Kwento Ni Toto: Green

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Sunday, October 30, 2022

SM Prime builds better, greener offices

Toto 11:25:00 PM

Many people have become more aware of the importance of sustainability in everyday living during the two years that the world faced the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Environmental awareness has caught on through practices such as shifting to paperless, reducing plastic use and planting more trees. For property developers, taking part in this movement means transitioning into green buildings and developments.

Such is the case for SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SM Prime), a publicly listed subsidiary of SM Investments Corporation (SMIC) that is committed to building innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities. SM Prime is future-proofing its developments to be more responsive and adaptive to community needs and the effects of climate change in line with comprehensive sustainability goals ranging from energy to ecology.
Over the years, SM Prime has continued to elevate its approach to building and development of community spaces. All these green initiatives have been recognized by reputable and well-known organizations such as the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) which awarded Conrad Hotel Manila and SM Aura Premier the Gold certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
“When we build, we build with the community in mind. This is why it is important to integrate sustainability in our developments and operations. We remain committed as an environmentally-conscious and responsible integrated property developer ready to serve the ever-changing needs and aspirations of our communities and stakeholders,” said SM Prime President Jeffrey Lim.

Building green office spaces

SM’s Commercial Property Group is renowned for balancing green design features with operational and practical considerations, enabling more companies and locators to enjoy environmentally sound commercial developments.

The CPG’s flagship properties are its five E-com Centers – all future-forward buildings catering mainly to technological, business process outsourcing, and Fortune 500 companies. All five E-com Centers are located in the MOA Complex. Each building has a proportionate amount of green open spaces and communal areas where workers can socialize and decompress from work.

CPG further promotes sustainable practices with its LEED gold-certified office buildings, solidifying its foothold and commitment to building green offices and commercial developments. These certifications are a testament to SM Prime’s dedication to reducing its contribution to global climate change—all while enhancing the quality of life within its communities.

The ThreeE-com Center boasts architectural wonders and green features that eventually earned its LEED Gold certification. These include water recycling for landscape and non-potable use. The building is fitted with glass windows that minimizes heat from entering the building, allowing tenants to use less air conditioning. This 15-storey, semi-circular twin-tower office building features function and aesthetic complemented with state-of-the-art facilities. While it was the first office building in the Mall of Asia Complex to receive such an honor, the new FourE-com Center also recently achieved the same certification—designed with its tenants’ needs in mind, improving work-life balance and office culture accordingly.

Both designed by globally renowned firm, Arquitectonica, the Three and Four E-coms are unique amongst business centers. “We designed the E-coms to functionally meet the BPO industry’s need for large, continuous floorplates, but also sculpted them in interesting ways so as to allow views and airflows between the buildings, while also, of course, giving them interesting architectural identities. At the same time, their landscaped podium decks create attractive communal green spaces for the tenants; they are envisaged to be interconnected via landscaped skybridges in the future. The combination of all these factors, architectural design and green spaces, have made the E-coms highly attractive to multinational companies and brands,” said David Zaballero, Arquitectonica Director.

SM Mega Tower

Meanwhile, SM Prime’s tallest skyscraper located along EDSA will also join the company’s growing roster of LEED-certified green buildings. Called Mega Tower, the 50-story office building is future-ready as it provides spaces that respect both its tenants and nature itself.

Strategically located in the busy Ortigas Centre, the 50-storey LEED registered skyscraper is flexibly designed to meet the requirements of both corporate and BPO tenants. Though its design is highly sculptural, each floorplate remains efficiently planned – combining functionality and iconic identity.

“Incorporating sustainability in property development means having the whole life cycle of a building in mind. We invest a tenth of our capital expenditure to ensure that sustainability is integrated into our properties as we carefully plan our developments for our communities, the environment, and future generations ,” SM Prime’s Mr. Lim said.

In close collaboration with the SM Group’s other business units, the CPG’s multi-segment or mixed-use approach maximizes the socio-economic potential of its buildings and developments. As a result, SM’s commercial developments are connected to our malls, residences, and parks and civic spaces. Notably, they are all easily accessible to transport hubs to ensure mobility for pedestrians and the commuting public. This interconnectivity, alongside each property’s green and safety features, reduces the company’s carbon footprint, attracts more tenants and locators, and encourages greater productivity among its workforce.

Saturday, May 7, 2022

updates

SM PRIME fronts with Green Buildings for Sustainable Cityscapes

Toto 7:42:00 PM

Cities continue to shape the way we live our lives – from shifting to greener lifestyles choices to reducing overall carbon emissions to help save the planet. The successful shift to greener cityscapes begin with the construction of green buildings, providing smart innovations that work with the environment and promote the well-being of the people who use these spaces on a daily basis.

According to a study made by the US Green Building Council, green buildings can reduce carbon emissions by around 40% on average, water consumption by around 30% and waste generation by around 70%. Beyond the environmental benefits, green buildings also help meet social needs by enhancing spaces, protecting human health, empowering differently-abled members of the community to take active participation and ensuring access to basic services at reasonable rates. Economic benefits can be felt as well with green buildings commanding higher rent potentials, encouraging ‘greenovation’ and promoting cultural and recreational activities without harming the environment.

