Greening project to benefit SMEs in Cebu, Bohol

Small and medium enterprises in Bohol and Cebu will benefit from another three year joint “greening” project of the the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of the Federal Government of Germany, through Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Department of Trade and industry Regional Operations and Development Group (DTIRODG).

The project which is called GIZ Promotion for Green Economic Development (ProGED) was officially launched last week with a forum highlighting good examples of environment-friendly practices in major tourism establishments in the two regions.

The project aims to focus more on the SMEs engaged in tourism-related businesses in Cebu and Bohol.

Project manager Volker Steigerwald said they believed that many stakeholders were already doing some “green” processes in their establishments and all they had to do would be to make more people aware that it could be done in their businesses as well.

green processes

Tourism establishments like Be Resort in Mactan, Marco Polo Plaza Hotel in Cebu City and Amarela Resort in Panglao, Bohol shared the “green” processes that they  adopted in their operations which included the use of solar energy in Amarela Resort, use of natural lighting and ventilation in Be Resort, and the energy conservation program implemented by Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.

According to Marco Polo Plaza Hotel executive housekeeper Cielo Reyes, the hotel was able to save at least 8,859.6 kilowatt hour per month through their LED lightings, 24,850 kilowatt hour per month from their cooling load saving initiatives and 4,620 kilowatt hour per month saved from their solar-power water heater system.

Steigerwald said that for the three year project, they had three target areas including advocacy and awareness creation, business matching for the enterprises to take examples from businesses similar to them and formulating a green framework or policies that would help support the SMEs and encourage them to adopt “green” practices.

He added that the GIZ ProGED project looks at green economic development (GED) as a driver for competitiveness, innovation, new markets and more jobs for the country which would impact and result to inclusive growth.

“The project will run for three years, from January 2013 to December 2015 and will be piloted in the tourism value chain of Bohol and Cebu. We aim to up scale and move outside the pilot areas on the second year,” said Steigerwald.

According to DTI regional director Asteria Caberte, the project will build on the gains and the useful experiences that they had in the SMEDSEP program.

LGUS

GIZ ProGED regional coordinator Mariam Bacalso, said that they would be seeking to work with each of the local government units (LGUs) in the area where SMEs would be operating for the successful implementation of the project.

“LGUs involved will need to be tapped so that they will know how to help the enterprises especially in the area of providing compatible policies,” said Bacalso.