Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) in 2018 continues to undertake initiatives to become the industry benchmark in sustainable practices. With the overall goal of achieving carbon neutrality in its commercial properties by 2022, it embarked on aggressive initiatives that included passive cooling design, energy efficiency, renewable energy sourcing and carbon offset mechanisms such as forest regeneration and protection.
In support of this, Avida Land Corp., an ALI subsidiary that provides affordable communities for middle-income families, by integrating ALI’s 4 sustainability focus areas in its products and processes: (1) Site Resiliency; (2) Eco-Efficiency; (3) Pedestrian Mobility; (4) Contribution to Local Economy. These focus areas are embedded through market shaping and culture-building within the organization.
To help shape the market in embracing site resilience, Avida preserves onsite native trees, integrates parks with appropriately sized tree nurseries in some of its projects and started to reduce the use of chemical pesticides and switching to natural alternatives in landscaping. In the area of eco-efficiency, Avida installed water meters on watering hoses to benchmark water consumption used for irrigation and targeted 10% water consumption reduction by use of mulching on pilot projects. Avida continuously integrated safety, transit connectivity and pedestrian mobility in its designs to guarantee that projects are commuter and pedestrian friendly.
Lastly, to reinforce a culture of sustainability and teamwork, Avida employees participated in Ayala Land’s Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) activities from June to August 2018. The ANR activities were in support of Ayala Land’s Alaminos Carbon Forest project, in Laguna. Dubbed as “Step Up: Avida’s CommuniTree ReLeaf”, it was participated by 85% (248) of its employees. 6 events were organized and manned by a different geographical project core team. This also allowed an opportunity for a collaborative fun fellowship across divisions. Overall, the employees returned 4,000 tree saplings rescued from the upcoming TR4 road to be replanted in dedicated Carbon Forest sites.
Through these initiatives, Ayala Land and Avida continue their commitment to sustainability, making sure that not only its current users benefit from the development, but also the community and future generations of Filipinos