One office building boasts of having green roofs, a façade designed to reduce heat gains, indoor environmental quality and sustainable construction practices, while a condominium incorporates a roof garden.

The Third Global Biodiversity Outlook’s report and the Asean Biodiversity Outlook’s (ABO) findings revealed that the world and the region failed to meet the target of significantly reducing biodiversity loss by 2010, as the call for intensified protection and conservation of ecosystems extend beyond the confinements of government and nongovernment organizations and demands businesses to put this goal into action.

And among the industries that are starting their campaign for biodiversity-friendly business practices is the construction industry. It accounts for 35 percent to 40 percent of global carbon emissions, of which half will be generated by the growth economies in Asia by 2050, Singapore-based Jason Pomeroy, award-winning architect and director of international design practice, Broadway Malyan, said in an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror.

Pomeroy noted that the construction industry forms a vital part of the Asian countries’ human and economic development.

“The issue, therefore, is how one mitigates the cataclysmic effects of climate change that comes as a by-product of such industrial- or technology-driven growth, while ensuring that development can take place for the betterment of economies, society and the environment—now and in the future,” he said.

 

Responsible construction is sustainable construction

The emerging concept of “sustainable construction” underscores the importance of biodiversity, where “preserving the sources of biodiversity and conserving biodiversity services can be its goal,” said Roberto Cereno, Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems deputy director and Makiling Botanic Gardens head.

Cereno added that sustainable construction could refer to a process or outcome that considers the requirement of present generation for food, clothing and shelter and the demand of future generations for biodiversity and environmental services.

For Pomeroy, sustainable construction seeks to ensure that buildings and places can be designed, constructed and operated which are focused on reducing carbon emissions, promoting the sense of community, while ensuring income generation to safeguard people’s urban habitat for future generations.

“What one needs to bear in mind is that sustainable construction is nothing more than responsible construction—it is not a magical art that necessarily involves high technology,” he said.

Meanwhile, biodiversity, or the idea that a variety of natural life forms can coexist in a given ecosystem can be greatly improved if people act responsibly by undertaking more sustainable construction that seeks to promote the incorporation of greenery to replenish the loss of the natural habitat in urban centers and, on a more macro scale, ensure that deforestation is reduced, Pomeroy noted.

Taking sustainable construction as a concern to Southeast Asia’s biodiversity becomes a primary consideration such that the Asean Center for Biodiversity (ACB) saw it fit to produce a publication on Guidelines for Developers in Biodiversity Conservation.

According to the booklet, developers should take into account the value and importance of biodiversity when undertaking construction projects, especially when implementation of activities is expected to cause harm or damage to areas with high biodiversity. Negligence may lead to serious implications and irreversible negative impacts to biodiversity.

 

Defining ‘samu’t saring buhay’ and the threats to it

Dr. Edwino Fernando, professor at the College of Forestry and Natural Resources in the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), said in a briefing that biodiversity encompasses almost everything, as biodiversity is “nature,” “biological resources” and “all life on Earth.”

“In its strictest sense, biodiversity refers to the quality, range or extent of difference between the biological entities in a given set,” he added.

ACB executive director Rodrigo Fuentes noted that biodiversity, or samu’t saring buhay in Filipino, is the variety within species, between species and their ecosystems.

Southeast Asian countries, to which the Philippines is a part, occupy a miniscule 3 percent of the world’s total area but is home to 18 percent of known endemic plant and animal species in the world.

But the ABO report noted that while Southeast Asia enjoys having rich biodiversity, specifically since it is home to three megadiverse countries—Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines—the region is also confronted with massive habitat and species loss.

It may be home to 19 percent of the world’s plants and animal species, as assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but four of the world’s 34 biodiversity hot spots and 2,517 out of the 47,915 species are threatened.

Specifically, the report noted that when it comes to forest ecosystems there is increasing per-capita consumption of forest products, while forest area decreases.

Among the critical pressure points are logging and timber harvesting, fires, conversion for agricultural use, human settlement and infrastructure development, mining and mineral resource extraction, invasive alien species, poaching/illegal wildlife trade, and slash-and-burn farming.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) data showed that the loss of ecosystem services could lead to a 25-percent loss in the world’s food production by 2050, and based the ABO report’s estimates, biodiversity loss could possibly affect over 500 million people in the Asean region alone.

 

Putting the dollar sign on ecosystem services

According to UNEP data, ecosystems services in Asean is valued at over $2 billion and the global ecosystem services provide up to $70 trillion per year of economic benefits.

An ACB paper said national economies and local livelihoods in many countries in the Southeast Asia region rely on natural resources, such as agricultural commodities, biological raw materials and ecotourism services.

