The Cold Chain Innovation Hub is currently looking for candidates to fill an open position as the project’s National Coordinator for Policy & Regulations.
Job Description:
Under the overall coordination of the Philippine’s Ozone Desk (POD) at the Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR), the Cold Chain Project Coordinator for Policy and Regulations is required to assist DENR in the implementation of the project activities of the GEF-funded project “Global Partnership for improving the Food Cold Chain in the Philippines”. The Policy and Regulation Coordinator will be stationed at the POD-DENR.
The position is a regular/full-time role and we are looking for strong candidates that have experience in project management, administration, and coordination, especially in the conduct of policy analysis.
For the full terms of reference, please click here.
If you or someone you know is interested, please send your CV and letter of motivation by 20 March to the National Project Leader: Ms Gilda Garibay – garibay_gb@yahoo.com.
To ensure the effective distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the Philippines, GIZ, Germany’s international cooperation agency and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) are seeking help from interested private-sector companies.
The companies must be willing to strongly engage in a project that aims to provide better and faster vaccine access through sustainable and robust cold chains.
Vaccine cold chains have become a new and urgent priority in the Philippines, and better vaccine distribution is the project’s short-term goal. However, the project also provides an opportunity to help develop integrated cold-chain strategies that build on the existing food cold chain system in the country – thus ensuring both better health and a reliable food supply in the Philippines over the long term.
In addition, there are opportunities to use synergies with the Cold Chain Innovation Hub (CCI-Hub) project which aims to improve the food cold chain in the Philippines through the establishment of a global partnership and a sustainable cold chain technology exhibition and training center in the country.
Project funding
Funding for the vaccine initiative is being provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). BMZ is currently supporting initiatives by privately owned companies that “mitigate the economic as well as the health-related impact of the corona pandemic in developing or emerging countries.”
Suitable projects, which should have a timeline of two years, can receive up to €2,000,000 (US$2,430,710) of funding, with the public contribution covering a maximum of 50% of the total costs.
A private-sector company does not have to make a cash contribution, and can instead contribute in-kind (for example, with the company’s personnel, project management costs, procurement and donation of equipment, contracting of experts, coverage of training costs, etc.).
Application criteria and deadline
Applications are open to both European and Philippines-based companies that:
have an annual turnover of at least €800,000 (US$972,200)
have records for two operational financial years
are registered in the EU, a member country of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) or a country on the OECD DAC list (which includes the Philippines)
The deadline for submission of final proposals is March 31, 2021.
Interested parties should contact Franziska Menten, UNIDO Project Coordinator at f.menten@unido.org for more information. Given the close deadline, parties are encouraged to get in touch quickly and be ready to support the concept preparation in the next few weeks as well as be prepared to get the project started in mid-2021.
The Philippine Board of Investments, in cooperation with several industry stakeholders such as the Cold Chain Association of the Philippines and the Philippine Department of Agriculture, officially launched its Cold Chain Industry Roadmap on December 14, 2020.
The roadmap includes industry growth projections as well as investment, policy and regulatory actions to be targeted over the next two to five years.
“In the short term, the [cold chain] industry is targeting an increase [in capacity] of 10-15% annually, equivalent to 50,000 pallets per year,” said University of Asia and the Pacific Senior Agribusiness Specialist and consultant on the roadmap Florence Mojica-Sevilla during a presentation given on Facebook Live on December 13. The current storage capacity of the Philippine cold chain industry is 400,000 metric tons (or 500,000 pallets), according to the roadmap.
In addition, the roadmap outlines several “milestones” to be achieved in the 2020 to 2022 period. These include five investments in new cold storage facilities — two in the Philippine region of Luzon, one in Visayas, and two in Mindanao.
On November 17, Raquel Echague, Officer in Charge-Director of Resource-Based Industries Service, for the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry, Board of Investments gave a presentation outlining the Cold Chain Industry Roadmap as well as incentives available for the industry during the ATMOsphere Asia 2020 online conference. (shecco, organizer of ATMOsphere Asia, is publisher of this website.)
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has recently released a step-by-step methodology for refrigerator manufacturers to improve the energy efficiency of their products and forecast the net benefits and costs associated with those improvements.
The methodology is targeted at manufacturers of domestic and commercial refrigerators in emerging economies — which stand to gain the most from making these improvements, according to the research conducted for the project.
