SPRAWLING malls and shopping centers in the Philippines have not been spared by the wave of increased environmental consciousness that has engulfed shoppers and consumers the world over.

More than ever, mall developers are investing in new architecture and construction concepts that promise to reduce the structures' adverse impact on the environment.

This only earns them goodwill points among discriminating shoppers but also allows them to significant savings in one of the biggest components of their operating expenses.

There are many ways that manifest this increased care toward the environment.

For the SM group, the biggest mall developer in the Philippines, environmental consciousness starts in the design of their malls, especially the newer ones, says SM vice president Millie Dizon.

"For example, our malls have skylights that not only provide natural lighting, but also reduce the costs of power," Dizon says, "Some of our malls like SM City Baguio and the Mall of Asia also have areas where customers can enjoy fresh mountain and sea breezes."

She also stressed that the SM group has put an Energy Management System in place as early as eight years ago. There are also sewage treatment plants in the malls.

"We also recycle our water, which we use in cooling towers and to water our landscape areas. We have waterless urinals in our malls, which in the beginning were quite costly, but in the end turned out to be more efficient and more environmentally correct," she says, "The Mall of Asia also has zero waste water, meaning we don't through away any water."

Even the employees and customers are encouraged to get on the environmental consciousness bandwagon through the purchase of the recyclable shopping bags and participation in the regular recycling fairs at the malls where everyone can sell their recyclable goods, such as paper and plastics.

For the growing Ayala group, environmental sustainability is a mindset and a philosophy.

"The scale of our projects requires us to design with a vision for future generations and not just the present. This long-term perspective, which has long been deeply rooted in Ayala Land Inc.'s philosophy, makes sustainable approach to development a necessity," said Rowena Tomeldan, chief operating officer of the malls division of the Philippines ' biggest real estate company.

Environmental programs

The following are some of the Ayala malls environmental programs, according to Tomeldan:

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) program aims to reduce residual waste by recovering materials that can be reused, recycled and processed into compost. Ayala malls started this program that has become a model for other malls.

The SWM project is so successful that the group was able to bring residual waste down by 85 percent. This was due to major energy conservation measures such as process redesign, equipment scheduling, retrofitting with more efficient technologies and re-calibration and repairs leading to substantial savings in electricity costs.

Mall parking areas are also used as collection and drop-off points for the Waste Market, a project organized to improve the collection of non-traditional waste. Ayala Center Makati, Alabang Town Center, Bonifacio Global City, and TriNoma host these monthly waste markets.

The group also recycles rain water to water the plants and is involved in the maintenance of over 50,000 trees and over 60 species in the nurseries.
Tree planting activities are regularly held.
Business sense

Tomeldan says it’s just good business sense for malls to be more environment-friendly. For one thing, customers demand no less; for another, it impacts on the bottom line.

"Sustainability essentially means being more prudent and more efficient in terms of resource consumption (power, fuel, water, natural resource) and in waste generation (pollution, garbage, sewage). Thus, with increasing costs of energy and water resources alone, being more efficient in our consumption and being less wasteful generates savings in operating costs, which contributes to the bottom line of our projects and reduces the maintenance dues of our merchants," she says.

The Araneta Center in suburban Quezon City, has likewise made a name for itself among architectural circles with its Gateway Mall, which has its share of design excellence awards.

According to Belle Baldoza of the Araneta group's public relations department, the high-end Gateway Mall has many environment-friendly design features.

It has access to daylight via the Oasis (upper ground to level 4), picture windows in strategic areas, a skylight at the cinema to give daylight access to four levels – all designed to reduce the need for artificial lighting during the day.

Baldoza says the Oasis, skylight and atrium were designed at great expense to the company because they sacrificed prime floor space that could have been leased out. But these were investments the group had to make in keeping with its high regard for being environment-friendly.

Good investment

"Being more environment friendly costs a bit more in terms of investment, but reduced utility charges more than makes up for the initial investment," Baldoza adds.

For Frances J. Yu, vice president for marketing of Rustan Supercenters Inc., being environment-friendly is no longer a nice cause, but has become a moral imperative for retail establishments.

"With incontrovertible proof that global warming has been wreaking havoc on our world, we all need to be good corporate citizens, especially big business. On our end, Rustan's Supercenters (operator of Shopwise Hypermarkets and Rustan's Supermarkets) has undertaken projects that range from reducing use of plastics, to recycling to conservation of energy, to supporting organizations such as Worldwide Fund for Nature, and we are committed to accelerate these efforts moving forward," Yu says.

According to Bien R. Javier, assistant vice president for asset management of Rustan's Supercenters, one of the first moves the group made toward becoming a better steward of the environment is to put up wastewater treatment facilities in all stand-alone stores.

"Although this is mandated by law, we made sure that we strictly adhere to the internationally accepted discharge standards. We also started replacing 40-watt fluorescent tubes with 36-watt electronic ballast tubes to help reduce our energy consumption," Javier says.

"In future designs, we are considering the use of skylights and windows to help reduce our lighting needs. We are also studying the application of LED in our stores since this has proven to be energy efficient with very long burning hours. Of course, we are continuously looking for energy efficient refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment, but most of the present eco-friendly designs come at a very high price," he adds.

Yet, responsible retail developers are willing to pay that price, believing that doing nothing and letting the environment go to ruin would end up being even more costly.