Inspite of their importance, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005 found that two-thirds of the ecosystem services that people depend on are being degraded or used unsustainably; and it is likely that this degradation will grow significantly worse in the next decades.

This is partly due to the fact that most of the benefits of biodiversity are not expressed in monetary terms and are invisible in national and local budgets. In turn, this means that they tend not to be factored into economic and financial planning, or properly reflected in the policies, prices and markets that people face as they make decisions about how to produce, consume and invest.

“The persistent undervaluation of biodiversity and ecosystems has resulted in many policy, institutional, price and market failures,” the paper read.

It is also essential that an understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem costs and benefits is integrated into the actual prices, markets and incentive structures that people and companies face as they go about their day-to-day economic business, it added.

In a separate forum, Dr. Adachi Naoki, CEO of Response Ability Inc. Japan and executive director of Japan Business Initiative for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity, argued that if businesses are going to operate on a business-as-usual way, at least 7 percent is lost in the world’s gross domestic product.

“Businesses should put premium attention in addressing biodiversity conservation,” he said.

 

‘Building blocks’ of sustainable construction

UPLB-based Dr. Filiberto Pollisco Jr., ACB program development specialist, said in an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror that in view of standard environmental safeguards, construction projects should include at least an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and an Environmental Monitoring Plan (EMoP) as part of the work plan to ensure that potential negative impacts to biodiversity are avoided, minimized or mitigated.

The EMP would spell the activities of the company to avoid, minimize or mitigate the impacts of construction on the biodiversity of the area. On the other hand, the EMoP would consider the time frame in which progress in avoidance, minimization and mitigation is measured.

“This would serve as a barometer in determining the decrease or increase in biodiversity of the area during the construction and operation of the property, in which case, decisions could be made for avoidance, mitigation or minimization,” Pollisco noted.

Cereno agreed with Pollisco, adding that for a construction project to be considered biodiversity-friendly, it should not harm biodiversity species or should not degrade the natural ecosystems.

On the other hand, Pomeroy pointed out that a green design seeks to ensure that buildings are designed to minimize the negative impacts on the environment while balancing the needs of society and their economies.

This may entail trying to replenish the loss of open spaces and parks by the incorporation of alternatives—such as sky terraces and skygardens—to bring greenery back into the city, and help foster greater biodiversity.

“With an increasing global population, we are seeing the reduction of the natural habitat that has promoted a biodiversity of flora, fauna, insects, birds, animals and other creatures in addition to ourselves,” he said.

This reduction, Pomeroy said, has given way to increasing high-density urban development that is often made up of mass-manufactured artificial materials that have high heat-absorbent properties and, collectively, have reduced the quantum of greenery and, therefore, the biodiversity in urban habitats.

Asked on how the mushrooming of building constructions has affected Asean’s biodiversity, specifically that of the Philippines’, Cereno said constructions of built-up areas that destroy natural environment—especially converting forestlands into urban settlement areas (such as what is happening in Baguio and Tagaytay)—are threats to the protection of habitats (e.g., forest, mountains, rivers, lakes, etc.); natural ecosystems and their ecological processes (e.g., water cycle, carbon cycle); and services (e.g., watershed protection, soil-erosion control and flood prevention).

Pollisco said the risk for biodiversity loss is very high due to the rampant construction of infrastructure projects that are not properly regulated by the government in terms of compliance to environmental safeguards.

As such, construction projects disrupt the life cycle of species, whether plants or animals, especially in areas considered “environmentally critical area,” such as protected areas, wetlands and areas where endangered species have been identified.

Pollisco pointed out that biodiversity should not be seen as “biodiversity for its own sake.” It should be seen as beneficial to business, health, food security and for human well-being.

In this regard, construction industry is business, and they need timber/lumber for their construction, food to feed their workers, rubber to keep their heavy equipment running and, most important, water to use in their many activities in construction.

“All these are goods originating from biological resources, which, in collective term, is biodiversity,” Pollisco said.

Unregulated construction, according to Pollisco, would take away these biological resources by clearing the land of these resources to make way for their infrastructure that, in turn, would reduce nature’s capacity to provide the goods and services necessary to sustainably operate the construction business.

The effects may not be immediate, but, for example, when water becomes limited to sustain the business in property development, such that in a subdivision, it may already be too late, he said.

It remains crucial for property developers to consider protecting biodiversity in their projects.

“It is quite crucial, if one thinks deeply into it,” Pollisco argued.

Property developers should have an objective in mind when going into biodiversity conservation and protection, and not just for the sake of planting trees for compliance to biodiversity conservation.

“The objectives should, of course, be in line with the corporate vision and mission such as to provide an atmosphere of relaxation for property owners,” he noted.

