Thursday, November 01, 2007 Telco joins program vs. global warming
SMART Communications Inc. has joined the Philippine Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reporting Program (Philgarp) in its bid to be more environment-friendly.
Smart is among 19 member-companies of the Philippine Business for the Environment (PBE) that joined Philgarp. Smart officials took part in a recent workshop conducted by Philgarp on greenhouse gas management.
Philgarp is a voluntary program for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting. Those who participate in the program get assistance on how to come up with their company’s GHG inventory as well as training on GHG management using protocol standards and tools.
Jessie Sarmiento, head of Smart network logistics operations-administration and materials management division, identified activities that require electric power and the operation of company vehicles as main sources of GHG.
“It makes business sense to know where you are in terms of your GHG emissions, especially for companies that claim they are environmentally friendly or those moving in that direction,” said Angela Consuelo Ibay, program manager at the Klima Climate Change Center of the Manila Observatory (Klima–MO), the designated secretariat of the program.
In-house measures
Mila Antofina, project manager of Philgarp-PBE, said that the GHG report can “help companies, like Smart, address climate change and global warming.”
Smart is initiating pro-environment in-house measures like the installation of fuel catalysts in generator sets supplying power to some 600 cell sites in remote locations nationwide. With the fuel treatment units, diesel consumption per generator set is reduced by 18 percent to 20 percent, with a corresponding decrease in carbon emission.
Sarmiento said that other measures include, strict vehicle maintenance servicing at every 5,000-kilometer interval run, scheduled replacement of forklifts from gas to electric and the prioritization of the use of E-10 (ethanol fuel) on fleet vehicles where the fuel is available. The use of LPG gadgets is also currently under study, he added.
Smart is also promoting simple but high-impact energy-efficiency measures like reducing the operating time of air-conditioning units, using electronic ballasts, turning off the coffee machine after office hours, asking employees to hibernate PCs during lunch, converting fluorescent lights, using LED lights, retiring inefficient air-con and other equipment and separating switches for cost-efficient lighting. (PR)
