Company: Cebu Holdings, Inc.
Country: Philippines
Project Name: The Energy Management Program of Cebu Holdings, Inc.
Category: Environment
Website:
Objective:
The program was implemented continually to reduce the building’s energy consumption and operating costs, while providing the same quality of service and reducing the company’s carbon dioxide emission.
Details of the project:
Cebu Holdings, Inc. (CHI) was a full-line real estate company involved in the planning, construction, and operation of real estate products in Cebu. The wholly-owned property managed by CHI was Ayala Center Cebu, a regional shopping center. Its other managed properties were the Cebu Business Park (CBP), a 50-hectare development, with land use zones for office, residential and commercial development; Asiatown IT Park (AITP), a 25-hectare development; and a PEZA economic zone, for IT and IT-related industries. Other projects within the CBP were residential condominiums, office condominiums, two residential subdivisions, and two BPO buildings.
Conscious of its energy consumption, CHI, through its Property Management Division, undertook the challenge of reducing energy consumption in its wholly-owned and managed properties. For the managed properties, this meant getting the approval and support of the Board of Directors of each.
It regularly monitored and reported these properties’ yearly energy targets, initiatives, and corresponding consumption to the Management or the Board of Directors, as applicable. For initiatives that had financial costs, a cost/benefit study was presented for approval. Once approved, these initiatives were implemented and the results monitored and presented again. This arrangement updated and informed the Management/Boards of the results. The programs were also tied to and strengthened with, the Quality, Environment and Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (QEHS MS), which conformed with the ISO/OHSAS standards (ISO 9001:2001, ISO 14001:2004, OHSAS 18001:2007).
For its Cebu properties, CHI launched various energy efficiency projects. At Ayala Center Cebu, it used variable speed drives for the air conditioning units and water supply pumps. These regulated the speed of the equipment so that only what was needed was provided. Since the motor speed was proportional to the power consumption, the slower the speed, the lesser the consumption.
Also at the Ayala Center in Cebu, machine room-less elevators rather than traditional elevators (with separate hoist machines) were used. The new elevators’ hoist motors, which were mounted on the side, consumed 50 percent less power than the traditional elevators, and used no oil (for the gear drive). The Center also used T5 fluorescent lamps, which consumed only 28W as opposed to 40W lamps, without sacrificing luminance.
As for the managed properties, CFLs were used in the common areas and fire exits, which were lit at all times. Again, the 40W lamps were replaced with 23 W CFLs that did not sacrifice illumination, but reduced operations cost by 42 percent.
Instead of installing 40W fluorescent lamps in the basement parking areas, occupancy sensors were used without compromising safety. The occupancy sensors lit up only when someone was around, and switched off when no movement was detected.
Wetlands for wastewater treatment were constructed. Rather than a mechanical system (aerator, blower, pumps, etc.), these wetlands used plants that could absorb the organics in the domestic wastewater, and in the process, treat the wastewater. With this natural system, the cost of installation and of operating blowers, clarifiers, motors, and others, was eliminated. The innovation saved electricity while cleaning the wastewater discharges
The Company and its employees received a plaque of appreciation from the DOE-Philippine Efficient Lighting Market Transformation Project (PELMATP), on December 10, 2008. One of its employees (Elson R. Homez), with his colleagues from the private sector, won the Third Prize for Outstanding R&D in Industry and Energy for Year 2008 (Visayas-Mindanao Cluster) for his paper on the Constructed Wetland System. The award was given by the DOST-Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (PCIERD). The same entry qualified for the National R&D in Industry and Energy in February 2009.