The Philippines Green Buildings Program: Developing a Market Niche for Energy Efficiency

Noel Verdote, Terry Oliver, Peter du Pont, Lando Velasco, and Chainuwat Prijyanonda, International Institute for Energy Conservation, Asia Regional Office

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Abstract

The Philippines Green Buildings/Resorts Program is a completely voluntary program that relies upon the interest and commitment of building owners and managers, design engineers, non-governmental agencies, government agencies and utilities. The International Institute for Energy Conservation (IJEC) acts as program coordinator, organizing regular stakeholder meetings; providing audits of selected facilities; collecting and analyzing data from partner facilities; organizing training courses and workshops; conducting media campaigns to promote the program; and publicizing the results ofthe actions taken. The goal of the program is to convince building owners to invest in sustainable energy technologies in order to save money, save energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. After a pilot phase, IIEC adopted a “top-down” approach where program marketing is done through the owner and top management who then ensure “buy-in” ofthe project within the firm. We established Earth Day on 22 April 2000 as a target date for corporate commitments. The target date was used as a way of motivating companies to make specific commitments by a set date. We did not establish strict criteria for investment levels or return on investment, but rather left it to the companies to decide which investments would meet their internal criteria. By Earth Day 2000, 15 companies has agreed to become “Partners” in the Green Buildings/Resorts Program, and six had made pledges for specific investments in energy-efficiency upgrades in their facilities. The development of this program was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development with the goal of stimulating technology transfer and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.