88578 JANUARY 2014 ABOUT THE AUTHORS NOEL N. VERDOTE What Goes Around Comes Around: joined IFC as Operations Officer of the Philippines Sustainable Designing Innovative Learning Events to Improve Energy Finance Program in 2011. He is an energy and project management specialist with Relationships and Program Results in the more than two decades of professional experience working with national and international Philippines SEF Program organizations, managing and promoting sustainable energy Since its launch in 2009, the Sustainable Energy Finance (SEF) Program in the Philippines and environment-friendly solutions. has worked with four partner banks—Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), BDO Unibank, Inc. (BDO), China Banking Corp. (Chinabank), and BPI Globe BanKO (BanKO)—to help MARIANNA (“HANNA”) ALFA FERNANDO-PACUA them identify and develop nearly 300 energy efficiency/renewable energy (EE/RE) has experience with the SEF Program both from the client projects. These banks have directly loaned $439 million to finance 118 of these projects, side and IFC side, having helped to set up SEF in the Bank of the resulting in an annual savings of nearly 115,000 megawatt hours of electricity and Philippine Islands before joining the IFC Philippines team. She has annual generation of 951,613 megawatt hours of clean energy. The annual reduction previous experience in development communication, of greenhouse gas emissions reached about 1 million metric tons a year as of December corporate social responsibility, youth development programs, 2013. The project received an award under the financing for climate-friendly investments and employee volunteer management with private pillar by the Momentum for Change 2013 Lighthouse Activities, an initiative of the corporate foundations. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in partnership with the World Economic Forum. Underlying these achievements is SEF’s devotion to helping bank staff APPROVING MANAGER William Beloe, Senior Operations understand energy efficiency and renewable energy, and how financing these projects Officer, China Energy Efficiency Finance Program. benefit both the banks and their clients. Over the years, we’ve learned a lot ourselves about creating learning events for bank staff and how to make these training events more appealing, more enjoyable, and ultimately more effective. Background innovations we’ve made and tells the story of how putting clients first allowed us to It’s important that a client bank’s relationship deliver services which not only improved the managers and account officers appreciate way we do business but also delighted our the added value of SEF, since they are on the clients. front lines, playing a key role in promoting and selling EE and RE financing to potential Lesson 1: Learning goes both ways: borrowers. Therefore, educating bank staff Seek continuous improvement through has always been crucial in SEF’s efforts to expanded feedback forms. boost sustainable energy in the Philippines. Following our early training events for Since our program launch, our learning bank employees, SEF used a basic feedback events have evolved—from traditional, to form featuring questions designed to creative, to interactive—with our events now help us accomplish the prescribed results reflecting four years of close coordination measurement indicators for internal IFC and relationship building with our clients. purposes, such as “How many participants The experiences gathered enabled us to craft reported they were satisfied/very satisfied sessions that bank staff eagerly anticipate with workshops, training, seminars, and and subsequently learn from, helping them conferences?” continuously improve the way they do business. This SmartLesson identifies the Although these forms let us know how well SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2014 1 The SEF Boot Camp was designed as a two-day intensive, interactive training for selected bank staff held at a bank-financed “green resort.” Classroom trainings are complemented by education-entertainment strategies (a challenging SEF game show and a “scavenger hunt” for sustainable energy opportunities), experiential learning (an actual walk-through audit with technical experts), and role-playing sessions to simulate client marketing and presentations. Small group learning and plenary sessions provide participants a conducive environment for getting engaged and asking questions. Another success factor is the presence of a vibrant and creative training team—with strong technical expertise—who exude passion for their work, which in turn “infects” the attendees, maximizing their learning experience. Bankers visit a 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant in southern Philippines for the first SEF Study Tour. Lesson 3: Mixing it up: Use training videos to combine the best of experiential and classroom learning. participants liked a training session, we were also eager to know how we could improve the sessions and our delivery. Inevitably, the SEF Tours and the Boot Camp are time- and Hence, we tweaked the feedback form to include open- resource-intensive, but the visuals and experiences they ended questions about the audience’s interests, and to offer are invaluable. This prompted the team to produce a solicit suggestions for improving future sessions. Their set of training