Peru Embraces Eco-Efficiency to Move towards Green Development

• by Mariela Jara (lima)
• Thursday, December 13, 2018
• Inter Press Service

That set of practices led to savings of more than 19 million dollars in two years, said Roxana Díaz, Eco-efficiency Management Advisor at the Ministry of the Environment (Minam), who is in charge of a special programme for that purpose.

Through the Eco-efficient Public Institutions Initiative (EcoIP), since 2017 Minam has provided support to 41 state entities in this area, with the advice of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and the aim of improving the synergy between environmental and economic aspects when planning their activities.

The objective of the EcoIP project is to provide advice to public institutions by building the capacity of each institution's eco-efficiency managers so they can undertake practices aimed at better use of water, energy, paper, fuel and solid waste, Díaz told IPS.

"The EcoIP Initiative is based on a 2015 assessment that revealed opportunities for the optimal application of Peruvian regulations for eco-efficiency," said Aaron Drayer, the country representative of GGGI, an intergovernmental institution created in 2012 to promote green growth across the globe.

The GGGI became involved to contribute to the fulfillment of target 57 of the 2014-2018 Competitiveness Agenda of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, whose goal is for 30 percent of public institutions to gradually have eco-efficiency programmes and reduce their energy and water consumption.

"It's a very interesting initiative considering that one out of every 10 workers are public employees in Peru and that the State is one of the largest consumers of natural resources. Public sector practices that must be corrected and the thousands of people involved in the effort to improve their performance are now becoming visible," Drayer told IPS.

Peru has a group of Eco-efficiency Measures for the Public Sector, aimed at better environmental management of the State to promote sustainable development in the country, which are embodied in Minam's Supreme Decree 009 of 2009.

Eco-efficiency, a term coined in the early 1990s, involves reducing ecological damage to a minimum while maximising efficiency, based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution, in both the public and private sectors.

With this vision, the model programme implemented by Minam with the collaboration of the GGGI sought to strengthen the existing institutional framework, provide public employees with skills to sustain the new process, and generate a culture for the efficient use of water, energy and paper, and the management of solid waste.

"My assessment of the process is positive, we have built a replicable programme and have built capacities, managing to get 50 percent of the public institutions involved to achieve the goal of being recognised as eco-efficient entities," Díaz said.

She said an eco-efficient public institution is one that provides quality public service to citizens while at the same time efficiently using its resources, reducing its environmental impacts and maintaining adequate working conditions for staff. It achieves a balance between environmental management and economic profitability, she added.

Paola Córdova, GGGI Green Growth Officer in Peru, took part in the initial implementation of the Initiative along with the Minam team when essential project needs were identified, such as senior management involvement, staff allocation, budget and time.

In the two years in which EcoIP worked as a model or pilot project, advised by the GGGI, positive results included capacity-building among public employees in different sectors, such as ministries, universities and autonomous bodies, she explained.

In addition, this year the EcoIP was extended to the government of the department of San Martín, in central Peru, initiating the phase of decentralisation of the Initiative, which will continue to expand next year to other parts of the country, now that it will be a stable programme within Minam.

"The GGGI has contributed to the systematisation of this experience and to identifying the lessons learned, which are inputs for Minam to continue replicating the model of eco-efficient public entities," Córdova told IPS.

According to Minam's Diaz, the evaluation carried out confirms that the methodology used is replicable and can therefore overcome the challenge of high employee turnover in the public sector and strengthen its scope, thanks to the model established with the first 41 public entities included, out of a total of more than 2,000.

The official explained that standardised methodologies used to calculate the use of resources offer reliable data on annual consumption.

The new system makes it possible to identify measures to correct inappropriate practices and thus support compliance with Peru's nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The country pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2030.

"The State has saved 66 million soles (19 million dollars) since the implementation of the methodology, which we could transform into quantities of CO2 (carbon dioxide) that were no longer emitted, because it is electrical energy that was no longer consumed, as well as water and paper mainly," Díaz said.

For the Minam official, it is very important that this methodology also teaches how to calculate the economic profitability of the measures.

A success story

One of the successful experiences was led by the La Molina National Agrarian University, a public institution located on 6,000 hectares of land about 18 kilometers from the center of the capital.

Under the impulse of the university's Environmental Management Office (OGA) and its technical team, an environmental culture, eco-efficiency, oversight and solid waste management have been promoted among teachers, students and administrative staff.

They have installed 32 eco-efficient points, i.e. separate bins for people to deposit waste properly, as well as 10 stations where administrative staff place cardboard, general waste, plastic and glass.

"The educational community had be sensitised to its proper use, as well as to the replacement of paper by digital communications and the reduction of water and electricity consumption," environmental engineer Carlos Llanos, who heads the OGA, told IPS.

The team expresses its satisfaction that the various actions undertaken such as visits, sign and posters and competitions have involved 20 percent of the campus premises, within the objective of promoting sustainable development on the campus.

One of the winners of the internal "Sustainable Office" contest was the Educational Innovation Unit, headed by professor Elva Ríos and also made up of psychologists Silvia Morales and Karen Goycochea. They carry eco-efficiency in their veins.

"We are 'molineros' (from La Molina university), we are punctual and eco-efficient" is the motto used by the Unit in all their activities. "We train professors to be better teachers, but the environmental perspective is present in that work," Morales told IPS.

The OGA advice has contributed to reducing the consumption of paper, energy and water and to improving waste management.

"We unplug the machines when we aren't using them, we turn off the lights and take advantage of the daylight, for which we have cleared the windows area, we have placed bottles with sand inside the toilets and as soon as a pipe leaks, we call General Services, and we have separate garbage bins," Morales added.

Karen Goycochea recalls that five months ago, when she joined the Unit, the staff emphasised the eco-efficient measures they took in the office and at the university. "It was exciting for me because I have always been committed to environmental management," she told IPS.

© Inter Press Service (2018) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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