As one of the partner-business membership organizations (BMOs) of the EU grant-funded SMART Cebu project, ADFIAP participated in a two-week, 17- person study mission from February 6-20, 2011 in the Netherlands and Germany to learn firsthand best practices and case studies on sustainable consumption and production (SCP) in these countries. SMART Cebu stands for SMEs for Environmental Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency in Cebu.

Altogether, the delegation visited 16 institutions and events covering topics such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), energy and resource efficiency, business matchmaking, eco design, sustainable lifestyles, fair banking, green finance and other SCP-related issues.

The purpose of the study mission was to learn from and network with European institutions as inputs to the ongoing 3-year SMART Cebu project under the European Commission’s SWITCH Asia programme. The project is being implemented by a consortium of European and Philippine organizations aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Cebu small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in three sectors, namely, furniture and furnishings, fashion accessories, and gift, toys and house wares and, overall, to contribute to a greener environment.

ADFIAP’s main role in the project is to advocate for sustainable consumption and production through the provision of potential lending programmes to these sectors in their pursuit of environmentally-responsible, economically-viable and socially-oriented processes and practices which are within the scope of work and advocacies of the Association. More details on the SMART Cebu project can be found at this site:http://www.smartcebuproject.com/