These are what I bought on a recent shopping trip: a woven ?kikay kit? and a bangled evening bag for a balikbayan friend, six manuscript envelopes woven out of glossy magazine paper as giveaways for friends at a get-together I?m hosting over the weekend, a foldable shopping bag made from water-resistant canvas, bottles of malunggay pesto and bangus pate, whole-wheat piaya, and a silvery bayong made from recycled tetrapak containers.
The truly astounding thing about this shopping spree is that it took me just a few minutes to pick up the items, whereas before it would have taken me hours and even days scouring Metro Manila for the products, which are all made by NGOs, small enterprises, community groups and alternative trade establishments using recyclable, organic materials.
My retail therapy took place at the press launch Tuesday of EchoStore Sustainable Living, which shares space with Kape Isla of the Coffee Development Board at the ground floor of the Serendra Piazza (fronting Market! Market! Mall).
The store, whose name stands for ?Environment and Community Hope Organization,? provides shelf space for a wide range of products that, so the founders claim, are ?everything you need to start you on your way to living a sustainable lifestyle.? Not only are the items found at EchoStore made by impoverished communities or marginalized groups, small-scale entrepreneurs and foundations, they also represent what the women behind the store proclaim as their ?ideals of health and personal development.? The products demonstrate the ideal of sustainable development, using recyclable, earth-friendly and organic materials, while upholding the principles of ?fair trade,? with suppliers vetted for fair employment practices, environmentally safe materials and production processes, and ethical behavior. The store takes a 30 percent share of every purchase, though they are willing to connect wholesale buyers directly with suppliers.
In short, it?s a one-stop shop for bleeding hearts with green aspirations, as well as for all those ever in the search for unique Philippine-made goods of high quality.
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ECHOSTORE is the brainchild of three women who each bring to their collaboration daring, imagination, hard-nosed business sense and a desire ?to save the world from cavities,? they joke.
The three are: Jeannie Javelosa, writer-artist-curator who also practices and teaches yoga and meditation; Reena Francisco, whose business experience includes setting up the Figaro coffee shop chain and working with organic farming communities; and Chit Juan, an entrepreneur and partner of Reena in Figaro, as well as an NGO and business leader and advocate of local coffee strains.
?Reena and I have been friends and classmates since the fifth grade, while Reena and Chit were sorority sisters in college,? explains Jeannie. ?We usually meet for dinner about twice a month and, during one recent dinner, we started talking about what we wanted to do to help our country while sharing our particular strengths.? Choosing to combine Jeannie?s and Chit?s marketing expertise and networking capabilities, as well as Reena?s management and business acumen, the three women came up with EchoStore.
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REENA says the hardest part of setting up EchoStore was finding the suppliers and making sure they all met the criteria they had set. ?We traveled all over the country talking to the managers and workers, and even helping them with design, production, packaging and even labeling,? recalls Reena. Their main input though, she remembers, was telling the groups ?what the market wants.?
?Almost everyone wants to make candles,? remarks Chit, ?but the market can bear only so many candles. There are other products out there that people need and want to buy, or are attracted to.?
Judging from the range of products offered and the suppliers who have partnered with EchoStore, it seems that the ?market? for such specialized products is limitless indeed.
Among the initial partners are Rags 2 Riches Foundation, a social business enterprise that works with women in Payatas to manufacture bags and mats made from rags, with the slightly up-market appeal of having been designed by Rajo Laurel. The Association of Negros Producers is also represented in the store, hoping to establish a permanent niche in the Manila market aside from its much-anticipated annual expo. Filipinas Fair Trade Ventures, which advocates fair trade practices for ?excluded and disadvantaged producers,? while Gifts and Graces Fair Trade Foundation, which works with communities mainly through product development and market access, is also a partner. The Philippine Business for Social Progress is represented through products, ranging from organic cleaning products to body care items. The woven envelopes, beaded bags, and other crafts are provided by the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW), which not only provides the prisoners an outlet for their energies but also a means of income for their own needs. The store also provides products made by Gawad Kalinga communities, Alter Trade products, and it will soon be partnering with the Peace and Equity Foundation, Mano-Mano and the One Town-One Product program of the Department of Trade and Industry.
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BESIDES partnering with NGO and communities, EchoStore also features products made by small enterprises that believe in sustainable trade, most of them managed by young women. Among the more notable partners are Indigo Baby, body care products for infants manufactured by women who met through breast-feeding bonding sessions; Messy Bessy, a line of safe, natural cleaning solutions; and Holystic Haven, a line of body-care products that are guaranteed cancer- and toxin-free.
