Cold Chain Innovation Hub in Philippines Announces Online Webinar and Technical Training Workshop

The Cold Chain Innovation Hub (CCI-Hub), a Manila-based center for sustainable HVAC&R technology exhibitions and training, has announced that it is organizing two new online events, aimed at promoting clean cooling technologies in the Philippines.

CCI-Hub was launched last year as part of an initiative to upgrade the food cold chain in the Philippines. Called the “Global Partnership for improving the Food Cold Chain in the Philippines,” the project is jointly led by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines (DENR). shecco, publisher of this website, is one of the project’s key executing partners.

The first event is a webinar titled “Evaluating the Food Cold Chain in the Philippines,” which is scheduled to be held on September 15. The webinar will share the main findings of a research report titled “Evaluating the Philippines’ Food Cold Chain, Energy Efficiency and Environmental Impact,” according to CCI-Hub.

The research report, officially released by the cold chain initiative last month, is based on desk-based research conducted by the CCI-Hub team on behalf of the project and is available in full here.

The second event is a technical training workshop titled “Advanced Technologies for Commercial Food Retail,” which is scheduled to be held on October 7. The workshop aims to “provide an opportunity for participants to take a deep-dive into the details of installing, maintaining and training technicians on advanced technologies used in commercial food retail,” according to CCI-Hub

The workshop, to be hosted by CCI-Hub, will feature local contractor Cold Front Technologies Asia – installers of propane (R290) plug-in units and a water-loop system at a Royal Duty Free supermarket in Subic Bay last year. The store is the first in the country to use 100% R290-based refrigeration.

“With these two events, we hope to inform both local and international industry stakeholders of the opportunities to implement clean cooling technologies as well as provide the technical knowledge needed to support this implementation in the Philippines today,” said Jan Dusek, Head of Global Partnership for the project.

“These are only the first of several ongoing knowledge-sharing events we plan to hold over the next few months,” he added. “Ultimately, we hope that these events serve as an important platform for helping to elevate and inspire the Philippine industry to accelerate its transition towards adopting low-carbon, energy-efficient refrigeration innovation technologies in the food cold chain.”

Both events are free to attend and registration is open today. Those interested in registering for the September 15 webinar can do so here. Those interested in the technical training workshop can register here.

Additional event details can be found on the project’s website.

The “Global Partnership for improving the Food Cold Chain in the Philippines” project aims to identify, develop and stimulate the application of low-carbon, energy-efficient refrigeration technologies and business practices throughout the food cold chain to increase food safety and food security.  

It is funded by US$2 million from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), with US$25 million in co-financing (in-kind, grants and loans).

The CCI-Hub will serve as the project’s main platform for providing an ecosystem of technical resources, training, knowledge sharing and stakeholder collaboration. On March 10, the Philippines’ Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) was announced as the official national entity that will host the CCI-Hub at its central office located in Metro Manila.

For more information on the project, visit the website here. Those interested in staying up to date on project announcements can sign up for the official newsletter.