Green-minded with a purpose

The color ‘green’ takes on a more relevant meaning when talks about the environment arise because ‘green’ is not simply a color anymore, it’s already a lifestyle.

Going ‘green’ is about using more eco-friendly products and being more conscious about our food choices. It’s about living a more sustainable lifestyle that calls out to the conscious consumers to be mindful with the things that they buy, use and put to waste.

At ECHOstore, this lifestyle is lived out, promoted and more –because it’s not simply a retail store for products that help nurture and sustain our environment, it’s a profit venture with social causes.

For the Environment

The “ECHO” in ECHOstore stands for Environment and Community Hope Organization. The very words that the store stands for actually explains the whole concept of the store because first and foremost, it offers environment-friendly products that use only organic materials and ingredients.

From health and wellness, body, beauty and nutritional products such as Body Basic and Ilog Maria Honeybee Farm’s lip balms, hand and body lotions, shower gels, shampoo and conditioner, home cleaning materials from Messy Bessy, to home décor, bags and fashion accessories made from recycled materials such as bangles, earrings, and rings, you’ll always find something interesting and useful at ECHOstore –presented to you with a flair.

Other than these, healthy and organic food and beverage choices are also served at the store’s ECHOcafe with dishes like Malunggay Pesto, Tofu Burger, and Arrabiatta-Sun Dried Tomato Pasta. The store also has ECHOdeli where you can choose from a variety of ingredients and other foodstuffs you can take with you to cook and eat at home such as hot chocolate tablea, malunggay dips and camote chips.

For the Community

As far as ECHOstore’s efforts go on nurturing and sustaining the environment and all the wonderful products we get to use and reuse, the same amount of effort or even greater goes with the support they give to the communities behind every product sold at the store. 

First priority is the marginalized and indigenous communities who make all the various products at the store. By supporting small entrepreneurs from these communities blessed with a creative streak, the products of these communities are refined to become fit for the specialty market level that ECHOstore strives to be.

The store supports and mentors communities and groups such as the women of Payatas, young adults from the Virlanie Foundation, village beneficiaries of Gawad Kalinga, and the like. It also advocates Filipino design quality, as the store collaborates with different artists and designers in creating better product designs that will only showcase the best of Filipino ingenuity.

The ECHOdesign Lab was created for these volunteers who like to get involved in the livelihood product development process by sharing their skills and talents in product design, visual identity, branding and packaging –giving the communities not only market access, but valuable tips on marketing their products as well.

Organized Hope

ECHOstore is a place where the words ‘eco-friendly’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘profitable’ can all be used in one sentence, where no justifications are needed for one or the other.

ECHOstore gives hope to the seemingly hopeless case of our country’s marginalized communities and our environment’s dilemmas, and organizes this hope and turns it into something worth making a living out of, and living for.

ECHOstore is already doing a lot of good for the environment, the communities it supports, and the consumers they lure in to making better lifestyle choices through their products. From how I see it, if more people get to advocate the same values, things can only get better for Mother Earth and for us Earthlings.

For more information on their products, seminars and volunteer programs, check out their website http://echostore.ph. 


http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideLifestyle.htm?f=2011/april/1/lifestyle3.isx&d=2011/april/1