Photo Credit: Ayala LandThe Philippine real estate frontier reached a new milestone with Ayala Land’s Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) arm, AREIT, Inc. (AREIT), obtaining the coveted EDGE Zero Carbon Certification. Such a prestigious acknowledgment wasn't just stamped on a solitary building but a remarkable collection of eight office establishments, spanning across an impressive area of 354,000 square meters. This makes Ayala Land and AREIT not just participants but leaders in green building initiatives within the nation.
The Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) is not your average accolade; an international beacon of sustainability, it derives from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector heart of the World Bank Group. EDGE certification, especially the Zero Carbon level, is more than a plaque on the wall; it serves as a testament to properties achieving carbon neutrality via proactive renewable energy implementation. The required benchmarks include a 40% minimum energy savings, water savings of 20%, and a significant embodied carbon reduction in building materials.
It's an ensemble like no other—the eight AREIT buildings honored with the EDGE Zero Carbon Certification: from Glorietta’s dynamic corporate hubs to the innovative Solaris One, the strategically positioned McKinley Exchange, and Vertis North Corporate Centers trio, rounded off with The 30th Corporate Center's excellence in Pasig. They shone with statistics that speak volumes—a 45.33% boost in energy efficiency, 49.07% in water savings, and 61.88% cutback in embodied carbon material usage.
Visionary drives such as this don't come without a profound sense of purpose. Mariana Zobel de Ayala echoes this sentiment, heralding the EDGE Zero Carbon achievement as a step forward in fostering sustainable development practices that would secure a prosperous environmental future for the Philippines.
Not content with resting on its laurels, September 2023 was marked by an ambitious memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Ayala Land, AREIT, and the IFC. The heart of this agreement? A daring objective to transform an expansive 1.5 million square meters of office space into EDGE Zero Carbon certified territories by 2025—setting the stage for the largest such portfolio within the Philippine isles.
When pillars of the global financial community tip their hats, the world takes notice. Jean-Marc Arbogast's endorsement highlights the significance of Ayala Land and AREIT’s strides towards environmental stewardship. The IFC Country Manager's outlook is more than complimentary; it's an open anticipation of the paradigm shift this would bring across the sector.
A staggering 88% of Ayala Land, Inc. and AREIT, Inc.’s office space portfolio has made the transition to renewable energy sources, encompassing approximately 1.2 million square meters of real estate. This monumental shift is not solely for their corporate branding but serves to meet the growing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) demands of their clients.
Actively pushing for zero-carbon emissions, AREIT’s EDGE-certified buildings provide locators with significant value—energy savings, reduced water consumption, and minimized carbon footprint. What does this translate to? A quantitative and qualitative leap towards corporate sustainability goals.
Ayala Land’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond the corporate sphere—it's about paving the way for a nationwide embrace of green standards. AREIT’s EDGE certification marks the beginning of an era where ecological responsibility and economic development walk hand in hand.
Moving forward, Ayala Land and AREIT have set an inspiring precedent, effectively raising the bar for the real estate industry in the Philippines. With their relentless pursuit of sustainability, they couple their ambition with actionable frameworks—forecasting a future where office spaces are not merely places of work but cradles of environmental stewardship.
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