Makati City has started using environmentally-friendly paint to help reduce smog in the country’s financial capital.

Environment and sanitation chief Danny Villas commended the clean-air drive in partnership with paint maker BOYSEN^® and green advocates.

“Makati once again accepts the challenge of being the leader of an innovative and viable approach of promoting a clean and sustainable environment,” he said in a statement.

Company research showed that BOYSEN^® KNOxOUT™ can remove eight car’s worth of emissions per square meter of painted wall.

City administrator Marjorie de Veyra said a healthier surrounding was doable in the locality.

“Makati being a smog and air pollution-free city wouldn’t be a dream anymore as we clean the air one wall at a time,” she said.

Villas said the project dovetailed with the “Green Walls” initiative – a beautification effort to repaint walls along the busiest streets that has become a major movement to fight air pollution.

Organizers said the campaign was launched with a mural by artist Ronel Obemio of the Center for Art New Ventures and Sustainable Development, executed on walls along Lawton Ave. in Cembo, J.P. Rizal to Kayaan Gate One.

“Imagine the impact if we can paint every wall in Makati, it will be a small action yet with a big impact. Mother Nature needs our help today and with it we will be protecting the health of our constituents,” he said.

Joining Makati in the campaign are the Clean Air Initiative – for Asian cities, Partnership for Clean Air and the Philippine College of Chest Physicians.

The launch was also attended by Erlinda Creencia, secretary the of League of Local Environmental and Natural Resources Officers of the Philippines; Roland Young, president of the Makati Environment Foundation, Inc., Adel Licos of the Ayala Foundation Inc. and Clean Cities Makati Coalition; Engr. Carlo Claro, chief of DENR environmental services and Eric Cuisia of Pacific Paint BOYSEN^® Philippines, marketing division.
-Leo A. Estonilo, Courtesy of Manila Standard