DENR, industries forge environmental partnerships

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun signed last Dec. 19 the Environmental Consent Agreements (ECONA) and Environmental Management Plans under the Philippine Environment Partnership Program (PEPP) with five industry sub-sectors at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Quezon City.

The PEPP is a DENR partnership program with industries and other environment-related agencies to support industry self-regulation towards improved environmental performance. It seeks to provide a package of incentives and reward mechanisms to industries to recognize genuine efforts and achievement of industries in effective voluntary self-regulation and improved environmental performance.

Signing with the secretary were key officials of the Cement Manufacturers’ Association of the Philippines, Semi-Conductor and Electronic Industries in the Philippines, Inc., Pulp and Paper Industry Association of the Philippines, Philippine Super Millers’ Association, and Center for Alcohol Research and Development Foundation. They expressed intention to achieve improved environmental management and performance within the context of Environmental Management System (EMS).

ECONA is an agreement between the DENR/Environmental Management Bureau and by an individual establishment on industry association under Track 2 of the PEPP, after the latter expresses intention to achieve improved environmental management and performance within the context of Environmental Management System (EMS). Specifically, they commit to the following:

• Prepare EMPs within the framework of EMS

• Commit to attain waste reduction targets and agree to means of verification

• Commit to provide environmental performance report to EMB

EMS is the part of the overall management system that includes organizational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources for developing, implementing, achieving, reviewing and maintaining the environmental policy.

Gozun said: "Under the PEPP, we have taken the new direction of giving more responsibility to industries towards self-regulation. We seek to catalyze to move industries to take on more responsibilities not only in promoting economic development, but also in reducing impact of their operations on the environment."

The signing ceremony brought to six ECONAs signed with the DENR in 2003 by six industry sub-sectors. The first one was on Dec. 10, 2003, where an ECONA was signed by the EMB/DENR with the CEBU Furniture Industry Foundation (as represented by its president Jay Yuvalles and executive director Ruby Salutan). For 2004, nine more ECONA are targetted to be signed with other industry sub-sectors.

The event was also a soft launch of an EMB Guidebook on Environmental Management System, Pollution Prevention/Cleaner Production, and Environmental Cost Accounting that has been recently off the Press. This 165-page guidebook gives step-by-step tips in Environmental Management System, Pollution Prevention/Cleaner Production and Environmental Cost Accounting, which are among the means to implement the ECONA. The guidebook writes about the "business of environment" and cites success stories, especially from small and medium enterprises, who started by thinking they were spending for extras just to comply with environmental regulations and then ended up counting the substantial savings they generated for themselves.