videos that can bring the experience closer thoughts encouraged us to innovate in the delivery of our to bank staff/officials who are constrained from joining the training and knowledge sharing to meet their expressed study visits. needs and interests. When our clients told us that they wanted to see real projects, more visuals and examples, The videos feature real projects and offer “virtual visits” and they wanted training that was less static and more to energy efficient (as well as less efficient) commercial interactive (with fewer classroom-type lecture sessions), we buildings, renewable energy (mini-hydro and solar power) put our thinking caps on and gladly designed a different plants, a rice mill with a state-of-the-art milling process, a mode of training. power-generation plant using biomass, and many more. There is also a segment featuring an old commercial Lesson 2: Seeing the world: Enhance learning by getting building where the bank staff can help spot upgrade client learners out of the classroom. opportunities. Equally important is video footage of client bank senior officials (SEF champions) talking about how When we say “training” in IFC or in a bank setting, it often their respective banks have taken stock of SEF and benefited means going to a classroom to listen to several rounds of from it. Similarly, video clips of bank clients themselves lecture sessions using PowerPoint slides. While this type sharing their success stories make the SEF narrative even of training can provide bankers the definitions of energy more compelling and powerful. efficiency and renewable energy and their benefits, many are eager to see actual projects and to learn from those Lesson 4: Getting to know you: Create networking who have already implemented one—specifically, how to opportunities to facilitate discussion and healthy make a deal and what was learned in the project. Hence, competition among clients. we brought our clients alternative learning opportunities, such as SEF Tours and our own SEF “Boot Camp.” As part of post-event feedback following one of our intra-bank events, one senior executive of a client bank In 2010, we organized a Philippine study tour for key suggested including social activities for the participants, officials/representatives of client banks (at that time, BPI especially with those from other banks, adding, “It will and BDO) to visit real energy efficiency and renewable foster camaraderie among banks and strengthen business energy projects. (Check out the blog here: https://spark. relationships.” This feedback served as the impetus for SEF worldbank.org/blogs/sefpilipinas/2012/01/23/bankers-take- Philippines to launch “SEF Talks,” a formal platform for a-hike-the-first-sustainable-energy-study-tour.) Participant knowledge sharing and networking among partner banks response was quite positive. “The tour was very informative and energy stakeholders (both from the private and public and helpful in understanding the operation and inherent sectors). As the SEF Talks have gained traction, we have risks,” said Bea Marie de Guzman, Assistant Vice President found that, despite tough competition within the banking of BPI. “These are important when evaluating projects industry, senior bankers find it worthwhile and enriching to and when speaking with developers, suppliers, and service have opportunities where they can share information and providers. We can now be on the same page; it also added lessons learned with each other. to the enthusiasm, as we saw the social impact on local communities.” The primary audience for SEF Talks is the SEF Advisory 2 SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2014 Services client banks—at present, BPI, BDO, Chinabank, means finding common schedules for everybody: the IFC and BanKO—and in some sessions, potential client banks, team, the FI partners and non-partners, and the industry who are invited to send participants. Colleagues from IFC expert resource/s. It was a challenge to schedule the first are also invited to participate. To encourage a high degree and second SEF Talks when the program had just been of engagement, the Philippines SEF (or PSEF) team limits launched, but now, clients look forward to these events, participation to 15 to 20 people per session. and it’s much easier for the PSEF to coordinate everyone’s schedules, as clients want to attend. Box 1: Topics for the four SEF Talks held to date It’s also important to be aware of clients’ professional • SEF global experience goals. In designing a training, therefore, it’s always smart to • Energy efficiency in lighting highlight the benefits that clients will gain from it—benefits • Green buildings and mortgages not only for the company but also for the individual. While • Net metering and open access it’s good for clients to know the advantages of working with IFC, they need to appreciate what good it brings to them individually as well. We endeavor to have clients Topics for SEF Talks are determined through consultations understand that SEF can help them increase their portfolio, with the client banks during regular coordination meetings, expand their client base, and add “stickiness” to their and based on feedback from non-partner/potential partner relationships with their respective clients, not to mention banks (see Box 1). PSEF also takes advantage of visiting gaining energy-saving tips that