Committed to making every day living better, SM Prime has taken the lead in incorporating sustainability and resiliency in its designs, making each component work together as a fully-integrated city of the future.

“Constructing greener buildings provides holistic solutions not only reducing emissions but also promoting social well-being.” shares Hans T. Sy, SM Prime Holdings Chairman of the Executive Committee. “We see this in our developments which drives us to build greener and even retrofit our existing malls to meet green standards.”

Among SM’s developments, a number boast of receiving LEED Gold certification while others are in the process of certification such as the SM Baguio expansion, SM North EDSA BPO offices, SM Megamall Mega Tower and SM Retail Corporation, to name a few.

SM Aura

The iconic SM Aura at the Bonifacio Global City is a mixed-use development that incorporates retail, trade halls and a Grade A office tower. The LEED Gold Certified mall promotes resource efficiency, green mobility and green landscapes.

SM Aura Bicycle Racks

Green Mobility. Cycling is encouraged with accessible bicycle storage, cyclists’ shower rooms and convenient access to safe lanes to public transit.

SM Aura Premier Park

Green Landscapes. The SM Aura Premier Park covers over 55% of the building, uses recycled water and provides enough room for plants to grow while protecting the building and people from heat.

SM Aura LEED GOLD Certification

Resource Efficiency. SM Aura uses 16% less than conventional buildings through a high- performance building envelope that reduces solar heat while allowing sufficient sunlight. Through low flow water sensor and metering faucets, it also reduces 1/3rd of its potable water use. Only low emitting materials were used as paint, adhesive sealants and floor materials.

Conrad Manila

Known as a lifestyle center, Conrad Manila is LEED Gold Certified. The hotel is designed with a dramatically-formed angular structure that houses a stylish 347-room hotel, spa and function space while S Maison is home to a swathe of smaller, more bespoke outlets for brands.

Bicycle racks at the Conrad Manila

Luxury Means Green Mobility. Boasting of high-end luxury experience, Conrad Manila remains environmentally friend by providing preferred parking slots for low emitting fuel efficient vehicles, car-sharing vehicles and special parking spaces and facilities for cyclists.

Eco-Friendly Materials. Locally manufactured and recycled materials and products were used whenever possible with more than 80% of the project’s construction waste recycled. Filtration systems maintain a minimum efficiency rating of 90% to eliminate airborne particulates.

Conrad Manila LEED Gold Certification

Resource Efficiency. Conrad Manila is designed to reduce energy around 12% less than American energy standards. Its water heating system recovers heat from the chiller condensers to produce hot water while its ventilation system recovers the coolness from the exhaust air, returning that into the building. The hotel is outfitted with occupancy sensors, tinted with low emissivity insulated glass to keep heat and noise out,

Going beyond the LEED Certification, SM Engineering and Design Development, the mall's design and construction arm has implemented these sustainable design strategies on the following projects:

SM Baguio Sky Garden

SM Baguio brings outdoor and indoor as one space optimizing natural lighting and ventilation with the Sky Garden. It has a green roof system as well as a provision for an underground water reservoir for storage and reuse of rainwater with a capacity of 4,389 cubic meters.

SM Seaside Cebu

SM Seaside Cebu mall goers can enjoy an extensive green area, center courtyard and roof garden. Constructed with low glass and utilizes EchoStop for noise management, the building is designed to maximize natural light and ventilation.

SM Lanang Sky Garden

SM Lanang Premier showcases lush greens, a roof garden and green pavers that encourage filtration and allow stormwater back to the underground soil. It is equipped with a rain water catchment system and a water reservoir with a 546-cubic meter capacity based on 425mm per hour rainfall intensity. It also has a materials recovery facility which receives, segregates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end-user manufacturers.

SM Masinag Holding Tank

SM City Masinag helps communities avoid flood waters through its 15,033 cubic meter water catchment facility. It is designed with green screens to promote vertical plant growth and is constructed with Clerestory windows as a source of natural light.

SM North EDSA Solar Panels

SM North Edsa is one of the pioneers of the use of solar panels. It is also the first to have the Sky Garden and elevated parks.

The Mall of Asia

SM Mall of Asia is uniquely designed with a seawall to avert any damage from potential storm surges or seal level rise. Built on reclaimed land, it used an excavation method providing a greater degree of protection against liquefaction and seismic events. It is also elevated above the required building levels and is equipped with wave return and drainage channel to prevent flooding due to storm surges and high waves.

SM Marikina sits on 246 stilts and is built 20 meters beyond the compliance for safety zone. At 20.5 meters above natural ground level, it serves as a first responder and a place of refuge for the residents of Marikina during times of calamities.

SM Marikina on stilts

Today, real estate investors, both for business and personal use, have grown to prefer spaces that support sustainability agendas of the growing population. Pursuing green building standards support the public’s aspiration for more sustainable communities that are designed for environmental and social well-being. SM Prime believes that it is important for developers to work with communities on addressing climate change and achieving shared aspirations – a greener, more sustainable cityscape for all to enjoy.

“Creating a more sustainable way of life requires a sustainable backdrop that supports the shift. At SM Prime, our passion is to create one that is sustainable and resilient for the life we want for today and the future,” Mr. Sy said.