MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Harvesting edible greens and herbs right within the community is every urban resident’s dream. This is exactly what’s happening at Bonifacio Global City, which is taking the lead in transforming the community into an environment-friendly, sustainable enclave.
In keeping with its efforts to promote a sustainable lifestyle, BGC 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 so often emphasized.
Urban Farming across BGC
Foremost, 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, making them stand out with refreshing greenery. 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 helping cancel out carbon emissions at the same time.
This movement is also spread across other properties as Horizon Homes, Shangri-La at the Fort also started their Mini Vegetable and Herb Garden together with Greenspace as their compost partner. Horizon Homes’ garden is located on the 7th 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.
Cultivating as part of BGC’s DNA
As one of the greenest estates in Metro Manila, BGC’s greenery and the outdoors have always been part of its value proposition. Since the start, 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 BGC’s 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 as this is the artwork made by Joaquin. Gasgonia Palencia at the center. The hill is surrounded by about 50 trees that are endemic to Philippine soil – Narra, Calumpit, Malakmalak and Bagras, to name a few.
As soil is a finite asset, BGC also makes use of its yard waste to propagate greens. Yard waste produced around BGC are mulched to become composts which are used to fill up the estate’s tree wells and parks.
Greening and giving back to the community
In the days ahead, BGC is committed to develop more urban farms by transforming open and idle spaces into green, productive gardens whose fruits can be enjoyed by all.
Bonifacio High Street Harvest is done every quarter, in which 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’s recycling partner.
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 P150-200/bag.
With these initiatives, it hopes to inspire and engage the community and encourage people to embrace green, sustainable practices.
To stay updated on BGC’s sustainability efforts and to know how you can help, visit Bonfiacio Global City’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/bonifacioglobalcityph
