The Philippines’ leading sustainable real estate developer continues to strengthen its position in the industry through strong and valuable partnerships. With AdventEnergy, the retail electricity supply arm of Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower), NEO is able to consistently achieve its sustainability goals and power its operations with sustainable and innovative energy solutions.
Raymond Rufino, CEO of NEO, said that open access gave NEO the power of choice, enabling them to move away from the captive market of the distribution utility and find a partner who shares the same vision for renewable energy and net zero in AdventEnergy.
“Sustainability cuts across so many aspects of the buildings. There are certain things you can do at the design stage, there are certain things you can do at the construction stage, and some things you can do at the operational stage,” Rufino explained. “One of the most critical things you can do in the operational stage of any project is to choose your power supply and type of power source.”
NEO decided to adopt 100% renewable energy for on-site use in 2013, shifting its portfolio of seven office buildings to run on electricity from one of AboitizPower’s Cleanergy plants.
“For your buildings, that is one of the most powerful ways, you can reduce [its] carbon footprint. Since we've had this partnership with [AdventEnergy], I am very happy that throughout the entire time, we had, not only renewable energy, but stable, high quality, reliable, and a very competitive power supply for our tenants across our buildings,” he added.
As part of NEO’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategy, it also began introducing energy conservation programs like transitioning to the use of more efficient LED lighting.
“The idea of the journey to net zero is really [energy efficiency]. Optimize everything in the building that uses power so that whatever is left over after you've been able to [optimize] your power is what is then now sourced to renewable energy,” Rufino said.
Choosing Sustainability
In a risk-averse and conservative industry, Rufino shared NEO’s ambitions which led to its decision to be a “first mover” in the renewable energy and sustainability space.
“I think for us, it's always [about] being bold enough to take those first few steps. I think our role is to be that company that takes the initial steps, and goes out there and just does it. So whether it's a new rating tool or whether it's achieving certain benchmarks for environmental performance, we want to be the one that is able to demonstrate what is possible and what is achievable in our Philippine real estate market,” he said.
NEO is the first property owner and developer to have completed its entire portfolio with 5-star certifications under the Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE) program, the nationally recognized green building rating system. The portfolio has also acquired 5-star certifications for net zero carbon energy under the Philippine Green Building Council’s Advancing Net Zero Philippines (ANZ/PH) program.
“There's lots to be excited about because, as a real estate company, we are looking not only at developing new projects but also managing a lot of [our] existing ones… We cannot think that only the new buildings must be green. All of our existing old building stock must be made more sustainable and green as well,” Rufino said.
In 2015, NEO joined GRESB, an organization that provides a methodology and framework to measure the ESG performance of individual assets and portfolios based on self-reported data. Aside from providing industry and global benchmarks, it let NEO expand its strategy to the social and governance aspects of ESG, prioritizing stakeholder engagements with tenants, employees, and community members in matters of sustainability.
“What a green building today is able to give is a certain level of comfort to organizations that the people — the greatest resource of any organization — will be safer, healthier, and more productive,” Rufino said.
“A lot of the workforce coming into a lot of these organizations is getting younger and younger, and the younger generations really care about where they work [and] who they work with, and they want to know that the company that they are working for has chosen to be in as green a building as possible, knowing that [it] is good for the environment and their own work and health,” he explained.
Rallying the Industry
Climate change is a concern for players in the real estate industry. A change in mindset coupled by concrete action towards going green is key to a strong and sustainable industry. Acknowledging that proofs of concept are effective means to inspire and convince other players, NEO continues to be a trailblazer in going green.
“We cannot change the entire industry by ourselves. We're always trying to do things to show other real estate owners and development managers what's possible. Like when we signed up with AdventEnergy and AboitizPower’s Cleanergy early on, we were able to show to a lot of other real estate players that, yes, you can make a shift to renewable energy,” Rufino said.
The partnership between AdventEnergy and NEO continues to grow strong. The companies look forward to further innovating and pioneering sustainable initiatives together to positively influence the real estate industry.
AdventEnergy provides customized solutions to help businesses save costs and perform efficiently, offering hybrid energy to ensure continuous power and smart metering to explore innovative ways in accessing and monitoring energy-related information.
“We’ve had a long and fantastic partnership with AdventEnergy. As we strengthen this partnership, we can continue to push for more efficient, more green buildings in the country,” Rufino said, adding how NEO is also looking forward to implementing other initiatives with clean electricity from AboitizPower’s portfolio.
“We’re now starting to push for EV charging stations across buildings. Aside from just providing the service to the building tenants, anyone who comes to the building - guests, employees, customers – can charge their electric vehicles using renewable energy.”