The nation’s biggest real estate developer has laid down the path to sustainable real estate development.
Abundant empirical evidence has shown that industries and companies are instinctively reluctant to embrace a concept that is unfamiliar and potentially expensive and that acceptance takes place only when the leader (or leaders) of an industry firmly endorses the concept.
A prominent case in point is the concept of sustainability. This concept has had a long and difficult journey toward acceptance by the Philippine business community. Corporate programs intended to promote sustainability in the face of climate change have long been regarded as optional at best and unnecessary at worst.
The slowness of industries to embrace an unfamiliar concept has been true to one of this country’s biggest industries– real estate development. Over the years, the industry has been developing millions of hectares of valuable land with little concern for the sustainability – environment, economic, social, governance – of their projects.
But that is about to change, for the leading real estate developer in this country, SM Development Corp. (SMDC), a subsidiary of SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI) – has just described what sustainable real estate development looks like.
“Developers must create new communities that act as economic and cultural hubs, emphasizing inclusivity, environmental protection and cultural preservation,” said Jessica Bianca Sy, SMPHI and SMDC lead executive for design, innovation and strategy, before the recently concluded “Advancing Sustainable Cities and Communities through Science, Technology and Innovation.”
In her speech, the SMDC executive addressed the matters that are proving to be particularly challenging to living in a world beset by climate change and other 21st century pressures. I was struck by the approaches that apparently are being adopted by her company to deal with the challenges.
Ms. Sy spoke of her company’s integrated property developments (IPDs) – efficiently managed areas within which residential, commercial and leisure areas are blended – located in prime locations accessible to transportation that guarantee high-yielding investment for investors and easy access to economic opportunities for residents. The IPDs are in furtherance of SMDC’s “15-minute city”, which involves planning for the location of essential daily needs and services within a 15-minute-walk radius.
For the transportation element of IPD living, Ms. Sy spoke of a “pedestrian-friendly infrastructure” incorporating a network of protected pedestrian and cycling corridors.
This country’s leading real estate developer apparently has initiated discussions with franchise holders about an “Integrated Smart Energy Management” system that will manage energy use by buildings and infrastructure. “District cooling” will be introduced in future SMDC properties to lower individual buildings’ energy needs for cooling.
For more efficient water supply and use, SMDC intends to install a natural drainage system into its future projects, Ms. Sy said. Such a system will incorporate small catchment areas and detention tanks and ponds.
The nation’s biggest real estate developer has laid down the path to sustainable real estate development. The rest of the real estate industry is bound to follow SMDC down that path.
