Iloilo City Hall, the first Green Building in the Visayas

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Iloilo's new city hall has become the first green building in the Visayas after adopting some energy conservation practices to lower electric power consumption.

The city hall rooftop is equipped with solar panels assisted air conditioning units at all offices at the whole seventh floor, said Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.

The seven-stories new city hall here is currently the newest tourist attraction in the city, with its roof deck and landscaped green plants and the Lin-ay sang Iloilo statue.

The City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) reported that with the aid of the solar panel system, the city is able to save P710,218 per year or some P59,000 per month and can reduce 36 metric tons of carbon dioxide per month.

Similarly, a rain harvesting facility will soon be operational at the rooftop and rainwater will be used by all offices for flushing of toilets and a water treatment device will be installed for recycling of water for other uses at the city hall.

The International Council for Local Environment Initiatives (ICLEI) program on clean air and air pollution has recognized the city for its enercon programs since 2004 up to the present.

Other enercon programs implemented by the city government include the lamp retrofitting project of changing incandescent bulbs to high pressure sodium lights in 10,050 city street lights. The program generated savings for up to P82,680 per day with saved power of 6,360 kilowatthour (kwh) per day and reduced 3,752 kilograms of greenhouse gas per day.

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