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Training and hiring new employees, and giving them the benefits that come with full-time employment, cost money for a business. Any company knows that their employees are their best assets and investments, making these expenses a significant part of business operations; however, when employees fall sick or fail to perform at their best, the company’s productivity–and bottomline–suffer.
Just one percent of improvement in employee performance can already mean great savings for a company, as mentioned in ULI Philippines’ Sustainability Masterclass held last August 22 at De La Salle University – Rufino Campus with speakers Billy Grayson (Executive Director, Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance at the Urban Land Institute), Christopher de la Cruz (Chief Executive Officer of the Philippine Green Building Council), and Eng. Riza Perez (LEED & WEll Officer from the Menarco Development Corporation). And with the seemingly worsening Philippine climate and the ever-increasing stresses imposed on city dwellers and employees, it is high time that developers focused on the development of healthy places that serve residential, commercial, and mixed-use demands. This should be the focal point of real estate moving forward.
We’ve already seen them–green developments and oases in the middle of bustling communities. They are beautiful, but it’s more than their aesthetic appeal that drives developers to include them in master-planned communities. Especially in areas with a high concentration of residents, all aiming to be near their place of work while still living a balanced lifestyle, there is a need for healthy building design, construction, and management. The results are people-first buildings with a positive effect on human health and productivity, with the corporate bottom line not compromised in any way.
Positives on All Fronts
Central business districts are teeming with buildings meant to cater to a mixture of companies and businesses. Each business may want to focus on their own bottom line, understandably, but encased in a healthy building, there awakens a community that benefits from the positive effects of reduced turnover and absenteeism.
Studies reveal that healthy spaces, when planned to incorporate physical activity and healthy lifestyles, improve business return on investment. This is a good enough reason for more developers to join early adopters in implementing healthier plans for their upcoming projects.
Green developments, which have turned into a global phenomenon, are making their way into the Philippine real estate market, with buildings such as Menarco Tower already setting high standards for everyone else to follow. With well-ventilated floors and biophilic design elements that aim to prevent or reverse chronic health conditions, employees can go to work as an extension of the healthy lifestyle they try to implement at home.
In 2013, ULI launched the Building Healthy Places Initiative for health to be a focus of real estate development and land use. Six years later, the Philippines is dotted with developments that realize this vision, with communities following the ten principles of building healthy places:
- Put people first
- Recognize the economic value
- Empower champions for health
- Energize shared spaces
- Make healthy choices easy
- Ensure equitable access
- Mix it up
- Embrace unique character
- Promote access to healthy food
- Make it active
Efforts are not left unnoticed, as there are Health and Wellness Certification Systems for Buildings, such as the Fitwell Certification System and the WELL Building Standard. Getting these certifications set buildings apart, particularly Menarco Tower, located at 32nd Street in Bonifacio Global City, which is the “healthiest building in the Philippines.”
Sitting is the New Smoking
Residents in the metro, of course, come in all ages and lifestyles. On one front, setting the standard for healthy buildings on commercial spaces will benefit the employees in the corporate setting. However, efforts should not stop once employees leave work at the end of the day. The whole business district, whether it is in Ortigas, Makati, or BGC, should aim to extend healthy practices outside the office.
Families want to prioritize not just their health but also the health of their children. Here, developers are already working on parks situated within walking distance of their residential and commercial developments. Parks near residences increase physical activity and help employees decompress at the end of the day. There are also play spaces for children to encourage physical activity, just as there are biking provisions for adults to promote a healthier way of moving around in the city.
Other features of a healthy landscape are farmers’ markets, groceries stocked with healthy alternatives, pockets of nature, and minimized noise pollution.
Next up: Government Buildings
With stringent building codes and state laws in place, building sustainable developments in the US is a clear-cut decision. In the Philippines, however, the decision to build may sometimes be driven by cost, aesthetics, and current trends. This is in contrast with the immediate goal of efficiency and sustainability, which means prioritizing the direct impact of building on health.
The adoption of healthier practices poses a problem when dealing with existing buildings, particularly those that are tied to the government budget. The building of the Department of Energy, as well as most government buildings, was designed with the general idea that employees follow a single eight-hour shift of operations. There is also an existing policy to switch off the air conditioning at certain intervals of the day to mitigate costs.
The least-performing buildings in terms of energy efficiency are not necessarily the oldest. For existing buildings, developers should look into every available option to optimize the energy use with the goal of a net-zero building. Planting trees is a good way to ease into a greener building, but developers can do more from the planning stages. Even when designing a new building from the ground up, following a design independent of efficient building practices and only adding solar panels and green touches as an afterthought will hardly result in a zero-energy building. The most inefficient strategy is to hire contractors who may not be provided any insight into how the building can be made more energy-efficient.
A simple but effective change, should government buildings decide to say yes to more efficient practices, is to add ceiling insulation. Depending on the brand tapped to make this change, it may cost cheaper than installing new lighting systems.
The New Philippine Aim: Completeness
Real estate developments in the Philippines still leave much to be desired. We are making headway on healthy living practices if we look at the projects of developers who see and prioritize the human element in their construction. What’s next is for the government to catch up and modernize what already exists, to benefit our government employees and the thousands of people who visit these buildings regularly.
As we build new developments with a focus on lifestyle and sustainability, we must not leave behind existing buildings. Only after we have bridged this gap will the Philippines proudly achieve the completion of its sustainable goals.
