Megaworld Corporation successfully secured its biggest sustainability milestone as it achieved carbon neutrality for all its company-owned malls and office developments in the Philippines.

This covers 52 developments, which are 100 percent operational and Megaworld-owned commercial properties located across various cities and provinces in the country.

Jose Arnulfo Batac, Megaworld’s head of sustainability, highlighted the company’s strategic and proactive approach to significantly reducing its environmental impact in the coming years.

In a statement, he said that they are looking forward to achieving carbon neutral emissions for Scopes 1 and 2 by 2035 for the entire Megaworld Group. They are also turning their focus on accounting for the full Scope 3 emissions through a collaboration with 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 said.

He added that Megaworld will be able to activate over 1,000 hectares of carbon forests in Batangas, Cavite, Tarlac, Iloilo, Palawan and Cebu.

According to global leader Diligent, the prime real-estate company’s gross carbon emissions in 2023 totaled about 69,000 tons, of which 98 percent came from electricity consumption (Scope 2) and the rest from fuel consumption (Scope 1). From these numbers, 51 percent came from Megaworld-owned malls, while the remaining 49 percent came from its office properties.

Thus, the company made an environmentally conscious effort to consider renewable energy as a main power source, in which Megaworld was able to successfully offset about 36,00 metric tons of carbon emissions in 2023.

With its partnership with MPower, a subsidiary of Meralco, Megaworld can now make a 100 percent shift to renewable energy for all its mall and office properties within the next three years.

Apart from these efforts in reducing carbon footprint, Megaworld also successfully launched its groundbreaking company-wide sustainability campaign, MEGreen, which adheres to the different goals under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).

This campaign, which is committed to conserving the country’s natural habitats and upholding sustainability across communities, earned three prestigious accolades at the 59th Anvil Awards, including the highly coveted Grand Anvil in the Corporate Identity and Corporate Branding Program category — the highest honor awarded to a public relations program in the Philippines.