Wednesday, September 03, 2008 Permaculture and Joel Lee By Joanna Mae T. Eborda
“TO have made a difference makes life’s sojourn all worthwhile,” says Jose Maria Eliseo “Joel” Cornejo Lee, of the Cebu Permaculture Initiatives (CPI).
Permaculture is a design system that works with nature and considers building blocks in nature as proven designs that could solve many of the problems societies face on a daily basis, according to cabiokid.org.
Joel Lee’s eco renovation of their family owned hotels, the MayFlower Inn, West Gorordo Hotel and Elicon Pension House, as well as the Kamagayan Green Zone/KGZ, are among CPI’s developing projects. KGZ is an urban farm situated in Cebu’s redlight distict.
“We will efficiently use our natural resources in order to save energy in our soon-to-be-successfully renovated hotels,” says Lee. His team is working on the hotels natural ventilation and natural evaporative cooling through mists, natural lighting from the sun, and passive solar heating by using plants in its roof.
Lee has also implemented an environmental-friendly policy at Elicon pension house. Sachets of coffee, shampoo, sugar and creamer; plastic trash bags, tissue papers, plastic cups, disposable spoon and forks, Styrofoam containers, sando bags, drinking straws, and other single-use products are no longer sold in the hotel.
Elicon Hotel provides and sells products that can be used more than once, like table napkins instead of tissue papers.
KGZ, on the other hand, which used to be a parking lot and stockpile area of the Lee family, is an urban permaculture project. The lizard-shaped garden, has organically grown vegetables, herbs and spices, corn, fruit-bearing trees and plants, and tilapia.
Having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Education, with majors in Electro Mechanics, from Don Bosco College in Canlubang Laguna, Lee is determined to pursue CPI to teach people how to efficiently use natural resources and to live, grow and develop a relationship with nature.
“Self-reliance in food and energy will become more and more important as the price and fuel continues to escalate.”
Lee explains that, with permaculture, people can relearn how to team up with nature and support her processes and systems, so that nature in its turn can support people’s life.
“Rather than just exploit nature, we have to learn how to respect and nurture the earth. Doing otherwise is just moving closer to self-annihilation.”
