DISTINGUISHED International resource speakers spoke during the 4th Philippine Energy Efficiency Forum (PEEF) held last Tuesday at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, an event organized by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP).

The United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) senior energy adviser Angus Miller, who has been working with the British government since 2006, discussed energy efficiency and climate change among the more than 200 top corporate executives who attended the Manila leg of the forum.

Miller has been traveling extensively in the Asia Pacific region and actively providing energy efficiency inputs to the British government, embassies, national governments, investors, and industries worldwide.

International Finance Corporation OFQ regional manager for sustainable energy finance Miles Stump also presented and talked about the status of sustainable energy finance program in the Philippines.

Mr. Stump joined IFC in 2005 and has worked on enabling financial institutions create dedicated sustainable energy lending products.

The objective of the annual forum is to engage its participants in the collective actions that the Energy Smart program is initiating at 2 levels of interventions: Government and Private Buildings and Economic Zones and Industrial Supply Chains. The Energy Smart Program has taken the challenge of promoting energy efficiency from the enterprise level to the community level.

This collective action will engage the government and the private sector to develop a policy environment that recognizes the importance of energy efficiency as a key action to address climate change issues while achieving business competitiveness.

After the Manila run of the forum, the ECCP will head south to Cebu on the July 16 and for the first time in Davao on July 23 in a bid to promote energy efficiency among companies throughout the country.

The plenary sessions are scheduled in the morning and there are breakout sessions in the afternoon.

The breakout sessions are aimed at highlighting the potential power of one driver to initiate action in a collective way in order to achieve energy efficiency.

As in previous PEEFs, a trade exhibit on the latest technology and services available in the country will also be held side by side with the forum. Leading companies and solutions providers exhibit their products and services. Companies that exhibit have the opportunity to present technical sessions to those who visit the exhibition. These technical briefing sessions are open to all and participation is free of charge.

Among the sponsors this year are the Bank of the Philippine Islands, International Finance Corp., GES  Centron Energy Savings Tech Corp., Cofely Phils., Envirotec Monitors, EU­Switch Phils., Philips  Electronics, Schneider Electric Phils., Shell, Synerbyte Limited, Jardine Energy Control Co., Mannasoft Technology Corp., Meralco, Phil. Resources Journal, Global Business Power Corp., Integrated Computer  Systems, and Int'l Copper Assoc of Southeast Asia.

As the only sponsor from the financial segment, BPI Sustainable Energy Finance Unit will have two of its clients present their energy efficiency cases in the Cebu and Davao conferences. Sheridan Beach Resort and Spa will share its energy efficiency case for commercial buildings and Italpinas Eurasia Design and Eco­development Corp. will present for the real estate industry.

The Ayala­led bank also pioneered the use of solar technology to power selected branches to help curb energy costs and stabilize supply of electricity. The bank is looking at having 400 of its more than 800 branches nationwide equipped with solar­powered systems in two to three years.

Over the years, BPI has embarked on several green initiatives such as paperless drives to energy  conservation efforts, such as installing energy­saving LED lighting systems among others.

Source: Malaya; News; 15 July 2013