“I grew up surrounded by sugarcane,” Roxas says during the inauguration. “I thought we should be using sugarcane for other purposes.” Finding new uses for bagasse would not only reduce trash but could also create jobs, particularly for women who only did unpaid house work.
Roxas herself designs the woven products, like bags and placemats that are now carried by the high-end Rustans Department Store, among others. Werner Wallner, chief executive officer of the Hilti Foundation, which founded and funds Base Bahay, stresses the organization’s commitment to invest in building technology “that’s safe, durable and sustainable.”The bamboo frames are fortified by Holcim’s ECOPlanet cement, which has 30 percent less carbon footprint compared with ordinary cement.
Base Bahay has also used its cement bamboo frame technology to build a children’s village and low-cost houses for 4P , a charitable organization founded by Ingar Akerlund, about a kilometer or so from the weaving center.