Property giant Megaworld notched its biggest sustainability milestone to date, as it officially achieved carbon neutrality for all its company-owned office and mall developments across the country.
This achievement covers 52 developments, all of which are 100 percent operational Megaworld-owned commercial properties in various townships all over the Philippines.
Based on data compiled by Megaworld, in partnership with Diligent, a global leader in leader in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC), the company’s gross carbon emissions from operational Megaworld-owned properties accounted for about 69,000 metric tons in 2023, 98 percent of which came from electricity consumption (Scope 2), and the rest from fuel consumption (Scope 1).
Of this total, 51 percent came from Megaworld-owned mall developments, while the remaining 49 percent was recorded from its office properties.
With the company’s recent move to begin tapping renewable energy as a power source, Megaworld was able to offset about 36,000 metric tons of carbon emissions in the previous year. Through its partnership with MPower, a subsidiary of Meralco, Megaworld is looking into a 100 percent shift to renewable energy for all its company-owned office and mall properties in the next three years.
Since 2021, the company already planted around 100,000 trees inside its dedicated carbon forests across the country. It also supported carbon offsetting projects, certified by Verra, the world’s biggest certifier of voluntary carbon offsets.
“In the next few years, we will be able to activate over 1,000 hectares of carbon forests in Batangas, Cavite, Tarlac, Iloilo, Palawan, and Cebu,” Jose Arnulfo Batac, head of sustainability at Megaworld, said in a press release May 20.
Megaworld is set to tap a third-party organization to further evaluate its sustainability efforts, particularly those centered on carbon neutrality, which, experts say “means carbon dioxide emissions released by any public or private company’s operations, balanced with an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide they reduced or removed”.
“We look forward to achieving carbon neutral emissions for scopes 1 and 2 by 2035 for the entire Megaworld Group. We also turn our focus on accounting for our full Scope 3 emissions, through our collaboration with our ESG Data Warehouse partner, Diligent, for a more ambitious target of achieving Net Zero by 2050. This is our way of continuing to champion our commitment to helping build a greener and cleaner future for everyone,” Batac added.
Last year, Megaworld launched its groundbreaking company-wide sustainability campaign, MEGreen, to consolidate all its sustainability efforts, aimed at responding to the different United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) under one unifying platform.
This program earned three recognitions at the 59th Anvil Awards, including the coveted Grand Anvil—the highest recognition in the country given to a public relations program in the Philippines—under the Corporate Identity and Corporate Branding Program category. ||
