Boracay, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Philippines owing to its fine white sand beaches that seem to stretch ages, promised to go a little bit greener as different stakeholders on the island signed a manifesto in support of making the island a little bit more climate friendly.
This project titled “Save the Climate, Save Boracay” has been a Greenpeace South East Asia initiative with the help of the municipality of Malay, Department of Tourism, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Boracay Foundation Inc, Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Mother Earth Foundation.
The five-point manifesto signed by all stakeholders require them to:
- Adapting energy efficiency measures and promote the use of renewable energy for the island, most especially when constructing or expanding establishments.
- Regular energy audits, skill shares and workshops to ensure the continuation and replication of best practices in energy and water conservation.
- Ecological waste management.
- To promote the island as a climate-friendly destination by giving energy efficiency workshops to tourists and visitors.
- To campaign for the approval of the Philippine Renewable Energy bill which the stakeholders see as vital to the continuing viability of the country’s tourism industry.
In a resort I did some consulting for before, we were able to reduce the electric bill cheaply by 21% by doing the following:
- Lighting which was classified to be “on” all the time was changed to the Phillips Energy Saving Bulbs (11 & 18 watts). Mostly because the energy saving bulbs are expensive.
- Refrigerators which were broken were replaced. Letting them run means their compressors would be running at 100% all the time. We didn’t purchase new refrigerators though, we asked the soft drinks dealer to change them for us. It helps too if you have good relationships with your dealers because they wouldn’t bat an eyelash when you asked them to do that. *snicker*
- Refrigerators were powered down after 12 AM when the last staff leaves from work then turned back on at 7 AM. Exception to this rule were refrigerators with ice cream and similar meltable products in them.
- On lean days, power on only the refrigerators you need based on the predicted consumable beverages and food.
- Thermostat of air-conditioners were set to 25C cooling and not lower. As soon as the guest leaves the room, the air-conditioners thermostat was checked and moved back to 25C if the guests changed it.
When you think about it, energy conservation is a fun thing to do because aside from saving the environment you are also saving money for yourself.
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Category: Conservation, Climate Change, Boracay, Eco Tourism
