Men in Green Minds

BY CHIT JUAN


Lately, I have been fortunate to meet many like-minded people who advocate a sustainable lifestyle whilst running a business ranging from furniture and accessories manufacturing to even integrative medical services. It feels good that soon we will be reaching a “tipping point” and sway everyone into living a naturally healthy way of life.

ECHOstore partner Jeannie and I recently met Jet Sales, of Lawiswis fame in Palawan. Jet moved to Palawan some years back to start an organic farm from where he gets lemongrass, neem, turmeric and which he makes into soaps, oils and balms, which are all-natural. He also has beeswax and honey and coconut products like tuba and “aged tuba” which become probiotics (the one promoting digestion like the famous Yakult brand only sugar-free). It is amazing how a grown man in his forties could look so young and keep a complexion so smooth, the secret of which is his natural lifestyle. He quietly produces his natural products in his small workshop a few kilometers outside the center of Puerto Princesa.

Next, ECHOstore partner Reena and I meet Pete Delantar in Cebu to talk about the latest products he makes which are causing a fashion rage in Europe. Pete has patented a special natural water-based glue that he uses to bind forest debris and form them into beautiful fashion accessories. He also uses Pangintuon, a sustainable wood used by many costume jewelry makers in Cebu, and combines them with his “forest debris” to make bangles and other fashion jewelry. Pete and Kathy Delantar also already practice among their employees what University of the Philippines Professor Benjamin Diokno predicted in the recent Philippine Retailers Association conference in Cebu. People will work where they live. Many, if not all, of their factory employees live and work in the same area, making their carbon footprints very small. Again, exporters like Pete and Kathy are influencing a whole community in Compostela, Cebu to go green. Even their children are encouraged to pursue careers in sustainable businesses like design, culinary arts and soon environment law. Pete’s passion for green fashion is infectious. He, you can say, dresses up the world in a sustainable manner.

And finally, we would like to share our experience with Dr. Romy Paredes of Cebu, an integrative practitioner of medicine. He combines Western medicine with Eastern influences and follows the path of traditional medicine stalwarts like Dr. Jaime Galvez-Tan and Dr. Nicholas Rath of the famous LysinC Cellular Therapy movement. I have shared Dr. Paredes’ good deeds with his fellow Cebuanos and it is funny that a Manila entrepreneur like myself has to be the storyteller to these Cebuanos about Dr. Paredes. He is a quiet worker, and through word of mouth has slowly taken Cebu by storm. He now has two clinics, one in Cybergate Mall and one in Aznar Building (across the Cebu Skin Clinic) and he sees cancer patients, and many other people who want to try a combination of Eastern and Western medicine, thus the operative word is “Integrative.”

According to Dr. Paredes, the best motto is still “An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.” Better to prevent diseases while one is still healthy rather than looking for the cure when one is already feeling the symptoms of any ailment. Like the two other men we mentioned, Dr. Paredes eats less, mostly plants (like Michael Pollan, best selling author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and many other books on eating healthy). When we meet men of this persuasion, and we sure have met a lot of them lately, you right away see a holistic and sustainable way of living, even if they do not say it. And men supposedly are the most difficult to sway into this lifestyle, as many feel “invulnerable” or invincible because of our society’s belief that men are the stronger sex. Well, here are three men, in different careers, all in their prime of life but all practicing a sustainable lifestyle.

I believe in Dr. Paredes’ fearless forecast that we are nearing the “tipping point” as more and more people come to see him for various ailments (some as young as 16 and already stricken with the big C); as more and more buyers wish to buy sustainable fashion accessories from Pete; and as more and more consumers discover naturally-healing soaps and oils from Lawiswis’ Jet Sales.

These are three men from different places, but all with one belief: It is time to check how we can adopt natural health practices and also be green in our businesses. Maybe the motto should be “Sell Green, Live
Green” for these entrepreneurs and the world will surely be a happier place, as soon as tomorrow.
May there be more men like them who are humble enough to accept human weakness, and make a difference by inspiring others to take up the same cause and ultimately promote healthier lives while saving the environment.

Chit Juan is an owner and founder of ECHOstore sustainable lifestyle in Serendra and Podium (www.echostore.ph). She also speaks to the youth and other groups on Sustainability, CSR, Leadership and the Environment. You can email her at puj@echostore.ph