What is an Edge Certification, and Why is it Important For Your Home?

With today’s growing awareness of the impact of global warming, people are now more conscious about their purchases and investments. Aside from clean-up projects and adopting eco-friendly products, there is a big demand for going green on a larger scale. 

This is especially felt in the construction and real estate industry, which recently started implementing a new green building certification: EDGE. 

But what is EDGE certification, and why is it important for your home? Here, we take a deeper look at how this new system helps developers improve their green building programs and promote sustainability. 

What is EDGE certification?

EDGE, which stands for Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies, is a green building certification system developed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). 

This certification system was created to reduce and mitigate the environmental impact of buildings in three areas: direct energy consumption, water consumption, and the energy footprint of its construction materials.

Thus, implementing the EDGE green building certification in the Philippines helps promote the practice of creating resource-efficient buildings. 

This next generation of building standards is highly accessible, incorporating a design tool to prove the financial case for constructing green buildings. EDGE’s system allows developers to assess the environmental and economic impact of their building designs in just a matter of minutes. 

By making it accessible, the IFC ensures that this system also encourages developers to practice sustainability smartly and affordably.

While adopting this new green building practice will raise the minimum value of buildings in the country, it is for a good cause — the buildings that receive EDGE certification will provide new features that will make them more sustainable in the long run. 

 

Why is it important for developers?

EDGE certification is quickly becoming adopted by top developers across the country — but why?

This is because the construction industry accounts for more than a third of the country’s total power consumption, and continues to be one of the largest consumers of our natural resources. If developers want to sustain economic growth, then they must start setting up green buildings.

EDGE’s system helps them not just reduce energy and water consumption, and green-gas emissions. It helps them create a sustainable design. These new structures will also benefit from minimizing construction and operation costs.

This comes at a great time, as rapid urban migration is expected to further increase the number of new buildings by 20 percent a year. 

That said, while EDGE certification is currently a top consideration for green building programs, it does not mean it pushes other green certifications out of the way. Rather, it works hand in hand with other important standards, such as Building for Ecologically Responsive Design Excellence (BERDE) and the Leading in Energy and Engineering Design (LEED).

 

How does EDGE certification benefit my home?

As a homeowner, you may be wondering why EDGE certification should be an important consideration when evaluating a property. 

EDGE certification presents many benefits for homeowners. 

Because they are designed with sustainability in mind,  homes are more resource-efficient than others before them. This means that your home is specially made to help you save on your water and electricity usage. With an EDGE-certified home, you can enjoy lower utility bills each month.  

Plus, sustainably-built homes are designed to make the most out of the construction materials they use — so an EDGE certification is essentially a guarantee that the home has been designed and built to last for decades. 

But it’s not just about saving money or making a smart investment; these homes are also environmentally-friendly. So you’re not just helping your finances — but the planet too.

 

Pueblo de Oro’s EDGE-Certified Homes

Pueblo de Oro is one of the top developers in the Philippines that has readily adopted this new system of green building standards. We have recently achieved EDGE certification for our master-planned community in Malvar, Batangas, and are seeking the same certification for our other developments.

We knew that this certification was important if we wanted to continue charting a path towards zero carbon development — and so we sought EDGE assessment and certification from Philippine Green Building Initiative (PGBI), IFC’s EDGE certifier partner.

Our EDGE certification for our houses and lots for sale in Malvar is the result of our innovative house design, which allowed the building to reduce water and energy consumption by 20%. Additionally, our design reduced embodied energy in materials used by 71.8%, which is a significant improvement compared to typical housing materials. This green design translates to about 623.2 kWh per and 72.6 cubic meters of water per year for each of our homes in Malvar.

This achievement is a huge milestone for us, as it marks our continued commitment to integrate sustainability in everything we build, including our residential projects. And, it concretely shows our residents and Filipino families everywhere the quality of our eco-friendly homes. 

 

Key Takeaway

With this overview of what EDGE certification is, we hope you are more familiar with how this innovation benefits your home, and our country as a whole. 

To learn more about our EDGE certification, and our sustainability initiatives in our master-planned communities, contact Pueblo de Oro today. We would be happy to show you how our homes are built to provide numerous advantages to our homeowners.