In a brochure available on UNIDO’s website, the five main steps are outlined.
The first step involves estimating your company’s “Manufacturer Development Index” value. This value is used to evaluate typical incremental capital and operating costs associated with different energy efficiency upgrades.
2. “Download the tool”
The second step involves downloading the free Commercial EPA Refrigeration Analysis (CERA) software tool. CERA uses available data to run simulations and calculate net benefits and costs for different product changes and upgrades.
Once CERA is downloaded, manufacturers can then perform the associated technical and financial evaluations for different product designs using the software.
4. “Make the simulation”
Once step three is complete, manufacturers then collect data from within their company (cabinet design dimensions, system controls, sealed system design information, etc.) to run simulations within the software.
The results will show a “visual modelling of the changes in components” and “the benefit in energy efficiency and the cost involved in doing so”.
5. “Assess the benefits of change”
Finally, these results can be downloaded in order to “provide a solid and accurate basis for discussions within the manufacturer company, between its engineers, strategic leaders, marketers, production and financial units, and the management.”
Full Webinar
A webinar showing a live demonstration how to use the CERA software was held on July 22. See the full recording on Youtube here.
The webinar featured Dr. Omar Abdelaziz, Assistant Professor of Thermofluids at Zewail City of Science and Technology as the main speaker. During the introduction, Dr. Iino Fukuya, Department of Environment – UNIDO, said “I truly hope [these green refrigeration design tools and cost guidelines] encourage the manufacturing companies who are participating in this webinar to take practical energy efficiency actions in emerging economies.”
I truly hope [these green refrigeration design tools and cost guidelines] encourage the manufacturing companies who are participating in this webinar to take practical energy efficiency actions in emerging economies.
Dr. Iino Fukuya, Department of Environment – UNIDO, Webinar on the K-CEP Refrigerator Manufacturing Cost Guidelines, July 22, 2020
Major sections of the webinar and their associated timestamps in the recording are below:
1:42 Introduction by Dr. Iino Fukuya, Department of Environment – UNIDO
4:14 Webinar start by main speaker Dr. Omar Abdelaziz, Assistant Professor of Thermofluids at Zewail City of Science and Technology, Egypt
13:14 Impact of Manufacturer Development Index on Net-Benefit of Energy Efficiency Versus Cost
16:00 Refrigerant Choice for Domestic and Commercial Refrigerators
18:47 Component and Design Choices (Cabinet, Sealed System, Controls, etc.)
In a continuation of the Cold Chain Innovation Hub’s (CCI-Hub) on-going video series, today we are excited to announce the release of two new videos featuring sustainable refrigeration technology expert Wynand Groenewald.
Wynand has more than a decade of experience designing and installing sustainable refrigeration systems for major food companies in his home of South Africa as well as in the United States and Australia. So we were very excited to sit down with him to discuss the topic of sustainable cold chain in the Philippines.
Creating a Sustainable Cold Chain in the Philippines | Interview with Wynand Groenewald
The first video features an interview with Wynand, where we discuss the role that sustainable food cold chain technology plays in helping the Philippines achieve both its food security as well as its greenhouse gas emissions goals.
Training: Sustainable Cold Chain with Wynand Groenewald
The second video features a training session where Wynand details how to take a holistic and innovative approach to cold storage facility design to significantly reduce energy costs and environmental impact.
To see all our published videos to date, visit our Youtube channel here.
As a part of the CCI-Hub’s on-going video series, today we are taking a closer look at how the country has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic — especially with respect to the cold chain industry and the overall food supply chain.
We hope that this video can serve as a useful resource for further discussion as we plan to speak more in-depth about the subject with experts in the field over the next few weeks.
As always, we look forward to hearing any feedback, comments or questions you may have, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly.
The Cold Chain Innovation Hub (CCI-Hub) is launching a new regular video series aimed at providing the CCI-Hub community with the project’s latest updates and activities.
“We’ve launched this video series to communicate more directly with our community in this time of limited movement and travel restrictions,” said Jan Dusek, Head of Global Partnership for the cold chain project.
“We hope that these videos will be an informative and engaging way to help continue building awareness for the project and a sustainable food cold chain in the Philippines. We also see this as being the first step in laying the groundwork for hosting a substantial online library of resources for the community.”
