Boiled Green Bananas
BUSINESS MIRROR
By Liling Magtolis Briones
November 28, 2010
These days, green is everybody’s favorite color. People talk about green fashion, green lifestyles and pursue green advocacies. Students write papers about climate change and legislators debate about climate-change budgets. Nobody will dare admit he or she has not seen Al Gore’s The Inconvenient Truth, and all those climate-change documentaries, as well as read books about global warming.
And now comes green buildings! It is now possible to build buildings that are environment-friendly at moderate cost. I have always thought that green buildings would be horrifically expensive. “Not so!” insisted two young civil engineers Michael Cosiquien, chairman and chief executive officer of Megawide Construction Corp., and Edgar Bucoy Saadvedra, chief operating officer. Oliver Tan, who is chief financial officer, confirms that a green building will cost less than a “traditional” one.
These three innovative and creative young men know whereof they speak. Their corporation has just finished constructing what is the first L.E.E.D. certified office building in the Philippines. The acronym stands for Leader in Engineering and Environment Design, for which the corporation was awarded Accreditation with Gold Certification.
The 10-story Megawide Tower is considered an “intelligent building” which “uses nothing but topnotch and environment-safe materials from start to finish, and operates by itself according to the changes in the weather and the environment.” The integrated design process is both cost-effective and healthy.
The building boasts of 50-percent power-reduction utilities cost due to its ice thermal storages module. According to Megawide, “chilled water systems improve air-conditioning efficiency by more than 40 percent as compared to traditional air-conditioning systems.” The building envelope uses high-efficiency materials, which further bring down air-conditioning costs.
Air-conditioned buildings are associated with stale air and corresponding health risks. Megawide points out that “indoor facilities include a carbon dioxide sensor that controls treated and filtered fresh air. This sensor ensures (that) healthy air circulates inside the building. Power is also saved because day lighting is optimized.” Furthermore, the building finish is paint-free, thus eliminating carcinogenic chemicals.
What about water? Global warming means less water. Megawide says that this “intelligent” green building will reduce by more than 53 percent its overall water use by implementing its own waste-management program, sewerage treatment, and rainwater harvesting.
Green-engineering practices
Megawide is a strong advocate, as well as a leading practitioner in green-engineering practices. Michael and Edgar talk enthusiastically about their wood-free program where they envision a 95-percent plastic facing that will “overtake plywood as the facing of the future.” Hooray for our forests!
The corporation practices a low-waste generating program through precast and prefabricated materials. They also practice waste segregation to facilitate recycling. As expected, they are into energy-saving facilities like the use of LED lights, reusable and redesignable modular-site offices, and a plug and play system in electrical wiring which is 90-percent reusable.
Affordable socialized housing
In less than 15 years, Megawide has built 53 low to high-rise condominiums and industrial buildings. Its order book reads like a who’s who of leading development corporations.
However, I am most enthusiastic about Megawide’s plans to go into affordable socialized housing. While they are understandably proud of the towering buildings they have built, Michael, Edgar and Oliver have set their sights on affordable socialized housing.
In Metro Manila alone, there is a huge backlog in housing for the middle-level employees. With its tested technology in construction, the three young men are out to prove that Megawide can help fill this backlog.
Low-cost housing is associated with poor quality. Megawide insists that it can use the same environment-friendly technology it uses in high-end housing for more affordable units. Low-cost housing does not mean compromising on building and environmental standards.
Because of its plans to go into green mass housing, Megawide is going public and will announce its initial public offering very soon. The public will have an opportunity to be part owner of a modern construction company that boasts of the latest green technology.
For many of us, loving the environment means planting trees, eating the right foods, protecting and nurturing nature and taking care of garbage. It also means building human settlements that will not decimate resources of nature, pollute the environment and exacerbate health hazards. The time will come when Megawide Tower will not be an isolated “intelligent” green building. With advocates like Michael, Edgar and Oliver, the average Filipino family can acquire its very own green home.
Greening government buildings
One of the major items in the 2011 budget is for the construction of new buildings. Why doesn’t government follow the lead of Megawide and specify that all new government buildings should be “intelligent” and green? The cost will be lower and the government employee happier and healthier.