Where else to start looking for green activites in the country than the DENR? One wouldn't have thought that so much is going on, but a look at the website shows that this is not the case.
A Green Philippines program had been launched in 2006 in all Regions, including highway greening. According to the website, this is one of the biggest and most ambitious projects undertaken to date, spannning all regions...
Funny, except for Region 4, or the National Capital Region, doesn't seem to be included in the Green Highway Program... I wonder why.... Although I did notice a lot of green activity going on (i.e. plants appearing around skyways and street islands) last year...
The site is quite informative, citing programs and projects that are underway. For more information, visit the site by clicking here.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Greenphils
Just discovered a blog called Greenphils which has been around for a couple of years, completely bypassing my radar! And doing a good job of firsthand reporting on green happenings, products, lifestyle, policies, etc etc in the Philippines, with categories ranging from air to garbage to solid waste to tips on green living.
It's one of Tanikalang Ginto's Best Cyber Pinoys of July 2008, and is still currently being maintained and updated. Definitely one to track!
Check it out here.
It's one of Tanikalang Ginto's Best Cyber Pinoys of July 2008, and is still currently being maintained and updated. Definitely one to track!
Check it out here.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Rolex awards green projects
From the 2008 Rolex Awards for Enterprise awardees and laureates, 2 out of ten were given to people who have developed green projects for the Philippines.An associate laureate was awarded to a Filipino scientist, engineer and chairman of the Agricultural Engineering Department of the Central Philippine University. Engineer Alexis Belono, a 1997 Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Awardee for Agricultural Engineering, has developed a stove that uses a waste product - rice husks - as fuel. Sometimes the most mundane things can become the biggest opportunities to go green... and to win financial support to boot! Click here for a full project description. (He told me that he will receive his award in Manila tomorrow! Congratulations once again!)
A laureate was also given to Tim Bauer of Envirofit, an American group that has developed a direct injection retrofit system for tricycles, making them clean and efficient (who would have thought that this is possible?). This is great news for residents of Vigan and Puerto Princessa. Wonder if implementation in Manila is in the works too? (anyone who has been there is familiar with the pollution caused by the public transportation system!)
Needless to say, this is very inspiring, and great news for the country.
To read an Inquirer article about this, click here.
Go Green!
OK, so Cebu is not Manila, but I just stumbled across Go Green Philippines and had to feature it. Go Green Philippines is a long-term partnership project between the FAME Foundation and DENR Region VII aimed at replenishing a 100-hectare barren property with lush tree plantations by 2015, in alignment with DENR reforestation targets. Wild mamalis (pangantoan) trees are the specie of choice due to their workability for dyeing and shaping, used extensively for fashion accessories.
A commendable contribution, in my opinion! (the site is just a tad noisy, you'll see what I mean...)
Visit the site for more details, or contact:
| Go Green Philippines Secretariat Cebu FAME Foundation Costume Jewelry Center, Sudlon Lahug, Cebu City, Philippines Telephone Nos:     +6332 2550851 , 2550861Facsimile: +6332 2550832 FAX:  +1 800 889 9898E-mail: contactus@gogreenphilippines.com info@cebufame.com.ph |
Philippine Green Building Council
So we're finally on the bandwagon! The country now has a Green Building Council, which is supposed to be the "largest green building campaign in the country." According to the site description, it is:
Visit the website PGBC
a national not-for-profit organization that promotes the sharing of knowledge on green practices to property industry to ensure a sustainable environment. The Council is an alliance of building and construction industry leaders from both the public and private sectors that shall be the non-partisan venue to develop a nationally accepted and recognized green building rating standard. Relevant issues that may affect how a building’s sustainable credentials are to be measured shall be discussed in this forum. The Council shall act as a referee in determining the correctness of the claims of project proponents by developing a national green building rating system. It shall be a consensus driven; third party certification, monitoring and verification system that will enable all property market players to benchmark to a single system, thus leveling the playing field. Businesses will use this mark as a recognizable branding tool that will enable property buyers easily identify buildings that are performing environmentally well.
Visit the website PGBC
Never mind doughnuts, Manila police fueled by Mickey Ds
In response to high fuel prices, Filipino police in Manila's Makati financial district are looking toward an unlikely new fuel source: McDonald's.