they can make use of as IFC staff/specialists on mission to the Philippines who can homeowners themselves. share their global experience with what is now called the “SEF Network.” SEF Talks also provide friendly “peer Lesson 6: Doing it all again: Provide support to ensure pressure” to banks, as participating banks are motivated sustainability and encourage replication. to exert more effort to keep pace with their fellow banks, while any leading bank continuously sets the bar higher Training, learning, building relationships, and receiving to differentiate itself. At one time, we also conducted feedback should not stop at the end of an SEF Tour, Boot “SEF Talks—Reverse,” where the partner banks made a Camp, or Talk. These models are highly replicable and pitch about SEF to industry stakeholders, primarily EE/RE developers and vendors. At the outset of SEF Talks, the IFC team was a bit concerned about the sensitivities of having staff from several competing banks in one room and how best to bring them into fruitful discussion. But much to our surprise, after introductions and niceties were out of the way, the bankers pursued open discussions among themselves! Providing a platform for knowledge sharing among partner banks allowed them to learn from each other in implementing their respective SEF programs—from inception to full program implementation, including the associated birth pains. SEF Talks have also served as a support network for the bank SEF core team members that have extended beyond the sessions themselves. We understand, for example, that one of our partner banks, Chinabank, may actually have chosen to participate in the SEF Program at the encouragement and advice of other SEF banks. Additionally, their participation in these events made the financial institutions known in the energy industry, which prevented, or at least minimized, cases of potential borrowers going from one bank to another to “sell” EE or RE to them. SEF Talks provides a one-stop shop for valuable industry updates and trends that affect EE/RE financing. Lesson 5: What’s in it for me: Be attentive to clients’ personal and professional needs. It’s important to listen to our clients and encourage an atmosphere of openness and teamwork. This facilitates their “ownership” of the program, thereby making A group photo at an SEF Talk with representatives from coordination with them easier. Organizing learning events our client banks. (Photo courtesy of IFC) SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2014 3 The SEF Boot Camp is a two-day intensive and highly interactive and dynamic training for bank staff. scalable, and the SEF team makes a point of enrich our advisory offerings. Putting our being available for our bank clients when clients first and taking their feedback to heart they have any subsequent questions about have helped the team innovate our approach the things they learned at the knowledge to training and knowledge sharing; in 2013 events or if they want to cascade information alone, we’ve offered 16 learning events for across their respective firms. more than 300 bank participants. The care we’ve taken to build this open relationship To date, one bank has committed to making with our clients has reaped great benefits in a the SEF Boot Camp part of their regular strong pipeline of more than 300 SEF deals— training and incentive programs for SEF, and and has also led our clients to put SEF and IFC some partner banks have already replicated first! We strongly believe that this approach the SEF Talks model within their companies of listening to clients and building open as a way to encourage buy-in for SEF. The IFC relationships for feedback is applicable across SEF team sees to it that we provide them with all business lines. The outputs, of course, will the necessary support so they can organize differ, since IFC responses should be tailored similar events within their respective banks. to fit client preferences. Conclusion This coming calendar year, the IFC SEF team plans to hold at least four training events Clients value IFC Advisory Services because a month at the request and expense of our DISCLAIMER of the rich store of global knowledge we clients. We’re also gearing up for a cross- SmartLessons is an awards bring to help them improve the way they country SEF learning event —“SEF Talks program to share lessons learned in development-oriented do business. The lessons we learn locally, Regional”—in which we’ll expand the advisory services and investment however—through interchanges with and interaction to include our counterparts from operations. The findings, even among clients—are as just as valuable as SEF–East Asia and the Pacific to exchange interpretations, and conclusions that global knowledge. It’s important to keep knowledge and strategies with the Philippine expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not up a healthy flow in both directions, sharing team and our clients. necessarily reflect the views of knowledge and best practices to further IFC or its partner organizations, the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent. IFC does not assume any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of the information contained in this document. Please see the terms and conditions at www.ifc.org/ smartlessons or contact the program at smartlessons@ifc.org. 4 SMARTLESSONS — JANUARY 2014