The Philippine Environment Partnership Programme (PEPP) was created in 2003 by the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-EMB) to support industry self-regulation and reporting while improving environmental performance. It includes incentives and assistance for MSMEs to achieve cleaner production standards. The PEPP has two programmes:
- Track 1 gives recognition and incentives to enterprises that go beyond compliance in their environmental performance. To qualify for Track 1, enterprises need to show they have been consistently environmentally compliant for three years prior to the date of application and that they have gone beyond compliance through actions such as implementing an EMS, undertaking pollution prevention or waste minimization initiatives, or engaging in community or social responsibility programmes.
- Track 2 is an assistance programme aimed at industry associations and individual companies, particularly MSMEs, who are not yet compliant with environmental regulations but are committed to improving their performance. Successful applicants to the programme sign an Environment Consent Agreement, a legally binding agreement between the company/industry association and the DENR-EMB that commits the company to:
- Implement Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) within the framework of Environmental Management System (EMS);
- Attain waste reduction targets within an agreed timeframe and agree to means of verification;
- Adopt pollution prevention and/or cleaner production;
- Provide progress environmental performance report to EMB
