SM Prime Holdings Inc.

2014

Top Green Companies In Asia

SM Prime Holdings Inc.

Top Green Companies In Asia

2014

about sm prime

“The company minimises the environmental impact of mall operations and improves the environmental health of the local communities as they are the main stakeholders in its business. The company’s projects are focused on the benefits of the local communities and customers (PWD, children, women, OFW – Global Pinoy Centre, senior citizens) by following and going beyond mandated government standards in energy efficiency, water, waste, air quality, and disaster risk reduction management. ”

SM Prime Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in the Philippines in 1994. Starting out as a mall developer and operator, it grew to be the biggest retail shopping centre developer and operator in the Philippines with 49 malls in and outside Metro Manila and five shopping malls in China, totaling seven million square metres of gross floor area (GFA). As of the end October 2014, in the Philippines, the company has a total of 15,986 tenants; in China it has 1,408 tenants.

SM Supermalls’ primary business is the leasing of mall space to food, non-food and service tenants, with the provision of basic utilities such as water, electricity, LPG, chilled water, exhaust and waste disposal, among others. SM Supermalls has a comprehensive approach to being a good environmental citizen by incorporating sustainability into the heart of the business model. This is through constant operational procedures in waste, energy and water management along with constant external community outreach programmes to ensure significant reduction in carbon footprint.

Today, SM Prime is one of the largest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia that offers innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities with the development of malls, residences, offices, hotels and convention centres. In the Philippines, it is the largest property developer in terms of asset and income base as of end 2013. Being an integrated property developer, SM Prime now goes beyond mall development and management. The residential business component comes from its subsidiary, SM Development Corporation (SMDC) that sells affordable condominium units. SM Prime’s commercial business unit, the Commercial Property Group (CPG), is engaged in the development and leasing of office buildings in Metro Manila, as well as the operations and management of buildings and other land holdings such as the Mall of Asia Arena (MOA Arena). Its hotels and convention centres business unit develops and manages various hotel and convention centres across the Philippines.

With the continuous growth of the business, the demands of economy and concern for the stakeholders a priority, SM Prime reaffirms and strengthens its commitment to environmental stewardship as the company finds more ways to practice sustainable daily operations, which may have significant impact on the environment.

That is why being “green” is ingrained into the company’s business model as indicated in the sustainability framework of SM Prime Holdings. All processes and standard operating procedures are guided by this framework and international principles.

SUSTAINABLE DAILY OPERATIONS
SM Prime Holdings believes in sustainable daily operations that impactwell on the various stakeholder communities that it serves.

The company minimises the environmental impact of mall operations and improves the environmental health of the local communities as they are the main stakeholders in its business. The company’s projects are focused on the benefits of the local communities and customers (PWD, children, women, OFW – Global Pinoy Centre, senior citizens) by following and going beyond mandated government standards in energy efficiency, water, waste, air quality, and disaster risk reduction management.

To ensure efficient and sustainable operations, SM Supermalls has established an internal reporting system to constantly monitor consumption of resources and waste generated on a monthly basis. This monitoring scheme is embedded in the function of the assigned employee from both the Operations Department for evaluation of resource management vis-a-vis economic performance and the Engineering Department for the Self-Monitoring Report (SMR) as required by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). This information is reported in the monthly Operations Meetings as well as in the annual SM Prime Sustainability Report. The ultimate goal of attaining maximum feasible efficiency, regular audit of the company’s operations allows it to identify best practices and determine areas for further improvement.

Special projects are undertaken by the Operations, Engineering and Sustainability Departments to further enhance existing procedures. Such projects encompass energy efficiency and management of greenhouse gas emissions, water, solid waste and air quality management, as well as disaster resilience. All water, energy and waste management statistics are measured per location per month. The results are then analysed and benchmarked in regional and international standards.

SM’s corporate social responsibility programme is its own humanitarian imperative and its way to give back to the communities it serves. But the effort is a collaboration of several stakeholders. Aside from the local government and its customers, SM aims to engage with other corporations in creating more sustainable and disaster resilient businesses in the Philippines with the guidance of UNISDR. Because of SM’s investment in disaster resilient designs, the malls have become designated evacuation centres for the nearby communities in times of disasters. SM’s green initiatives also send the message that businesses must mandatorily care for the immediate environment. Aside from this, integrating CSR initiatives with mall operations has made SM’s malls more accommodating to all kinds of customers.

Operational green initiatives are implemented through the guidance of SM’s Engineering arm (SM-EDD). Non-operational initiatives are implemented with the guidance of SM Cares (for example, tree planting activities, fun runs and so on). Measuring results is done in various ways depending on the initiatives and the objectives that need to be attained.

Here is a sample list of measurements that we use at SM Prime:

Energy management efforts: kwh/sqm;ced, easy to use and affordable building materials like flyash bricks, blocks, tiles, pavers, roofing, walling, frames and other materials and solutions;
Water management: percentage of recycled water = (m3 of recycled water/m3 of overall consumption);
Solid waste management: percentage of recycled and proportions of solid waste (paper, plastics, metals, bottles and so on); and
Disaster resilience: Savings from potential damage during typhoons.