Xavier School hosted its annual environmental fair titled “ReXSpect Nature”, Nov. 29. This was also the first onsite environmental fair since the start of the pandemic. The Xavier School Environmental committee invited many exhibitors to promote environmental sustainability and caring for our common home. The onsite Environmental fair guests were: All natural Philippines, Art Sea, Back to Basics Ecostore, Ecoenzyme, Ecoshift, Mau Art, Precious Plastics Philippines, Roots Collective, Siklo Pilipinas, SN Aboitiz Power, The Bamboo Company, The Firefly Brigade, Tzu Chi Philippines, Unioil, Wild Bird Club of the Philippines and Xavier School’s Green Team Committee.
Xavier’s Green Team member Kyle Su greeted the fairgoers. The Green Team is Xavier School’s Environmental Committee headed by overall head
Marc Villegas (G11) and Administrative Officer Garrick Uygongco (G10). The Green Team set up their own booth at the Environmental Fair. Uygongco spread the committee’s passion for protecting the earth by introducing Xaverians to their dedication to nurturing the environment, as well as introducing the committee’s current and future projects.
Apart from student leaders, Biology teacher Ms. Mau Vardeleon, on behalf of MauArt, hosted her own booth promoting sustainability and biodiversity through art. The booth boasted of MauArt’s paintings and gave away free stickers. Fairgoers could write pledges to protect the environment to be displayed on the booth wall alongside the paintings.
Booths from guest companies and organizations also filled the venue. ArtSea in particular, befitting the play on words, depicts their agenda: creating art by protecting the sea. ArtSea uses plastic waste from seas and oceans to produce small turtle wax figures. These miniatures are attached to pencil butts to produce their main product: turtle-end pencils. ArtSea brings life to everyday items to unearth the fruits of protecting the environment and cleaning up waste.
ArtSea’s booth representative has expressed the company’s disappointment in the sheer amount of plastic and toxic waste present in oceans and waves. They urged the Xavier community to be mindful of plastic use and disposal.
Back to Basics (BTB), another guest stall, sold an abundantly wide variety of eco-friendly products. These included refillables and organic soaps to different upcycled products. Standing by the hashtag, #zerowastemadeeasy, BTB promotes the refill of essentials to lessen waste and carries out the mission of reusing and refilling. They also expressed their gratitude toward the Xavier Community for inviting them to the fair. They added, “the kids are quickly learning new things to support the advocacy.”
Roots Collective is another booth focusing on day-to-day reusable and sustainable items, featuring upcycled wallets and Bamboo utensils among other recycled and upcycled products. The company strives towards sustainability while promoting social entrepreneurship and supporting local businesses.
Finally, the Firefly Brigade booth drew students in with their displayed bicycles and biking equipment. Firefly Brigade teaches customers, and sometimes other companies, how to bike, typically through bicycle clinics. They advocate for clean air and stable communities through the use of bicycles. Firefly Brigade envisions a world with clean air filled to the brim with bicycles. They hope that the Xavier community can pioneer the shift from cars to bicycles to reintroduce clear air into Metro Manila.
ReXSpect Nature saw a triumphant return this year and can be boasted as one of the school’s hidden gems. Throughout the years, Xavier School has aimed to be one of the frontrunners for protecting the environment through activities and groups like the Green Team, garbage segregation rules, and more. The school also switched to hydroelectric energy consumption in August 2022. ReXSpect Nature 2022 is yet another major step in environmental sustainability and it can be expected to see much more from Xavier School in the near future.
Article by Skye Tan (11G)
Photos from Mr. Dominic Sales
