Palawan Council for
Sustainable Development

Zero Carbon Resorts, spin-off in Palawan!

(Report from: Alex Marcaida )

In Palawan, the tourism industry is growing fast, bringing employment opportunities to the region and strengthening the economy of the country. Tourism has, however, a high demand for energy and is responsible for a large amount of CO2 emissions. By reducing energy consumption and by using locally available, CO2 neutral resources, the carbon footprint of the tourism industry can be significantly reduced. But the upswing of the industry must deal with the challenges of climate change, and should continuously “go green”, and this project will be a timely turn-on. .

The Austrian Center for Appropriate Technology (GrAT), together with Philippine Green Building Council, Palawan Council for Sustainable Development(PCSD), Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation, and Spanish PSA CIEMAT, has kicked off the international project “Zero Carbon Resorts” in the Philippines with the financial assistance of the European Union under the SWITCH Asia network. This project aims at enabling companies in the tourism industry of Palawan and other parts of the Philippines to “go green” and stand out as the most climate-friendly companies in the area.

The project develops and implements sustainable energy- and building-related solutions along the three steps: Reduce-Replace-Redesign. In the Reduce phase, incremental energy conservation measures will be applied, while new green technologies replace inefficient fossil-based devices in the Replace phase. In the Redesign stage, a showcase “Zero Carbon Cottage”, which operates by a solar-based energy generation system, will be presented. As a spin-off of the step-wise development, local production of renewable materials and energy will be promoted, and the capacities and knowledge of engineers, building and facility managers, and hotel/resort staff members will be improved.

For the implementation of the first two phases, 20 hotels and resorts will be selected to constitute the “Frontier Group”. These companies will become role models for other companies in Palawan and in the other parts of the nation. The Frontier Group members will be systematically guided by international and local experts to monitor how much energy they consume, to find solutions to reduce energy costs and to convert their current fossil-based energy generation method into clean renewable energy-based systems.

For more details on Frontier Group Application, proponents and interested parties are advised to contact PCSDS at Tel. No. 434-4234 to 35.