The Sustainable Diner at the 10th PLLENRO National Convention
March 2019
The Sustainable Diner project team of WWF-Philippines and representatives from PCEPSDI pose for a group photo together with the other attendees of the 10th PLLENRO National Convention. Photo © Jouelle Nerveza / PCEPSDI
Last March 1, 2019, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines’ The Sustainable Diner: A Key Ingredient for Sustainable Tourism project participated in the 10th Philippine League of Local Environment and Natural Resources Officer (PLLENRO) National Convention held at the CityState Asturias Hotel in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan. In particular, WWF-Philippines was invited to speak about the project under two of the convention’s sub-sessions, SCP Initiatives in the Philippines: Selected Tools and Practices for Sustainable Tourism and SCP Tools Understanding Environmental Footprint of the Tourism Accommodations: “What Gets Measured, Gets Managed.”
Melody Melo-Rijk, WWF’s Project Manager for Sustainable Consumption and Production in the Philippines, shares the project’s experience in helping implement the Food Waste Management in Hotels initiative in partnership with Taal Vista Hotel and Pico De Loro Beach and Country Club. Photo © Jouelle Nerveza / PCEPSDI
Melody Melo-Rijk, WWF’s Project Manager for Sustainable Consumption and Production in the Philippines, shared her experiences and learnings in managing The Sustainable Diner project in both the morning and afternoon sessions. For the morning session, she talked about the project and reported the results of the consumer survey conducted for the project, summarized under her presentation entitled, “Market Research on Consumer’s Interest in Sustainable Dining.” For the afternoon session, she shared about the project’s experience in guiding Taal Vista Hotel and Pico De Loro Beach and Country Club through the processes and toolkits as required by the Food Waste Management in Hotels initiative, originally led and developed by WWF US, in collaboration with the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) and with generous support from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Melody Melo-Rijk (center) and June Alvarez (rightmost), Executive Director of PCEPSDI, together with (from left) Diwata Paredes, Communications and Outreach Specialist for USAID ReachHealth, Robert Llamas, Chief Finance Officer of Quanta Paper Corporation; and Oliver Gonzales, President of PLLENRO. Photo © Jouelle Nerveza / PCEPSDI
Meanwhile, WWF-Philippines’ advocacy partner, the Philippine Center for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, Inc. (PCEPSDI), tackled the following subject matters: Green Choice Philippines (GCP) - an application for promoting SCP in the Philippines, measurement of GHG emissions and resource efficiency monitoring for tourist accommodations, and Life Cycle Assessment Study for Food Services.
Various Environment and Natural Resources Officers (ENROs) became interested about The Sustainable Diner project and expressed interest in the trainings that the project has been conducting in its three pilot cities: Quezon City, Tagaytay City, and Cebu City. The convention also became a platform for the ENROs to share best practices in their respective cities, which the project can also consider and apply to improve processes and operations being implemented in their pilot cities.
The Sustainable Diner project would like to thank PCEPSDI and the PLLENRO for inviting the project to share its advocacy on sustainable dining at their national convention. The convention’s theme, “Sustainable Tourism and Biodiversity,” is one that is aligned with the WWF network’s global call for the urgent need to care for the Earth’s biological diversity.
The Sustainable Diner project, under WWF-Philippines’ Sustainable Consumption and Production, is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.
