Four months ago, the Belize Bureau of Standards introduced a pilot project called the Energy Efficiency Labeling Scheme. As the country's foremost authority on standards and quality, the BBS and its international partners are trying to encourage Belizean households to conserve energy.
That's where the EELS project comes in; appliances with better energy ratings are being promoted as the next shift that citizens must make. The premise is that Belizeans will spend less on their light bill by replacing outdated air conditioning units, refrigerators, and lights with new models that use energy more efficiently and cost less in the long run. That would drive down the country's energy needs, and its corresponding carbon footprint will be lessened.
This morning, BBS and its regional and international partners held a soft launch of this pilot program and invited the press to attend. Our news team was there, and Daniel Ortiz reports:
As you heard the main speakers say, the EELS program is voluntary at this time, and implementation is scheduled for April to December of next year. In the years following that transition, compliance with the EELS program will go from voluntary to mandatory.