No, Mickey Ds hasn't gotten out of the burger-slinging business and replaced the fryers with gas pumps, but fryers do play a part in all this. The police have converted one Makati patrol car to run on a blend of 60% waste cooking oil and 40% diesel. The cooking oil currently comes from McDonald's locations in the district, and according to AFP, other restaurants might also get in on the act.
Waste vegetable oil conversions aren't all that uncommon, and a number of diesel-powered vehicles can undergo the switch to the biofuel. It's just that you don't often hear about it being done to police cars, which makes this story a bit more interesting.
Local authorities plan to keep tabs on how things go with this pilot car. If things look good, more could follow. Who knows, if the results are favorable enough maybe they'll eventually convert 'em all.More electronic companies going green, says Greenpeace Samsung and Toshiba at the top of Greenpeace list.
MANILA (04/09/2008) - While more IT companies are now taking significant steps toward going green, there is still a lot of work to do to protect the environment, says Greenpeace International, an environmental activist group.
During the release of the 7th edition of Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Toxics campaigner, Beau Baconguis, said that many companies are already at the 7/10 mark (with 10 as the highest 'green' score)--an indication that companies have already started moving toward green IT.
Asian electronics companies, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba, shared the top spot in the latest edition with a score of 7.7 out of 10. Samsung's consistency in its practices and policies kept the company score stable, while Toshiba climbed from the sixth spot through its improved score in Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR), which is the criterion on how each company takes care of the e-waste from its own discarded products.
The two companies surpassed mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, who should have been on top with a score of 8.3 but was penalized because of shortcomings and inconsistencies in its take-back or collection. Baconguis said that, although Greenpeace has been seeing improvements in the take-back system of Nokia in the Philippines and Thailand, they could not lift the penalty, yet, because collection practices in India and Russia remain lacking.
The guide has also noted improvements in phone manufacturer Motorola's take-back and recycling operations in the Philippines, Thailand, and India, moving the company up from 14th to 12th position. Meanwhile, gaming company, Nintendo, with its score of 0.3 has not moved from last place since the previous Greenpeace survey released three months ago.
From ITBusiness 10/1/2008 4:02:00 PM By: Jenalyn Rubio
During the release of the 7th edition of Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Toxics campaigner, Beau Baconguis, said that many companies are already at the 7/10 mark (with 10 as the highest 'green' score)--an indication that companies have already started moving toward green IT.
Asian electronics companies, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba, shared the top spot in the latest edition with a score of 7.7 out of 10. Samsung's consistency in its practices and policies kept the company score stable, while Toshiba climbed from the sixth spot through its improved score in Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR), which is the criterion on how each company takes care of the e-waste from its own discarded products.
The two companies surpassed mobile phone manufacturer, Nokia, who should have been on top with a score of 8.3 but was penalized because of shortcomings and inconsistencies in its take-back or collection. Baconguis said that, although Greenpeace has been seeing improvements in the take-back system of Nokia in the Philippines and Thailand, they could not lift the penalty, yet, because collection practices in India and Russia remain lacking.
The guide has also noted improvements in phone manufacturer Motorola's take-back and recycling operations in the Philippines, Thailand, and India, moving the company up from 14th to 12th position. Meanwhile, gaming company, Nintendo, with its score of 0.3 has not moved from last place since the previous Greenpeace survey released three months ago.
From ITBusiness 10/1/2008 4:02:00 PM By: Jenalyn Rubio
Philippines’ jeepney gets a ‘green’ makeover
By Dario Agnote
The gaily painted jeepney, one of the most recognizable icons of Filipino pop culture and the Philippines’ main means of transport, is getting a makeover. Efforts are under way to not just jazz up the image of the diesel-fueled jeep, but also to make it more eco-friendly and adapted to the changing times.
Environmental activists and government officials have teamed up with local jeep assembly firm MD Juan Enterprises Inc. to produce nonpolluting electric-powered jeepneys — cleaner, safer alternatives to fossil fuel-based transport.
Powered by rechargeable batteries, the E-jeepney hopes to revolutionize the jeepney that has ruled the Philippine streets since the 1950s. And the facelift is timely given the spiraling diesel and gasoline prices.
