JUST what is Petron doing to offset its carbon debt?

According to its Sustainability Report, the company has put in place ?environmental monitoring and community-partnership programs that create long-term positive impact and ensure the continuity of [its] operations? We undertake social scanning, environmental mapping, and community engagement to assess the specific needs of our locations, after which CSR programs are developed.?

Among its programs are:

1. Tulong Aral ng Petron, a long-term and strategic initiative that sends poor children to school

2. The annual Petron Gurong Kaakbay event that helps sustain a reading program with teachers as reading advocates and change agents

3. Continued support for DepEd?s Adopt-a-School initiative, a classroom construction and repair program

4. Active implementation of coastal management efforts in Bataan where its refinery is located.

5. Mariculture Livelihood Program that provides viable long-term livelihood for the fishing community of Nueva Valencia

6. Emergency response to community needs through its network of facilities and service stations, from building community-based competent firefighting teams, providing relief goods to families displaced by fires and natural calamities, and participating in medical and dental missions.

For its part, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) group head of planning Vince Tan sees climate change as ?a reality that cannot be denied. Our role is to minimize the environmental impact of what we do. Aside from operating more efficiently, our primary tool is the development of sustainable communities.?

The trick, he adds, is to be able ?to help our customers live and act more responsibly, while saving money for themselves.?

Some ways ALI does it:

1. Increased water-use efficiency through the conversion of automatic-flush urinals into waterless ones using disinfectant blocks that gradually dissolve with each use

2. The construction of permeable pavements in some of its developments to allow rainwater to seep through and replenish the aquifer unlike solid concrete or asphalt pavements

3. Reducing solid waste from its properties from 20 to four trucks a day

4. A series of green training for its personnel

5. The relocation of informal settlers from the riverbanks of Pasig

6. The construction of pedestrian-friendly walkways in Ayala malls and bird sanctuaries in its countryside developments -PAC