For developers like Menarco Development Corporation and Nova Group, efforts in water conservation stem from valuing water like gold.
Prior to the pandemic, buildings and building constructions reached an all-time high in carbon emissions. The UNEP stated the sector has accounted for 38% of all energy-related CO2 emissions in 2019. To be on track to achieving a net-zero carbon building stock by 2050, the International Energy Agency recommends that building sector emissions should be reduced by around 6% annually from 2020 to 2030. A lot of this change will be propelled by shifting to renewable energy sources and increasing resource efficiency (meaning doing more with one unit whether it is kilowatt-hour or cubic meter).
For Menarco Development Corporation’s Carmen Jimenez-Ong and Nova Group’s Chut Cuerva, this means making a single drop of water go through their buildings multiple times before it is discharged. Nova’s Nex Tower in Ayala Avenue is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certified and is the sole Philippine project to ever bag Urban Land Institute’s Asia Pacific Award for Excellence. Meanwhile, Menarco Tower in Bonifacio Global City is the first to pursue WELL certification in the country, and the only building in Asia to be both LEED Gold and WELL Gold certified.
Menarco Tower has reduced potable water use by 47.49%. Potable water for sewage conveyance is reduced by 100%. Landscaping and irrigation systems in Menarco have been designed to use only recycled water. Instead of using clean, potable water to do things that do not require potable water that people should be drinking, a gray water system filters water from the condensate drains and water used for washing, plows it back into the system to water the plants. Nex Tower uses the same principles. Instead of water from the mains, a rainwater harvesting system collects rain that falls on the roof and filters it to irrigate the plants.
“It comes from a philosophy of treating water like gold, saving it when and where you can,” says Jimenez-Ong.
“You wouldn’t think there’d be water shortages when it rains like crazy here. But what we are trying to do is store the water. When there is plenty of water, you can store that so when there is no water, you use that. It’s a similar predicament to solar panels. When it is sunny, you want to store that energy in a battery and then use it when the rates are expensive,” says Cuerva.
The other benefit of storing water is that during huge downpours, it helps the sewerage systems. If more buildings like Nex and Menarco capture rain during these downpours, then slowly releasing the excess into the sewerage systems instead of dumping it all at one time, they would help ease flooding in our cities.
Another piece of the water conservation strategy is selecting the correct bathroom fixtures. Faucets in older buildings are usually left running because people forget or they are not closed properly. “By using a sensor, the person using the faucet does not have to worry about that, and we don’t have to police that. Same thing with the toilets and the urinals, they have auto flush, so a toilet or urinal will calculate how long you are sitting there and use the right amount of water to flush. So that’s the approach we took. By choosing the right fixtures, we are saving 46 percent more water than your standard building,” says Cuerva.
For Jimenez-Ong, educating onboarding tenants on how to properly use the building amenities was crucial. It keeps operations sustainable and reduces maintenance costs. “Menarco is my only baby. So, come, you are welcome to enjoy it, but let’s learn how to use it. We have a video. We have written forms, almost like a test, just so we know that they know. We do this prior to issuing you an RFID. I don’t want to hear it that you flushed something that clogged our system because you didn’t know.”
“What I was hoping for are things from groups like LIXIL to help us figure out how to be more efficient in conserving not just water that we see but also water that we don’t see,” she adds.
Pioneering water products manufacturer LIXIL, whose portfolio includes INAX, GROHE and American Standard, has been rallying its R&D around environmental sustainability and recently met some milestones. “I think that's the biggest investment LIXIL has made to get people fully committed to the cause,” LIXIL’s Corporate Responsibility Lead Priyanka Tanwar.
GROHE’s Sense and Sense Guard water monitoring systems alert homeowners of pipe leaks so they can be addressed immediately. The app monitors and reports consumption so people can adjust their water use. Moreover, all of GROHE’s products are produced in carbon-neutral plants and a series of fixtures have recently been certified Cradle-to-Cradle Gold.Products like Amercian Standard’s Genie can save up to 35% of water with every single use. Aqua Ceramic ensures that your products stay clean and therefore lessens amount of water is used in maintenance.
The United Nations reports that 2.3 billion people now live in water-stressed countries. At least 1.42 billion people, including 450 million children, live in water vulnerable areas. By 2030, 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity. “When you read facts like this, the little things we do translate over time and really help people. We are all connected,” says Jimenez Ong.
A drop of water, a minute or electricity, a single degree in global temperature change—it all adds up. Moreover, the climate does not recognize territorial jurisdictions. What Philippine developers do here and now, and what big global companies like LIXIL does in their factories all over the world sends ripples of change across borders and generations. Indeed, we are all connected. 03/23/2022 (The Lifestyle Portal)
About GROHE
GROHE is a leading global brand for complete bathroom solutions and kitchen fittings and has a total of over 7,000 employees in 150 countries – 2,600 of them are based in Germany. Since 2014 GROHE has been part of the strong brand portfolio of the Japanese manufacturer of pioneering water and housing products LIXIL. In order to offer "Pure Freude an Wasser", every GROHE product is based on the brand values of quality, technology, design and sustainability. Renowned highlights such as GROHE Eurosmart or the GROHE thermostat series as well as groundbreaking innovations such as the GROHE Blue water system underline the brand's profound expertise. Focused on customer needs, GROHE thus creates intelligent, life-enhancing and sustainable product solutions that offer relevant added value – and bear the "Made in Germany" seal of quality: R&D and design are firmly anchored as an integrated process in Germany. GROHE takes its corporate responsibility very seriously and focuses on a resource-saving value chain. Since April 2020, the sanitary brand has been producing CO2-neutral worldwide. GROHE has also set itself the goal of using plastic-free product packaging by 2021.
In the past ten years alone, more than 490 design and innovation awards as well as several sustainability awards confirmed GROHE's success. GROHE was the first in its industry to win the CSR Award of the German Federal Government and the German Sustainability Award 2021 in the categories “Resources” and “Design”. As part of the sustainability and climate campaign “50 Sustainability & Climate Leaders“ GROHE is also driving sustainable transformation.
About LIXIL
LIXIL makes pioneering water and housing products that solve every day, real-life challenges, making better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere. Drawing on our Japanese heritage, we create world-leading technology and innovate to make high quality products that transform homes. But the LIXIL difference is how we do this; through meaningful design, an entrepreneurial spirit, a dedication to improving accessibility for all and responsible business growth. Our approach comes to life through industry leading brands, including INAX, GROHE, American Standard and TOSTEM. Over 60,000 colleagues operating in more than 150 countries are proud to make products that touch the lives of more than a billion people every day. Learn more at www.lixil.com.
Follow Us on Instagram: @therunnerrocky