In addition to providing project updates, the video series aims to educate and inform viewers on topics related to technology, policy and sustainability around the food cold chain.
The videos are being hosted on the Cold Chain Innovation Hub’s official Youtube channel. The first two videos launched in the series are below:
Video Series Launch:
Global Call for Industry Contributions:
Additional content planned for the video series includes:
Expert interviews
Webinars
Video explainers
Case study coverage
News and more
Online Learning
The video series is just one part of the ongoing development of the “Knowledge” section of the CCI-Hub website. Online resources have become an increasing area of focus since the advent of the virus pandemic and its mid and long-term impacts to all facets of the project.
“In addition to the video series, we are also developing our plans to build out an online e-learning platform, as well as other ways for community members to connect, interact, engage and learn remotely,” said Dusek.
This is being done in collaboration with the Philippines’ Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the official host and project partner for the CCI-Hub.
“We are excited and looking forward to working together with the global industry on this important project for the Philippines, especially at this crucial time of need for more nationwide skills, training and infrastructure development,” said Edward Dela Rosa, Chief TESDA Specialist.
The Cold Chain Innovation Hub (CCI-Hub) has officially announced an open call seeking project contributions from the global HVAC&R industry. The project is seeking contributions in the from of “innovative and energy efficient cold chain equipment, relevant market data, training materials, or other products, services or expertise,” according to an email sent to CCI-Hub newsletter subscribers on May 7.
“By contributing to this project, you will have the chance to exhibit your products, services and data through the CCI-Hub platform and increase your visibility. You will also gain valuable access to key clients and decision makers along the entire fast-growing Philippines cold chain market,” the email said.
Due to restrictions placed on travel, the CCI-Hub is highlighting the option of providing online-based training tools or platforms. “Examples could include things like e-learning modules, webinars, virtual reality, etc.”
CCI-Hub is seeking feedback via a questionnaire available for download here. Completed questionnaires should be sent to Jan Dusek, Head of Global Partnership at jan.dusek@shecco.com by May 27.
Those who are interested in learning more about the project are encouraged to sign up for the CCI-Hub newsletter by clicking here.
The Cold Chain Innovation Hub
(CCI-Hub) has announced the launch of its official website, CCI-Hub.org. The website will serve as the
project’s main online resource and currently includes details on the project’s
background, goals, news updates and a list of official partners as well as
details on how to get involved. Future sections of the website will include an
events detail page and a knowledge section which will include official
resources on technical data, case studies, best practices, etc.
The CCI-Hub is one of the main
components of the “Global Partnership for improving the Food Cold Chain in the
Philippines” project, implemented by the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO) together with the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources of the Philippines (DENR).
It serves as the project’s main
platform providing an ecosystem of technical resources, training, knowledge
sharing and stakeholder collaboration. The main objective of the CCI-Hub is to
increase adoption of best practice refrigeration and related services as well
as communication throughout the food cold chain and to ensure a long-term
impact of the project.
Over the coming months, the CCI-Hub platform will continue to be releasing exclusive information about upcoming events, opportunities and developments related to this project through a newsletter.
Therefore, if you would like to continue to be kept up-to-date, click here to make sure you are subscribed to the mailing list.
The Philippines’ Technical Education
and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) has been selected as an official
partner for the “Global Partnership for improving the Food Cold Chain in the
Philippines” project, implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development
Organization (UNIDO) together with the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources of the Philippines (DENR).
One of the main components of the
project is the establishment of a “Cold Chain Innovation Hub (CCI-Hub)”.
The CCI-Hub will be a platform that will serve as an ecosystem of technical
resources, training, knowledge sharing and stakeholder collaboration. TESDA has
been selected as the national entity to host the CCI-Hub at its central office
located in Metro Manila.
The main objective of establishing the
CCI-Hub is to increase adoption of best practice refrigeration and related
services as well as communication throughout the food cold chain and to ensure
a long-term impact of the project.
TESDA is an official agency of the
Philippines national government and is the national authority for the country’s
Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET). Established in 1994, TESDA
currently has 17 regional offices located throughout the country as of 2018.
Over the coming months, the CCI-Hub
platform will be releasing exclusive information about upcoming events,
opportunities and developments related to this project through a newsletter.
Therefore, if you would like to
continue to be kept up-to-date, click here to make sure you are subscribed to the mailing
list.
