Who wouldn’t want more green spaces in the city?
Bonifacio Global City is making efforts to transform its community into an environment-friendly and sustainable enclave.
The commercial hub recently launched various initiatives that are especially important as we face this endemic, where the needs for food sufficiency, eco-friendly practices, open spaces, circular economy, and community recovery are emphasized.
Among these are Agri-roofs and Herb Gardens, where edible greens and herbs are grown in carpark and office building roof decks and pocket herb gardens at the stretch of Bonifacio High Street Park.
Agriroofs are located in the roof decks of Three Parkade, Bonifacio Technology Center, and Bonifacio High Street Park buildings; some of the crops grown are eggplants, pechay, tomato, sweet potato and herbs. This makes otherwise idle lands and blank spaces productive and food-producing while also helping to cancel out carbon emissions.
This movement is also spread across other properties. Horizon Homes, Shangri-La at the Fort, for example, also started their Mini Vegetable and Herb Garden together with Greenspace as their compost partner. Horizon Homes’ garden is located on the seventh floor and is maintained by their residents and employees, at the same time.
Then there’s the newly-launched BGC Urban Farm located by The Flats BGC which gives BGCitizens an opportunity to have their own piece of edible garden or volunteer to take care of the local farm.
Sacred areas
BGC says it has always been big on greenery. It has always promoted its outdoors lined up with Golden Ficus, Palawan Cherries and Fire Trees, to name a few.
All these are locally propagated in its gated nursery up the North district. There are also pocket nurseries in nooks in BGC’s carparks where the plants around Bonifacio High Street and open carparks are grown.
BGC also keeps a “sacred” area between Market Market and Serendra where all Philippine endemic species are grown. Called Meditation Hill, it has an artwork made by Joaquin Gasgonia Palencia at the center. The hill is surrounded by about 50 trees that are endemic to Philippine soil such as Narra, Calumpit, Malakmalak and Bagras.
As soil is a finite asset, BGC also makes use of its yard waste to propagate greens. Yard waste produced here are mulched to become composts which are used to fill up the estate’s tree wells and parks.
Greening back
The Bonifacio High Street Harvest is also done every quarter. Here, all the yield from its pocket herb gardens and agriroofs are given out to BGCitizens in exchange for PET bottles, which is then recycled by Project Bins.
BGC Urban Farm also offers pick and pay service, which allows guests and residents to harvest their weekly supply of pechay, arugula, lettuce, kangkong and mustasa for as low as P150 to 200 per bag.
With these initiatives, it hopes to inspire and engage the community and encourage people to embrace green, sustainable practices.
For more information, visit Bonfiacio Global City’s Facebook page.
