Nurturing the Country’s Environment Through Eco-Efficient Development
Ayala Land has been committed to fostering sustainability in the Philippines since 2007. Our site planners, architects, and engineers assist in conserving our country’s natural resources by using the principles of eco-efficiency to guide them. In this way, every masterplanned community, mixed-use real estate site, and commercial property we develop help contribute to the continued health of the Philippines’ ecosystem.
Our journey to sustainable and eco-efficient progress helps us protect the environment just as much as it helps the Filipino people. Ayala Land’s eco-efficient developments in the Philippines have provided homes for countless families, stimulated economic growth, and pushed the limits of real estate development.
Ayala Land’s Commitment to Sustainability
Ayala Land committed to being the most environmentally friendly developer in the Philippines in 2007. In that year, sustainability officially became one of the guiding principles of our company’s kind of land usage and development. To further consolidate our efforts in eco-efficiency, we implemented the Ayala Land Sustainability Framework.
Although this framework helped direct our commercial and real estate projects for years, Ayala Land has always been at the forefront of environmentally friendly developments in the Philippines. To maintain our position as one of the most innovative land developers, we changed the sustainability framework into the Four Focus Areas.
Four Focus Areas
In 2013, Ayala Land determined the specific concerns where we should direct our efforts in creating sustainable communities for the Filipino people. We narrowed down the country’s major environmental concerns down to four:
- The increased necessity of pedestrian access and mobility in urbanized locales
- The susceptibility of our ecosystems to the impact of climate change and natural catastrophes
- Imbalances in the Philippine’s socio-economic aspects
- The continuous deterioration and consumption of our country’s natural resources
Ayala Land developed the Four Focus Areas to address these concerns. Each focus area is meant to alleviate the effects of one of the country’s recurring issues. Each one also improves our company’s eco-efficiency.
Pedestrian Mobility and Transit Connectivity
Our community developers focus on mobility and connectivity to guide the transit flow of our masterplanned projects. Ayala Land creates communities that offer more options to commuters by building ample pedestrian walkways and sidewalks.
Our transit systems rely on carefully placed terminals and stops to provide commuters with an interconnected network that holds up under even severe traffic strains. The seamless flow of our transit networks lets commuters travel smoothly even during rush hour or road repairs.
Increased pedestrian mobility and efficient public transport also mean that people are less reliant on their motorized vehicles. The merger of human comfort and environmental responsibility decreases the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, helping protect our planet’s atmosphere.
Site Resilience
Native plant species are the best way to strengthen the resilience of a site’s ecosystem. To this end, Ayala Land allocates ample green spaces in each of our environmentally friendly developments in the Philippines. By 2018, Ayala Land had 301 hectares of green spaces across our established properties.
Our site developers use native tree species to create our green spaces. To date, Ayala Land has planted 68,901 trees from 67 different native species in our properties. Residents of our master-planned communities can enjoy their refreshing shade and calming presence as they walk down streets, play in parks, or relaxing in one of our green spaces.
By combining our responsibility to preserve the environment with our desire to provide our residents with a healthy atmosphere, we achieve two goals with one efficient move.
Local Economic Development
Ayala Land stimulates economic growth with every project we begin, and every development we open for business. People are as wonderful and as integrated with their environment as the plants and the trees. Because of this interconnectedness, Ayala Land also has the responsibility to cultivate efficient employees.
To provide our employees with more training and life skills, Ayala Land formed a partnership with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to create accredited training facilities for skills useful in construction. Since the program first began in 2014, 24,706 graduates have benefitted from the training they received in our facilities.
As ambitious and far-reaching the benefits of these Focus Areas are, Ayala Land knows we can do more for the environment. Our company is at the forefront of sustainability and one of the most sustainable developers in the country. We follow our Eco-Efficiency Focus Area in every project to achieve carbon neutrality by 2022.
Achieving Carbon Neutrality
Our focus on Eco-Efficiency has helped Ayala Land reduce our properties’ consumption of water and materials. Through our continued efforts, we’re aiming to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2022. To accomplish this goal, we’ve invested in shifting our properties away from traditional energy sources to clean energy providers. Ayala Land has already successfully shifted 32 out of 89 shopping malls and office buildings to clean energy.
Even in our efforts to increase our eco-efficiency and decrease our carbon footprint, Ayala Land still strives to innovate. We have put internal prices on carbon usage to promote investment in low-carbon options within the company.
Another innovative approach that Ayala Land has adopted is the creation of carbon forests. These are sites in our estates and properties we designated as carbon sinks and preserved as forest land. Our initial carbon forests covered 448 hectares in five locations. We have since expanded these woodland reservations with another 112 hectares.
Ayala Land has committed to making the most of our planet’s resources to ensure that future generations can enjoy the comforts available today. Now more than ever, we need to contribute as much as we can to build the foundation of a better world for the Filipino family.
Ayala Land is helping build that better world — one eco-efficient company, one masterplanned community, and one perfectly designed home at a time.