In July, three freshly designed E-jeepney units — the first public transport of its kind in Southeast Asia — were rolled out to the press and three more E-jeepneys are currently on the assembly line.
Yvonne Castro of Green Renewable Independent Power Producer, or GRIPP, said their group plans to produce 10 more E-jeepneys over the next three months.
And the project is a breath of fresh air for urban dwellers.
Equipped with a 5-horsepower electric motor, the sleek, brightly-colored and environmental friendly E-jeepney can seat 14 people, including the driver, and it can run 80 kilometers on a full charge.
Dubbed ‘’King of the Road,'’ the elongated, flatbed passenger carrying jeepneys, modeled on U.S. army jeep left behind by the Americans after World War II, remain the main transport for millions of Filipinos.
But because of their sheer number, the smoke-belching jeepneys that ply Manila’s traffic-choked streets are blamed for clogging the streets, compounding the dismal traffic problem and dirtying the city’s air. The jeepneys also get the blame for increasing road accidents, due in part to their wild drivers’ notoriously reckless ways on Manila’s streets.
Indeed, the ubiquitous jeepneys never fade away; they survive despite the rising popularity of Japanese-made air-conditioned Toyota Tamaraw FX and Mitsubishi ‘’mega-taxis'’ on the streets. An estimated 220,000 to 230,000 jeepneys ply the streets of Metro Manila and other provinces on any given day.
Today, a number of 25-seat air-conditioned jeepneys service selected routes in the metropolis, including the country’s Makati financial district. But the jeepney has remained a symbol for the poor.
Vicente Belisario, sales manager of MD Juan Enterprises, said tourists must be able to experience the jeep when they visit the Philippines.
Aside from E-jeepney, the company is also developing a six-wheel air-conditioned jeep that hotels can use to shuttle tourists to and from the airport. Belisario said the company wants to come up with several variants of jeepneys, hoping for the support of the government.
MD Juan Enterprises is the world’s sole maker and supplier of restoration parts of WWII jeeps, the disposable vehicle that U.S. Gen. Douglas McArthur used during the war. The company has been exporting replicas of WWII jeep parts and accessories to vintage jeep enthusiasts in Europe, Australia, North and South America.
From Kyodo Podcast News October 10, 2008 @ 21:02
Reuters: Manila unit of Global Green eyes $200-mln biomass projects
MANILA, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The Philippine unit of British firm Global Green Power Plc wants to invest $200 million in five biomass projects with combined capacity of 87.5 megawatts as the country pursues more alternative energy sources, company officials said.
The investment would be part of a total $1 billion in renewable energy ventures the company plans to pursue in the Philippines over the long-term, Global Green Power chief executive David de Montaigne told reporters over the weekend.
The company is currently in talks with banks, including state lender Land Bank of the Philippines, to finance the first phase of its venture involving the construction of five 17.5 MW biomass power plants in Panay and Samar provinces south of the capital and in Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan in the north.
Global Green Power expects to sign a 25-year power sales agreement with local electric cooperatives for the supply of 35 MW in Panay soon. The signing of the deal will fast track the construction of two power facilities on Panay island, which could take 18 to 24 months to be completed.
"We would like to start construction of the Panay biomass plants by February 2009," De Montaigne said.
The company is also studying other renewable energy projects in the Philippines involving wind, geothermal, hydro, biogas, and solar power over the long-term.
Global Power tapped the services of a unit of France's AREVA SA (CEPFi.PA) to construct the Philippine facilities according to European standards, with the project expected to generate significant carbon credits, Simon MacKinnon, company chairman said.
The Philippines is one of the East Asian countries aiming to generate 20 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2015 and cut its dependence on costly imported fuel.
The country, the world's second-largest producer of geothermal energy, imports nearly all of its crude oil needs.
(Reporting by Rosemarie Francisco; editing by Elaine Hardcastle) ((rosemarie.francisco@thomsonreuters.com; +63 2 841-8937; Reuters Messaging: rosemarie.francisco.reuters.com@reuters.net))
Posted Sun Nov 16, 2008 5:48am EST
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