Mindanao in the southern Philippines is the most energy-poor region of the country. Almost a third of its inhabitants, equivalent to the entire population of Singapore, live without access to modern energy services, therefore limiting opportunities for education and economic upliftment.
But things are turning up brighter for Mindanao these days, thanks to Greenergy Solar, a cleantech company co-founded by SMU alumna, Philline Donggay (MTSC 2017).
As Philline thinks about her hometown and the communities in Mindanao, she brims with pride of the positive impact she has contributed in those areas today, providing clean electricity through solar energy systems supplied and serviced by Greenergy.
Philline grew up in a family of engineers working in the energy industry "but I was never interested in all of that," she recalls.
After graduating from the De La Salle University in the Philippines, Philline pursued work in media and communications first at the country's largest broadcaster and in 2007, came to Singapore and joined an Asian-European organization as a content producer.
In 2011, more than 300 delegates from 21 countries gathered in Jakarta to attend ‘The Climate Reality Project’, a training programme founded by former US Vice President, Al Gore, to increase awareness and inspire action on climate change. Philline was one of the six Filipinos who attended that year.
Inspired by Al Gore and empowered by the programme, Philline began dedicating her career to fighting climate change and promoting sustainability. In 2013, she worked at the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) as a clean energy project manager, and in 2015 at Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Climate Investment Funds as a climate finance communications specialist, while volunteering for many other international organizations working on climate action.
While at the ADB, Philline took up the Masters of Tri-Sector Collaboration (MTSC) programme at SMU in 2016 on an Ayala Foundation scholarship and completed it the following year.
On why she chose SMU, she says, "I have always been fascinated by interdisciplinary collaboration and the social science of partnerships. SMU was the only university that offered the MTSC programme which looked at partnerships between government organisations, businesses, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). I submitted my application and was accepted into the programme".
She graduated the following year and recalls, "I was very happy with MTSC! From the teaching methods used by the various faculty to the memorable moments of participation, the richness of the course content went beyond the usual lectures and exams...I benefited from the insightful conversations and discussions with the lecturers, guest speakers and my own programme colleagues. I learned so much from the vast diversity and wealth of their experience."
Around this period, Philline also entered a phase in her life where she felt she could do more. "After several years of communicating sustainability strategies and solutions, I knew I could level-up my efforts and enable direct actions that benefit our climate and environment," Philline says. After some reflection, it dawned on her, that "I may have shared sustainability solutions in the national and international stage, but back in Mindanao, in my hometown where I grew up, in a region where power outages were almost a daily occurrence, I was not doing enough for the people there," she explains.
In 2017, she co-founded Greenergy Solar, the first indigenous commercial solar service provider in the region. With the tagline "Hire the Sun", her group has installed over 10,000 solar panels on 108 homes to date. Off-grid areas worth about 287 kilometres of roads are now lit by Greenergy with solar-powered street lamps. And over 500 hectares of farmland are now irrigated, not with the usual fossil fuel generators, but with solar-powered water pumps.
Philline now lives in the Netherlands and continues to support her hometown and community in her remote role as Greenergy's Chief of Communications. The company has big plans for Mindanao, not only providing access to clean energy in the most energy-poor areas and aiming for complete electrification of the region, but also offering sustainable transportation and mobility options in cities.
"In giving back to my own community in Mindanao, I found meaning in the work I do.”
Philline recalls taking 'Complexity and the Art of Public Policy' at SMU and the importance of building strong network nodes -- a principle she uses in promoting sustainability in the cities and municipalities where her projects are implemented. To my fellow SMU alumni: Wherever we may be, we can always find a way to use the gifts within us and the great education we received to give back to the community. In the sustainability space, sub-national and community-level efforts are important in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at the global level."
Connect with Philline on LinkedIn.