President Cezar dela Cruz, Directors
and officers of the Philippines Institute of Chemical Engineers, guests, ladies
and gentlemen…
Thank you very much for inviting me
to the 71st PIChE national convention.Your theme - " Professionals in Challenging times… Emerging
Opportunities" is most relevant.
Everyday, we read or hear about new
discoveries in science.But as
industries advance with the aid of technology, so do people's awareness of the
adverse impact of factories to our ecosystem.
Today, chemical engineers face twin
challenges: developing new products and processes while at the same time
mitigating our footprint on the environment.
With climate change and pollution at
crisis levels, some might think that the task is too big to be solved.However, for us with Chinese roots, it is
instructive to note that the symbols for crisis are represented by characters
read as "we ji" - "wei" which means "danger
or peril", and "ji" which means
"opportunity".Taken
literally, "we ji" means "crisis plus opportunity".
But don't be misled."Wei ji" or crisis is still a
dangerous state of affairs, despite its literal translation.However, a perilous situation can be an
opportunity if "wei ji" becomes "zhuan
ji" which means "turn for the better".
Chinese or not, it is important to
know that it is within our power to turn things for the better.We just need to take the initiative and act
decisively.
Having said this, I wish to share
wit you some of the initiatives of Lucio Tan Group.I am proud to say that we make positive use
of technology not only for profit but for preserving the environment as well.
As you know, Asia Brewery and
Tanduay are two major companies that make good use of biochemistry.Many chemical processes are involved in
manufacturing, but we also employ expertise in chemical engineering to ensue
that factory effluents do not harm the environment.
Asia Brewery was the first
Philippine company to install and use the anaerobic water treatment
system.It uses bacteria to break down
organic waste to improve our waste water BOD or biological oxygen demand.The result is clean water released to the waterways
at the foot of Mt. Makiling.Because of
this, Asia Brewery has received numerous awards and recognition.
Absolute Distillers, a Tanduay
subsidiary, is also in the forefront of efforts to help protect the
environment.In partnership with Japan's
Mitsubishi Corporation, Absolute designed and built the country's first and
biggest Clean Development Mechanism project.This project captures methane gas emissions from our plant in Batangas
for use as fuel to run our boilers and generators.By capturing methane - a pollutive greenhouse
gas that contribute to global warming - we are not only saving precious
resources, we are also helping mitigate climate change.
These are only two of the prominent
initiatives of the Lucio Tan Group that utilizes science to solve manufacturing
and environment concerns.
It is not difficult.We just have to decide and choose to practice
"zhuan ji" because in so doing, we are actually turning
challenges onto opportunities.All we
have to do is believe that we can turn things for the better.
