Recognition highlights how sustainability is built into the infrastructure, operations and workforce systems supporting its industrial estates
MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Economic Estates has received the Business Leadership in Sustainability Award under the Developer category from the Philippine Green Building Council (PHILGBC), recognizing its approach to embedding sustainability across the systems that support its industrial estates.
For Aboitiz Economic Estates, sustainability extends beyond environmental programs. It is built into infrastructure, utility management, estate operations and workforce development, areas that directly affect reliability, resilience and the long-term competitiveness of industrial locations.
Aboitiz Economic Estates is the first industrial developer in the Philippines to achieve 5-Star BERDE District Certification across its entire operating portfolio, covering LIMA Estate in Batangas, Mactan Economic Zone 2 Estate and West Cebu Estate in Cebu. The certification assesses sustainability performance at district scale across areas including energy, water, transport, infrastructure, land use and estate management.
“For many international companies, sustainability is already part of the investment baseline. It sits alongside infrastructure, utilities, talent and operating continuity when companies evaluate where they can establish and grow,” said Aboitiz Economic Estates President and CEO Rafael Fernandez de Mesa. “Our role is to make those conditions tangible at estate level.”
From environmental performance to operating performance
Across its estates, Aboitiz Economic Estates integrates sustainability into systems intended to support both environmental performance and day-to-day industrial operations.
At LIMA Estate, power is distributed by LIMA EnerZone, part of AboitizPower’s EnerZone Group, with supply that includes renewable sources such as geothermal and hydroelectric power. This estate-integrated utility model provides closer visibility over power performance and supports the reliability and continuity industrial locators require. It is complemented by 31 megawatts of installed rooftop solar capacity across commercial and industrial facilities.
Water services are similarly managed within the estate through LIMA Water, an affiliate of Aboitiz InfraCapital. Its Smart Water Network provides real-time visibility into system conditions, maintenance activity and operational performance. The system has delivered up to 30% reductions in repair-related operating costs, up to 20% reductions in fuel consumption associated with operational monitoring, and average facility uptime of 99.3%.
Together, these systems strengthen the operating environment manufacturers depend on: reliable utilities, efficient estate management and greater resilience over the long term.
Aboitiz Economic Estates also operates electric intra-estate mobility systems and circular resource initiatives that convert waste into materials used within estate operations. At LIMA Estate, food waste is processed into compost while plastic waste is converted into green building materials, reducing landfill dependency while returning resources to estate use.
Resilience designed into the estate
The company’s approach to sustainability also extends into how its estates are designed and managed for disruption.
Aboitiz Economic Estates organizes resilience across three interconnected areas: infrastructure, operations and workforce. Infrastructure covers systems such as drainage, utilities, roads and command centers; operations include estate monitoring, maintenance and emergency response; and workforce resilience addresses talent pipelines, training and local employability.
Climate and disaster-risk considerations are integrated into estate masterplanning through engineered stormwater systems, elevated road networks where needed, terrain-sensitive development and redundancy provisions in utility systems. Estate-managed infrastructure also gives operating teams greater visibility over service performance and enables coordinated response during disruptions.
The company applies the same long-term lens to workforce development.
Through Talent Edge, Aboitiz Economic Estates connects education, recruitment, upskilling and employer engagement with the requirements of companies operating within its estates. Its flagship partnership with Batangas State University established the Batangas State University–LIMA Campus, an industry-based engineering learning platform within an operating industrial estate, while micro-credential programs help existing workers build capabilities for evolving manufacturing technologies.
The approach treats workforce capacity as part of industrial resilience: as manufacturing technologies and investment requirements evolve, talent needs to develop alongside physical capacity.
Built for scale
Aboitiz Economic Estates currently manages and develops approximately 2,100 hectares of industrial-anchored estates, supporting more than 260 locators, over ₱175 billion in investments and more than 100,000 jobs.
The company applies a consistent sustainability framework across estates at different stages of maturity, from established operating locations such as LIMA Estate to newer development platforms such as TARI Estate in Tarlac. Sustainability requirements are incorporated from masterplanning through construction and ongoing estate operations, allowing the same principles to be carried forward as new industrial capacity is developed.
These capabilities are relevant as the Philippines competes for long-term manufacturing investment, particularly from companies with established requirements around resilience, resource efficiency, supply-chain performance and ESG standards.
“Investment readiness goes beyond having available land,” Fernandez de Mesa said. “It requires infrastructure that works, utilities businesses can depend on, people with the skills industries need, and systems that can perform over time. Sustainability strengthens those fundamentals and helps keep our estates competitive for the long term.”
Designed for resilience and continuity, LIMA Estate in Batangas integrates sustainability across reliable infrastructure, efficient operations, and an empowered workforce.
As Aboitiz Economic Estates expands into Central Luzon, TARI Estate applies sustainability principles from the outset, carrying forward lessons and systems developed across its established estates such as LIMA Estate.
Independent assurance across districts and assets
Aboitiz Economic Estates’ portfolio-wide BERDE certification provides an independent benchmark for estate-level sustainability performance.
This is reinforced by other independently certified systems and assets. LIMA Estate maintains TÜV NORD-certified management systems covering quality, environmental management and occupational health and safety, while LIMA Tower One holds WELL Core Gold Certification under WELL v2.
Together, these standards provide external assurance that sustainability and operational discipline extend from district management to individual assets.
The PHILGBC Business Leadership in Sustainability Award builds on that body of third-party recognition. The award criteria assessed areas including strategic leadership, measurable performance, resilience, people outcomes, market transformation and business value, reflecting the breadth of the sustainability model Aboitiz Economic Estates has applied across its portfolio.
For companies with established sustainability and ESG requirements across their global operations and supply chains, these systems provide an additional layer of transparency and operating assurance when evaluating long-term locations.
