The Earth may be a very big thing to love, but eco-advocates Bea Misa and Jukka Holopainen show us that it doesn’t take much to bring back a little nature into your life and your neighborhood, all you need is a pair of open eyes and a green mind.

Words by Bernice Bautista
Photographs by Charles Buenconsejo

Most people would agree that it’s a normal day when you get to wake up, dress up, start your car, head to the mall, and maybe buy some groceries. It’s all standard stuff for us regular folk, but the reality is there is something very, very wrong with many of our usual habits, like swinging some shopping bags, for instance.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to destroy everything you thought you knew about living the everyday life. Spend some time with environmental advocates Bea Misa and Jukka Holopainen and you just might see how different the world could be.

Bea and Jukka have been practicing what they preach their whole lives. For her part, Bea works with sustainable development as the secretary-general of the Youth for Sustainable Development Assembly (YSDA). “My interest is bringing people closer to the environment through their food, living environments, urban design, whatever,” she says.

Listing plants, food history, ethnobotany, and culture as hobbies makes Bea the real deal, right down to the little things that have become part of her daily life. “I make lots of things from scratch. I collect endangered or underutilized plants. I compost everything I can. I plant everything I can,” she says with a shrug, almost as if these are the most normal things to be doing. These seedlings also grow to become part of the goods that she sells (everything from homemade soap to baby trees) in Ritual, her eco grocery in the current hipster go-to, The Collective.

Eco-retailing is just one thing that Bea has in common with Jukka, who may also be described as the world’s biggest hemp fan. “I try to buy the change I seek, by [patronizing] Dr. Bronner's hemp soap in Healthy Options, Sanuk hemp shoes from R.O.X., hemp paper from Fuma, or Simple Shoes from Rustan’s,” says the man clad completely in organic fabrics, right down to his bamboo cloth underwear. “It’s really a very superficial way of helping the planet, but it still promotes great awareness,” he adds with a laugh.

Jukka’s advocacy for hemp as “the premiere plant for combating climate change”, and Bea’s habit for walking around parks and her neighbors’ gardens, collecting tree seedlings, dead leaves, and unwanted plants (weeds to regular folk) for her garden—which she happened to do during the Juice.PH shoot at UP Sunken Garden—may strike some as odd and thus irrelevant to normal people. But sometimes it takes a little eccentricity to see what’s wrong with the things we consider “normal”. Like an SM—whichever one out of the million you pick. “It’s a mass of scab,” exclaims Bea. “Concrete doesn’t absorb any water, and the cycling of nutrition and water is broken. It’s actually a dead zone, with the occasional tree.”

Such an opinion may seem too extreme for our mall-loving population, but in truth Bea’s a realistic girl. In fact, you can look at eco-living as just a more practical, simpler way of doing things—and in this the Philippines seems to have a head start. “Europe tends to be green but people are not connected to nature,” insists Bea. “I like Asia—it's still very chaotic, exploding with color and interactions with the natural world. Even though it is dirtier, I think it has more living wisdom about nature.”

Something as ordinary to us as buying salabat from the nearby palengke to soothe a sore throat, or even having clothes made at your favorite sastre, (which Bea likes to do because the money goes to “an actual person who uses their own energy to make it, rather than a snazzy marketing campaign or excessive transport of some big corporation”) is actually a sample of a natural, intuitive knowledge that is lost to the overly industrialized countries in the West. Rather than a regression to the Stone Age that green lifestyle is accused of, perhaps it’s just humanity coming full spiral—not full circle—as we redefine and elevate the quality of life we seek.

But, apparently, the Earth-loving stereotype is in fact quite typical these days. “I've been called a ‘tree hugger’, the ‘save the whales’ sort, quite disparagingly by my friends early on,” shares Bea. “But now that there's more awareness, they don't tease me. It's reached a point that being environmentally bad is politically incorrect and shameful. That’s funny and cool at the same time. I don't really care what people classify me as, but I would rather be called something ridiculous than some lame marketing bull like ‘green guru’ or ‘goddess’,” Bea quips, making a face.

If we get right down to it, the way of life these two have chosen should really feel natural to us. If we let go of all these modern-day wants and woes—just try it for a sec—and remember what it’s like to step outside, walk around, look around, and breathe the however-fresh air around you, we just might find ourselves with a renewed perspective closer to a vibrant shade of green.

Bea: I would highly suggest finding out what you can do locally. Revitalize a park? Get your neighbors together to discuss waste management? Get people to plant edible gardens? Try to encourage carsharing? Things like that. Take a walk in your barangay. Ask local teachers if they need volunteers. I'm not sure about eco-movements, but I know every square mile in the country (ESPECIALLY in Manila) needs more trees, less waste, less cars, more community interaction.

Jukka: You might want to volunteer for the UN, WWF, or some of the other organizations active in the Philippines like Haribon Foundation.  I would also say get involved in local diving or mountain treks of course.  Finding an alternative way to travel aside from a car is also quite good.

Other options to explore:
FASHION
•    Support local social enterprises like Rags 2 Riches, which helps the women of Payatas make stylish bags out of rugs with famed designers like Rajo Laurel and Amina Aranaz-Alunan. 
•    If you can stomach walking along the concrete floors of a mall, just do your part and bring your own reusable shopping bags – preferably NOT made of plastic
BIKE RIDES
•    Take your cue from the supporters of the Padyak Movement (Bicycle Project) at the University of the Philippines and commute without the guilt of pollution.
•    Watch out for organized bike rides in the city like annual Tour of the Fireflies, which gathers everyone for a leisurely session of cycling around Metro Manila.
ORGANIC MARKETS
•    Clean up your diet and save the earth a whole lot of food processing and synthetic packaging by going organic with your food.
•    Try checking out the Legazpi Sunday Market at Makati, where Bea also has a stall of organic products.
ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES
•    Check out an eco-trade fair and see the first Philippine International Eco Show at the SMX Convention Center as it happens on August 26-28 this year. You’ll surely find some cool eco-friendly wares while supporting green companies and environmental advocates.
•    Join the Clean Up The Philippines Movement Inc. for a nationwide volunteer clean-up drive called “Clean Up the Philippines Day” on September 18 this year!

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