ADOPTING green growth as a strategy can make Filipino businesses competitive, especially during economically challenging times, according to speakers at yesterday’s Green Innovation for Competitiveness Forum.

Volker Steigerwald, GIZ project manager of the Promotion of Green Economic Development (ProGED), said it is time for Filipino enterprises to adopt good environmental practices for them to capture a good slice of the growing green economy.

Compared to past years, Steigerwald said enterprises are now more aware of what green practices can do to mitigate the effects of climate change in their business operations. He said past natural calamities served as an eye-opener on the importance of adopting good environmental practices.

Consequence

In the Philippines, he said the consequences of unsustainable practices can be felt everywhere, from deforestation to turning rice lands into housing areas, water shortages, landslides, soil degradation, floods, air pollution, waste problems and raising temperatures, especially after typhoon Yolanda.

Steigerwald said international and local companies have realized that developing sustainable business strategies, which include greening and “beyond greening” strategies, have become important to build long term competitiveness.

Greening strategies, he said, are attempts by companies to become more competitive through resource efficiency by improving existing service systems and processes as well as reducing emissions and the use of water, chemicals and other inputs. An example of this is a car that uses less fossil fuel.

Beyond greening strategies, on the other hand, are those where innovations enable companies to break with existing resource-intensive systems, technologies and business models, such as a car that uses a fuel cell powered by hydrogen.

Livelihood

Livelihood opportunities will also arise if the government will align policies on green economy.

“Changing from a carbon based, resource-intensive economy to a green economy will create business opportunities across the sectors,” he said.

Steigerwald cited the sugar industry of the Philippines as an example, citing the process of making sugar to making ethanol (biofuel) and producing electricity to using the remaining biomass for making biochemical products.

Other opportunities include green jobs that will be generated in the renewable energy sector, from producing and applying clean technology, to constructing energy-efficient buildings or climate change resilient infrastructure.

Steigerwald said the future competitive edge of a country will depend on how green and climate resilient the locality is.

Costs

“If energy prices are high and supply unreliable, nobody will invest. If air pollution is high, health costs sore and it makes the place unattractive so that the talented go elsewhere. If soils are worsening, food supply chains become unproductive and uncompetitive and if floods and landslides are a frequent, local business are interrupted and global supply chains will look elsewhere for alternative suppliers,” he said.

Steigerwald said he hoped many learned lessons after typhoon Yolanda and will pursue the strategy of developing a green economy or fostering green growth.

“We need to make sure that the investments going into the rebuilding of infrastructure and buildings are as green as possible,” he said.

To achieve a sustainable world, sectors should follow the two pillar strategy—innovation and resource efficiency. Kamesh Ganeson, director at Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (Assist) said greening the economy doesn’t necessarily require huge investments.

“Going green is about how we work with less,” he said. “It is about managing your current utilization. Investment to green practices depends in your critical points.”

A less expensive approach is behavioral intervention, which requires a change of behavior and mindset.

“The mere unplugging of electronic devices is already a big contribution to energy conservation. However, we are just too lazy to unplug,” said Ganeson.

Fixing leaky pipes, rainwater harvesting, waste segregation, carpooling, use of electronic jeepney and non-motorized mode of transportation like bicycle, tree and mangrove planting, and coastal clean-up are some of best practices that require less or no investment. Other strategies include switching off air-conditioning at least 30 minutes before leaving the office and use of fan for residual cooling and dual flushing system to save water and waste water.

“There are really a lot of simple ways to practice green business. We can even use the common sense intervention we practice in our home to our offices,” he said.

Recognizing the long-term benefits of going green, businesses in Cebu have increased their takeup on environment-friendly practices.

Leonard Desacutan of Taiyo Yuden said they implemented various programs in greening their operations such as putting in place rainwater catchment, observing power conservation and making energy conservation a shared responsibility among executives and employees.