Ambuklao power plant gets environmental nod

MANILA, Philippines - Ambuklao Hydroelectric Power Plant (HEPP), owned by SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP), has secured a favorable certification audit for Environmental Management System (EMS) conducted by TUV Rheinland last month, the company announced yesterday.

SNAP is a joint venture between SN of Norway and the Aboitiz Group.

An EMS certification indicates a company’s commitment to monitoring, managing and improving its environmental performance. It means that the company has identified significant environmental aspects of its operations and that it is taking steps to manage them through effective means, SNAP said.

“As part of SNAP’s target for world-class operations, we have been pursuing certification in various international standards. The successful audit of Ambuklao completes the certification of SNAP’s three power plants in workplace health and safety, quality, and environmental management, which began as early as 2009,” SNAP president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Rubio said.

Rubio said that SNAP’s environmental policy is committed to ensuring not just compliance with environmental legal requirements, but also adopting measures for conservation of resources, prevention of pollution, and minimizing environmental impacts towards sustainability.

For his part, SNAP-Benguet assistant vice president and plant manager Emmanuel Lopez said the certification shows the company’s strong commitment to work under world-class standards.

“SNAP is working on its next goal of single certification for its Benguet-based power plants and certification in Integrated Management System,” Lopez said.