Sustainability think tank shares insights on how to make berde a part of effective policy

The Building Green – the Government Forum ends today with Sustainability think tank Ecotektonika, Inc. sharing insight on how to make BERDE a tool to develop public policy.

Ecotektonika, Inc. President, and former Chairman of the Advocacy Committee of the USGBCMaryland Nestor Arabejo outlined the environmental legislation passed in the Philippines in the past decade, highlighting that no legislation was enacted that specifically addressed the built environment.

“Currently there are hundreds of existing national environmental regulations in place, a lot of

Presidential Directives issued, ongoing legislative actions in the Senate and Congress and City and NGO initiatives, directly and indirectly dealing with green buildings.” Mr. Arabejo said. “There needs to be a holistic framework that addresses all of these. BERDE addresses and encourages uptake from both public and private stakeholders which makes BERDE an ideal policy development tool for government,” he added.

BERDE is developed to be part of industry’s strategy to help address the negative impacts of Climate Change. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, the building sector is the largest emitter of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) and has the largest potential to reduce GHG emissions.

The Government Forum brought together the green building champions from government, industry and the academe to discuss issues and challenges in making BERDE an effective green building policy development tool.

The Philippine Green Building Council (PHILGBC) and the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) cohosted the Building Green – the CEO Forum. Building Green is the conference series initiated by the PHILGBC to open the dialogue on sustainability in the property sector.

BERDE was released today for comment to incorporate the expertise and insight of PHILGBC members.

The nation’s leading companies and organizations participated at the Forum. The Forum was chaired by City Net Secretary General, Ms. Mary Jane Ortega.