Philippines, Australia collaborate for green buildings

THE PHILIPPINES and Australia have started a partnership for energy efficient and green buildings, an Australian trade official said.

Ross Bray, Australian Trade Commission senior trade and investment commissioner to the Philippines and Micronesia, said in an interview that Manila and Canberra are in the early stages of knowledge sharing for green building.

“An early step in the process to share knowledge. The free trade agreement between Australia, New Zealand and the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) allows the entrance of technologies for water purification and energy conservation that Australia specializes in can come in at a lower tariff and can be used in the development of the green building sector,” said Mr. Bray.

The Australia-New Zealand- ASEAN Free Trade Agreement came into force last January.

Mr. Bray said free trade extends to services “which can allow Australian experts like landscape architects to come in and exchange knowledge.”

For her part, Ma. Anna G. Tungol, Philippine Green Building Council (PGBC) executive director, told BusinessWorld in a separate interview: “Since 2009, we have been working with the Green Building Council of Australia with the ratings system we are working on, and we hope that this would become an active partnership and can be sustained with technical training.”

According to its Web site, PGBC is a non-stock, non-profit group that promotes the sharing of best practices in green building, or structure that use environment friendly materials. — E. N. J. David, Businessworld