A FEW weeks ago, our Climate & Sustainability (C&S) advisory team had the privilege of facilitating a training program we designed called the Pasig City 'Innovation for Circular Economy (ICE)' Hub training. The three-weeklong event was part of a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project to help local governments transition to a circular economy through a portfolio of solutions, including the phased design and operationalization of a unique ICE hub and obtaining buy-in for the hub from stakeholders and barangay within the city.

The UNDP selected Pasig as the project's pilot city because of its good working track record with the UN agency and the city leadership's commitment to sustainability and the circular economy. The LGU has explicitly made sustainability a key priority area in the city's development. It is not alone in this focus, which points to how much climate change has come to occupy not just the minds of city leaders but of urban citizens as well.