World Bank Group’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corp. (IFC), is determined to push the country in the green building direction due to the Philippines’ market potential and the possibility of greater engagement with green finance banking institutions.
In line with an effort to groom the local sector for green building and attract investments, IFC’s technical and business specialists have recently introduced a “resilience tool” to bankers and property developers to help the financial sector access climate and disaster risks to green-financed projects.
Once it gains foothold, the tool can, later on, be utilized by IFC as a precondition for making its investments through Philippine banks.
IFC global technical head for EDGE Ommid Saberi said the Philippines has a strong potential to develop its green building initiative due to the occurrence of many natural disasters in the country.
The EDGE software and certification program is currently being used by building designers and property developers who are trying to build structures that can withstand climate stresses and command greater value in the market.
Ascott Makati by Ascott Ltd. and Primavera Residences Towers A and B developed by Italpinas Development Corp. are among the first EDGE-certified buildings in the country.
The buildings in the country are currently still making use of outdated technology that does not allow structures to withstand calamities. The majority are also not efficient in the use of energy and materials.
“The problems that climate change is creating for global conditions from economy to people, to social development is extreme and is going to be enormous as we go,” said Saberi in a recent interview.
“The building sector in various parts of the world, like the Philippines, has been left behind, using old-fashioned technologies,” he said.
IFC is also focusing on the prevailing need for low-cost housing in the country, making them shift their focus away from niche markets like high-end buildings.
“You cannot solve the climate change problem by going only for niche markets, just the high-end commercial buildings. The action has to be on a scale,” said Saberi, noting untapped solutions for green buildings can produce great results for the mass market like in social housing.
Saberi said while it is a good thing that market leaders in the country have been able to showcase their ability to adopt new building technologies, more players in construction and finance can build on these gains.
In line with this, he said IFC is aiming to make EDGE and the new resilience tool a standard for green building development in the country.
“EDGE can be a common language between the buyers, developers, and governments,” he said.
“The solutions have to be for everybody, but you cannot expect everyone to act without getting the banking sector in the game because financing plays a very big role. Only with the banking sector can we make the biggest impact,” he said.
IFC has had some investments in the Philippine building sector but to expand, it will have to engage more with the banking sector.
“With IFC, we have done our own investments here in the Philippines, but to scale up we need to engage the banking sector,” said Saberi.
Saberi said the resilience tool would also benefit buyers because they would know the risks in their property purchase.
In line with the Paris climate agreement, IFC is putting 35 percent of its annual investments to climate projects worldwide up to 2030.
Saberi said there is a need to develop markets where these investments would be placed.
IFC’s EDGE global business leader Rusmir Music said that in the course of engagement with Philippines banks and developers, results of previous projects show only a minimal increase in capital expenditure to pursue green designs.
“What we are doing different now is to bring stories and data that we got from our own current projects. So when we launched EDGE, we had a thesis that the extra cost for green will not be as high as people thought will be because it can be done through smart design” he said.
“We can now substantiate that data because we have been getting the reports from the developers.” By using smart design and supplementing it with mechanical and solar, we can accomplish efficiency without being too expensive,” he said.
Source: Philippine Star
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