DENR pushes environmental compliance

In observance of Earth Day which falls on April 22, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) will launch a public disclosure program called Ecowatch which rates the environmental performance of industries in color codes of gold, silver, green, blue, red and black.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Jose L. Atienza, Jr. said the program is part of the department’s compliance monitoring system which aims to promote environmental compliance among industries and encourage them to improve their environmental performance through public disclosure.

“The initial implementation in 2004 of this program focused on water quality, and this year we are adding compliance ratings on air quality,” Atienza said.

Priority sectors identified for the national implementation of the program include sugar central and refinery, beverage, pulp and paper and cement plants.

Other sectors included meat and fish processing, soy sauce and condiments manufacturing, food processing and dressing plants, mall/commercial establishments, beer and soft drinks manufacturing.

Under the program, the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) evaluates industries by rating them gold or silver for environmental efforts that go beyond legal requirements.

Other ratings are green or blue for sufficient efforts to comply with DENR standards, Red stands for insufficient effort and black is for companies that make no effort to improve their compliance.

EMB Director Julian Amador said participating companies are also given administrative incentives. “This incentive will continue to be in force provided that the firm maintains its corresponding rating. If the firm fails to do so, such incentive will be automatically withdrawn,” he said.