Aside from good governance, sanctity of contracts and a coherent investment policy, pursuing sustainable initiatives especially among property developers would attract major global corporations to invest in the Philippines.
Filinvest Inc. Assistant Vice President for project development Paolo Ilusorio said the initiative of Filinvest Alabang to pursue the green agenda is attract a set of multinational clients that are also interested to pursue sustainability. “At the same time, Filinvest intends to address the environmental challenges at the same time pushing hard to get the desired clients,” Ilusorio recently told journalists in a press briefing organized by the Philippine Green Building Council (PHILGBC) held in Makati City.
“Filinvest also has to do a good balancing act getting the profits and going green by having the right mix,” Ilusorio added.
Filinvest City recently received the prestigious 3-Star Rating for the Pilot Version of BERDE Districts (Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence) by the Philippine Green Building Council, making it the first and only Central Business District (CBD) in the Philippines to achieve this remarkable feat. The property was also previously awarded LEED Gold (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) by the US Green Building Council, earning recognition from both local and international organizations for sustainable developments.
He said business process outsourcing (BPOs) organizations have also expressed interest to locate in Filinvest City because of its strong adherence to environmental sustainability.
Clifford Academia, vice president operations, Lima Economic Estate, Aboitiz InfraCapital pointed out in the same press briefing that multinational corporations prefer to locate in industrial zones that are practicing sustainable programs. “As part of the Urban Land Institute [ULI], Lima Economic Estate is aware that foreign investors will prefer green industrial parks,” Academia said.
“Foreign investors are also strong believers of the environmental, social and governance [ESG] framework as part of their corporate governance direction,” Academia added.
He added the BPO sector is also interested in joining the green bandwagon by preferring to locate in the green certified economic zones.
The Aboitiz family-controlled AboitizInfracapital achieved a milestone as its LIMA Estate became the Philippines’s first industrial estate to be awarded the BERDE 5-stars District accreditation by the PHILGBC. The certification recognizes AIC’s LIMA Estate for going above and beyond existing building and environmental laws, regulations, and mandatory standards—recognized as a benchmark by the Philippine government and various national agencies, and guided by internationally-recognized methodologies for developing standards by the Quality Assurance Guide for Green Building Rating Tools of the World Green Building Council.
Going green through BERDE
The Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE), developed under the BERDE Program, is a tool to assess, measure, monitor, and certify the performance of green building projects above and beyond existing national and local building and environmental laws, regulations, and mandatory standards. BERDE is recognized the Philippines government, through the Department of Energy (DOE), as the National Voluntary Green Building Rating System.
The rating tool was also developed as a guidance tool as the BERDE User Guide is made freely available online and may be used in guiding the design, construction and operations of projects in a resource efficient, economically viable and socially-responsible manner.
It is aligned with the global climate action campaign of the WorldGBC. Together with about 70 national Green Building Councils (GBCs) around the world, the WorldGBC is leading the decarbonization of the built environment and are working with the national GBCs to “develop tools, programs and resources to promote the urgency and feasibility of net zero carbon buildings and build industry capacity to deliver them.”
There are 3.10 million sq m of total gross floor area from 78 BERDE projects registered for BERDE Certification in the country.
PHILGBC Chief Executive Officer Christopher C. de la Cruz explained “the BERDE Version 4.2.0 rating tool provides significant improvements on the assessment of green building standards and compliance to building codes, environmental regulations, and socioeconomic standards.”
“As part of our objective to promote green building practice for sustainability, the BERDE—Version 4.2.0 is an innovation to the national voluntary rating system that aims to address the environmental impact of buildings while providing the integration of socioeconomic benefits for both the building occupants and community residents. The updated rating system is aimed to lead to positive socioeconomic impacts. Certification of projects under the new rating system is aimed to be useful for project management strategy and for project performance evaluation based on improvements such as the inclusion of credits for jobs generation, skills development and education, health and safety, equality, and community engagement and benefit,” de la Cruz added.
To be at par with the big guns of the global economy, Academia urged Philippine economic zones to pursue the green agenda and adopt BERDE because it is the most appropriate for the country. “For sure, it will help us elevate as a country,” he pointed out.
Ilusorio said Filinvest will use the BERDE rating standard as one of their marketing tools to attract more enlightened clients.