Environmental awareness drive for students launched

MANILA, Philippines - Consumer electronics giant Philips, in conjunction with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines), recently launched an environmental education program among public elementary students. The program, entitled ‘Bright Kids’, aims to promote climate change awareness among the youth, with a focus on energy efficiency and conservation.

“The Bright Kids campaign comes at a very crucial time, when global warming and climate change have become major concerns in light of all these recent calamities, especially Ondoy,” said Rico Gonzales, Philips Electronics and Lighting CEO. “We hope to enlighten and educate the children on the importance of energy conservation, as this will have an important effect in lessening global warming.”

The ‘Bright Kids’ program will benefit more than 5,000 elementary school students from 20 public schools in Quezon City, Makati, and Pasig — areas among those hardest hit by Ondoy.

Each school visit by Philips and WWF-Philippines will consist of a lecture on energy-related issues. To enhance the learning experience, pro-environmental games plus arts and crafts activities will be conducted. Information materials such as workbooks will also be given to the students. Participating schools are encouraged to implement the ‘Bright Kids’ campaign as a special adjunct to their curriculum, utilizing class projects and other standard classroom activities to further strengthen their students’ environmental awareness.

For three years now, Philips has been an advocate of promoting energy management and energy efficiency. It leads the ‘simple switch’ campaign to encourage consumers to switch from incandescent to compact fluorescent lamps and use of T8 long fluorescent lamps instead of T12s as both lamps have proven to be 80 percent more efficient than their predecessors and even provide brighter illumination at lower wattage. Philips continues to engage multiple stakeholders such as the government, the private sector and educational institutions to promote this all-important and relevant advocacy and has lined up several activities, in partnership with WWF-Philippines, to further this cause.

Giving a thumbs-up to energy efficiency and conservation are (from left) Raul Gonzales, CEO of Philips; Dr. Trinidad Lagarto, senior educational programs specialist of DepEd; Obel Resurrecion of the WWF Educational Team; and Jose Mari Tan, CEO of WWF Philippines.