SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (SM Prime), the largest integrated property developer in the Philippines, had one of its malls cited at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Energy Awards 2024 Best Practices Competition for Energy Efficient Buildings.

SM City Butuan, which opened in November 2020, was recognized under the New and Existing Building category after the Department of Energy (DOE) endorsed the mall’s entry to represent the Philippines for advancing energy efficiency and conservation (EEC) innovations to their mall designs and operations.

“This recognition is a testament to SM Prime’s dedication to building sustainable spaces across the Philippines. By showcasing energy-efficient practices in malls like SM City Butuan, we are actively contributing to a greener future for all,” said Hans Sy Jr., SM Engineering and Design Development President and SM Group sustainability champion.

The ASEAN Energy Awards (AEA) is the prestigious regional awarding body that acknowledges outstanding contributions to the energy sector in the region. The award aims to promote greater private sector engagement and investment in Southeast Asia’s energy development. For this year, the awards recognized organizations and companies’ commitment toward sustainable energy practices and innovation, featuring two major categories — Energy Efficiency and Conservation and Renewable Energy.

For decades, SM Prime has been innovating and incorporating EEC and renewable energy into its mall designs, construction, and processes, and has committed these practices to all of its projects. SM City Butuan best exemplifies SM Prime’s dedication to incorporating sustainable initiatives in its developments.

Prior to this award, the SM City Butuan was one of the awardees of the Energy Management of Buildings and Industries in the DOE’s Energy Efficiency Excellence Awards in 2023, under the New and Existing Building category. This is why the DOE endorsed the entry to the ASEAN Energy Awards.

For both awards, SM City Butuan had numerous sustainability and energy-saving features, which include passive and active design concepts, and on-site natural environmental integration.

Among its passive design features include the use of optimized building orientation to minimize solar heat gain, utilizes an Exterior Insulation Finishing System (EIFS) for enhanced thermal protection, and the incorporation of canopies and low-emissivity glass for shading and daylighting. These design elements have been proven to significantly reduce the need for artificial cooling, providing greater savings in electricity use.

For its active design features, SM City Butuan employs a highly efficient water-cooled chiller plant with variable frequency drives (VFDs) on major equipment like kitchen exhaust fans. This technology optimizes energy use based on real-time demand. The mall also boasts 100% Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting, a hallmark of SM’s commitment to energy-efficient illumination.

SM City Butuan also integrates green spaces, hardscapes, and promotes natural ventilation, maximizing the use of the natural environment to create comfortable microclimates and reduce energy consumption.

These best practices, highlighted in SM City Butuan’s award entry, demonstrate SM Prime’s holistic approach to sustainability, incorporating innovative sustainability design strategies to minimize its environmental impact. This approach advocating environmental sustainability extends to its other mall developments.

Currently, 32 SM malls have self-used solar photovoltaic (PV) systems that are undergoing various stages of commissioning, testing, and final acceptance. These installations on top of the malls’ rooftops generate a total capacity of 40 megawatts (MW) of clean energy.

Furthermore, SM Prime contributes 259MW of power to the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) of the DOE and Energy Regulatory Commission, the highest contribution from the private sector. Among all these malls, SM Mall of Asia leads the charge, providing a committed capacity of 15.92 MW for every ILP activity.

These ongoing efforts reflect SM Prime’s unwavering dedication to sustainability and its ambitious goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2040.