AREIT Inc. (AREIT), the pioneer REIT in the Philippines underscores its commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles through sustainability programs that create the most benefit to the community and support its path toward carbon neutrality and net zero emissions. AREIT is so far on track toward neutralizing its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by the end of the year, while moving towards Scope 3 and net zero emissions from operations of its existing buildings by the end of 2022. Scope 1 emissions are greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use of fuel such as those in generators and vehicles. Scope 2 refers to emissions coming from electricity consumption in common areas controlled by AREIT, while Scope 3 refers to other emissions from AREIT’s value chain.
“As a sustainable REIT, we believe that moving toward net zero carbon operational emissions is the most impactful environmental initiative we can undertake. By using renewable energy in our buildings, we not only achieve AREIT’s ESG objectives, but also enable our building locators, many of whom are top multinational corporations, to achieve their own ESG standards,” said AREIT president and CEO Carol Mills.
LEED-certified buildings
Many of AREIT’s buildings are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-Certified, such as the Teleperformance building in Cebu, One Evotech in Nuvali and Vertis Corporate Center in Quezon City.
To promote site resilience, AREIT’s properties were developed to allocate open and green spaces to provide a healthy environment for the community.
Aside from this, the properties feature District Cooling Systems (DCS) which helps decrease electricity consumption by 20 percent to 35 percent compared to regular cooling systems.
Social impact and good governance in everyday practice
AREIT’s office buildings spur local economic development by attracting international and local business locators to its properties. These locators have contributed an estimated P6.2 billion to P9.8 billion in capital expenditures to the country’s economy.
The company strictly adopts policies and practices for good corporate governance that sustain value for all its stakeholders.
“With good governance guiding our value creation efforts for shareholders, our entire organization continues to strive for innovation, for exploring new ways to advance sustainably, to improve environmentally, and better adapt to our ever-changing climate,” Mills said.