To do that, property developers should make the landscape as beautiful and pleasing to the eye as possible, and have diverse species of plants and birds to greatly enhance the aesthetics and value of the property.

In turn, having high biodiversity in the property would, among others, improve the microclimate—such that consumption in power would significantly go down, the property would be buffered against suspended particulates (air pollution) and the general ambiance of the property would be improved.

Once that is attained, more business—through property acquisition by potential locators—would increase.

It is important to note that the relaxing and spiritual atmosphere in the property is priceless, therefore, there would be a “give and take” for business and biodiversity, Pollisco said.

Commenting on companies’ initiative to conduct tree planting to do away with the damages their business activities have caused, Pollisco noted that planting trees alone would not compensate for the long-term negative impacts to biodiversity that may be brought about by destructive construction practices.

“Developers must look at the bigger picture in that,” he said, adding that when biodiversity conservation is concerned, the ecosystems approach should also be considered. This means that one has to consider the surrounding areas in their development planning and not just the project footprint their development activities occupy.”

Having designed urban habitats in a variety of places around the world at a breadth of economic scale and need, Pomeroy observed that it is often the low-income environments that prove to be the most sustainable and compliant insofar as the 3Rs (reducing, reusing and recycling) are implemented on almost a daily basis in order to survive.

Pomeroy said sustainable construction is a “back-to-basics” approach that finds its roots in traditional, climatically responsive building designs and construction that are appropriate to a region.

He noted that this approach is all about considering: 1) The environment through careful site planning that responds to the climate; 2) Energy efficiency in order to reduce running costs and energy wastage; 3) Water efficiency to reduce wastage of such an important source; 4) Selecting the appropriate materials and resources with low toxicity and carbon footprint; 5) Managing construction processes that embrace modern methods to optimize speed and ease of construction to minimize waste; and 6) Embracing green technology sparingly, and only after a passive design solution has been sought that minimizes reliance on artificial lighting and cooling.

“I, therefore, believe that such a transition to a sustainable means of construction is straightforward and necessary if we are to combat climate change,” he said.

Pomeroy argued it is commonly believed that sustainable construction is more expensive than the traditional form of construction, but if the method he highlighted is followed, it does not necessarily cost more, and if anything costs less in the long term, operating and maintenance costs are reduced.

The World Green Building Council reaffirms that what may be an initial 3-percent to 5-percent investment to deliver a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) gold-platinum building may, in fact, yield returns of 7 percent to 10 percent in property value or a 3-percent to 5-percent improvement in leasing and tenancy retention, he added.

 

Promoting sustainable construction and biodiversity conservation

When asked if government’s intervention in promoting sustainable construction is crucial, Pomeroy reiterated that both the government and the private sector have equally crucial roles to play.

“It is crucial for governments to be active in reducing carbon emissions, as they have the power to implement and enforce policies to safeguard our natural and urban habitat,” he said.

For instance, the United Kingdom government is seeking wide reforms in the building and planning regulations to ensure that from 2016, all new residential properties will need to be net-zero carbon.

In Singapore every project needs to attain a level of sustainability driven through the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) green-mark assessment, without which no construction can take place.

“However, this should not be without consultation with the private sector, who naturally responds to the ever-changing market forces of commerce and provide an effective voice of what is economically deliverable and what is not,” he said.

True to this commitment, some businesses have already shifted their attention in helping preserving and protecting biodiversity.

Sheila Vergara, ACB Biodiversity Information Management director, noted that in 2008 the Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) launched the Business and Biodiversity Initiative (BBI).

“An initial of 34 international companies joined the BBI and signed the Leadership Declaration committing them to implement corporate social responsibility [CSR] projects that can contribute to the 2010 goal of reducing biodiversity loss,” she said.

According to ACB communication and public affairs chief Rolly Inciong, the BBI aims to intensify the engagement of the private sector in achieving the objectives of the CBD by encouraging companies to incorporate the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity into their management systems by signing and implementing the Leadership Declaration; publish their best practices; actively take part in the CBD COP10 in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010; and broaden the international profile of the Initiative.

To date, there are 42 companies involved in the BBI, among them are Fujitsu, Volkswagen, Puma, Ricoh and Ritter Sport.

In the Philippines ACB has explored partnerships with SM Supermalls, Tagaytay Highlands, TeleTech, Absolute Chemicals, Cemex Philippines, Broadchem and Holcim Philippines to help conserve biodiversity.

“Without a green-policy agenda, the future of our planet could be very much driven by commercial desires, and so it is important for a middle ground to be struck—policy informed by commercial realities and vice versa,” Pomeroy said.

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In Photo: The Idea House, a multiaward-winning prototype known as the first zero-carbon house in Asia.

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