J&J Properties and Trading Corporation, Rex Publishing House spearheaded the introduction of renewable energy use, tapping into solar energy for its production requirements, leading into partnership with solar energy provider Greenheat Corporation.
The grid-tiered solar photovoltaic power plant installed on the rooftops of Rex Book Mesa Heights, Quezon City is expected to provide a maximum of 20-percent of the company’s energy needs, therefore reducing the carbon footprint to 108 metric tons or the equivalent of 1,080 adult trees per year.
“We cannot reduce the impact of climate change without transforming global energy systems, but today, we have the unique opportunity to transform not only our company but society as well,” he remarked.
Buhain explained that the rationale behind the project hinges on two things — to tap at the same time, to commit to becoming an environmentally responsible company.
He also emphasized that the commitment is not only the sole responsibility of the company.
“Conserving Mother Nature need not be big. In our own little way and in our own spaces, The solar project points toward a better environment for the child. Whatever initiatives that it would bring, it would