DTI pushes “green movement”

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IRIGA CITY — Climate change has shifted most of the conventional norms practiced by businessmen to an ecologically-conscious response to the green value chain practice being pushed by the national government.

Aggressively responding to this call is the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Regional Office in close coordination with its Provincial Office here in Camarines Sur.

Under the stewardship of DTI Camarines Sur provincial director Edna Tejada, a series of green value chain seminar had already been conducted in Naga City with the food sector and now, in Iriga City with the tourism sector to enlighten business owners and entrepreneurs on how to integrate environment-friendly practices in their respective businesses.

“We are looking into this endeavor as a way of making our businesses more competitive without sacrificing Mother Nature. We are enjoining the production sector to push for an environment-smart practice in the implementation of their respective endeavors. We have gathered here all tourism stakeholders because we believe that they too know the importance of cleaner energy in the promotion of their business,” Tejada added.

Dubbed “Greening the Value Chain of the Tourism Sector through the promotion of Green Economic Development (PROGED), DTI has partnered with the International German Cooperation (GIZ) and gathered the tourism stakeholders at the Iriga Plaza Convention here for a two-day value-chain workshop starting June 23-24.

DTI Camarines Sur Public Information Officer Jay Ablan said that they have invited owners of restaurants and food chains, spa, resorts and souvenir items store, including other government agencies, students and representatives from the academe to update them that there are a hundred different ways to manage their business using measures that are not detrimental to the environment.

“We want to emphasize that green measures raises more our businesses’ competitiveness by doing simple acts of green measures like getting their raw materials within their community instead of hauling it from far places which increases emissions due to additional transportation. They can also use LED lights instead of the conventional bulbs to save energy.”

Ablan added that the green practice also raises the profitability of these businesses since they also save the energy by employing environment-friendly measures. The project, he said, aims to enhance the effectiveness of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through the adoption of climate-smart and environment-friendly strategies.

Iriga City Mayor Ronald Felix “GangGang” Alfelor said that the LGU has already endorsed the accreditation of various tourism establishments in their municipality in support of this endeavor. He also enjoins everyone to start using LED lights as part of their green practice. Engineer Solomon Ngo, Camarines Sur Chamber of Commerce and Industry President also graced the event. - PIA