Colombia. The Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (DIAN) and its headquarters in Cali are committed to sustainable cooling solutions, so it will carry out a pilot study for the contracting of the outsourced air conditioning service of public entities, with what would be the next Thermal Districts of the country.
It is important to note that this contribution to environmental sustainability and energy efficiency for the city of Cali, is part of a launch event of this study, which was attended by local authorities and Swiss economic cooperation, which for more than 7 years has supported in Colombia the promotion of Thermal Districts, that for this case it would be in the two headquarters of the DIAN located in the aforementioned city.
In this sense, this initiative will be carried out with the support of the "Thermal Districts in Colombia" project, which aims to integrate the requirements of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency in the processes of purchases and / or public contracting in buildings. The DIAN, faced with this project, bets with its infrastructure and maintenance team to this sustainable alternative.
The launch of the engineering studies for the development of the demonstration project of sustainable public procurement for the DIAN-Cali Thermal District, was attended by the Mayor of Cali, Jorge Iván Ospina; the administrative deputy director of the DIAN, Martha Isabel Rodríguez; the Director of Economic Cooperation and Development of the Embassy of Switzerland-SECO, Julien Robert; the Programme Manager of the Infrastructure Division of the headquarters of the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs -SECO, Christof Sonderegger; the delegate of the Directorate of Climate Change and Environmental Management of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Mauricio Galván; and the national coordinator of the project "Thermal Districts in Colombia", Cristina Mariaca.
In this space the engineer Mariaca explained: "With this consultancy that we carry out from the project we hope to deliver at the end of 2023 an energy analysis of the buildings, the evaluation of the possible designs of the new technologies that would be implemented, a market analysis of the possible suppliers that can offer the outsourced cooling service, as well as the specifications, bidding documents and standard contracts to carry out the public procurement of the outsourced cooling service".
In that order of ideas, Julien Robert, director of Economic Cooperation and Development -SECO of the Embassy of Switzerland. He pointed out that "the launch of the study that summons us today, will give foundation to a pilot of Thermal Districts in public entities, such as the DIAN. This will be a clear example of the implementation of sustainable infrastructure within the framework of sustainable public procurement that territorial and national entities make."
Additionally, the director assured that this pilot will contribute to the knowledge and experience in a fundamental area within the path of the promotion of the Thermal Districts in Colombia.
It is relevant to highlight that the first stage of engineering studies for the Thermal District of the DIAN-Cali is part of the environmental strategy of the District Development Plan -Cali Unida por la Vida- and the Integral Plan of Climate Change Management of Santiago de Cali. This is done in collaboration with the Steering Committee of Thermal Districts of the city, led by the Mayor's Office of Cali through the Office of Relations and Cooperation and the DAGMA in alliance with the Municipal Companies of Cali -EMCALI.
