Hydro Flask and Parkland forged a one-of-a-kind partnership with Malayan Colleges Mindanao (MCM) in Davao to reduce and re-purpose single-use plastics in the city. This partnership is emblazoned as the first retail company tie-up of MCM in the Philippines.
The partnership was sealed with the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signing last November 13,2019 with Engr. Dodjie S. Maestrecampo, Executive Vice President representing MCM, and Ms. Maria Estrella H. Sanchez, Cluster Sales Supervisor, representing Hydro Flask and Parkland.
The MOA signing was made more significant with the presence of Mr. Roland Jae Patalita, Cluster Sales Supervisor for Primer Group of Companies in SM Davao and Robinsons Tagum along with the the key academic heads of Malayan Colleges Mindanao academic staff, namely, Dr. Flora Mae C. Yparraguirre, Senior High School Principal; Engr. Rachel C. Villanueva, Dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture and OIC (Officer-in-Charge) of the College of Arts and Sciences; Ms. Rhodessa J. Cascaro, Dean of the College of Computer and Information Science; Ms. Liezel S. Lopez, Head of the Center for Guidance and Counseling and Director of the Office for Student Services; and Engr. Rolando V. Bitor, Assistant Vice President for Administration; and Ms. Astrid A. Cuezon, Head of the Corporate Communications Office, documentation team and student volunteers.
MCM has been spearheading a donation drive of single-use plastics (SUP) since 2018 with the aim to re-purpose them into durable chairs for their chosen public school. The production of the chairs is made possible by their equally noble partner, Winder. This is part of their #FindSolutions campaign wherein they take action on the pressing socio-economic and environmental issues. Single plastic wastes and insufficient chairs in public schools are the two problems they aim to address with this partnership.
Hydro Flask and Parkland come in as their partners to further encourage the Davao community to donate more SUPs. Everyone who will be donating SUPs will be given discount vouchers that can be used to purchase Hydro Flask and Parkland products in selected participating stores in Davao City and Metro Manila.
Engr. Maestrecampo expressed the institution's gratitude to Hydro Flask and Parkland brand team for collaborating with them in encouraging the community to use reusable bottles and re-purposing SUPs into high-quality bags, respectively.
As part of MCM's commitment to sustain the partnership, they are giving Hydro Flask and Parkland free use of the school facilities to promote their products and technologies because they want to influence their students to refrain from using SUPs and to prefer SUP by-products, says Corporate Communications Head Astrid Cuezon. There will also be contests among MCM students involving both brands.
Speaking in behalf of Parkland and Hydro Flask, Maria Estrella Sanchez reciprocated MCM's excitement on this collaboration because she believes that the alleviation of the poor environmental situation can be significantly done by molding the minds of students who will be future leaders. Sustainable change can be done with the collective effort of each student, their parents, and families refraining from using single-use plastics.
Contributed by Mae Sanchez, Cluster Operations Head, Abreeza SM Lanang