SM's Hans Sy is the first ever private sector awardee for disaster resilience in the Office of Civil Defense Hall of Fame

PASAY CITY, Philippines, Aug. 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- For his outstanding leadership and dedication to climate and disaster resilience, Hans T. Sy, SM Prime Holdings, Inc. Chairman of the Executive Committee, was recently awarded the 'Dangal ng Pilipino Sa Pag-agapay Sa Ligtas na Sambayanan' (Filipino's Honor in Contributing to a Safe Community) by the Office of Civil Defense. He is the first-ever awardee from the private sector.

Mr. Sy is also the Co-Chair of the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies or ARISE Philippines and Co-Chair of the National Resilience Council for the Private Sector. 

At SM Prime, 10% of the capital expenditure of every project development is allocated for resilient infrastructure. Examples of these are rainwater catchment basins and other infrastructure for flood prevention, fire prevention facilities, and for avoidance of earthquake impacts. SM Baguio recently launched its rainwater filtration system to aid in water security.  Mr. Sy established the SM Resilience Center for centralized monitoring and offered the SM Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to Small and Medium Scale enterprise tenants in the malls. The SM BCP provides free remote data storage for essential documents that can help facilitate recovery of operations in the eventuality of a disaster.

Mr. Sy has guided SM Prime towards the support and implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), as aligned with the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement. 

Through public-private partnerships, Mr. Sy has championed Disaster Risk Reduction via the Adopt-A-City program of the National Resilience Council. This has resulted in many capacity-building activities for the partner local government units. SM Prime also supports multi-sector partnership projects such as climate and weather data gathering and early warning systems with the Manila Observatory's Automated Weather Stations, 49 of which are installed on top of SM malls.

About SM Prime Holdings, Inc.

SM Prime is one of the largest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia that offers innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities with the development of malls, residences, offices, hotels, and convention centers. SM Prime remains committed to its role as a catalyst for economic growth, delivering innovative and sustainable lifestyle cities, thereby enriching the quality of life of millions of people.

For more information, please visit: www.smprime.com

About SM Investments Corporation

SM Investments Corporation is a leading Philippine company that is invested in market-leading businesses in retail, banking, and property. It also invests in ventures that capture high growth opportunities in the emerging Philippine economy.

SM's retail operations are the country's largest and most diversified with its food, non-food, and specialty retail stores. SM's property arm, SM Prime Holdings, Inc., is the largest integrated property developer in the Philippines with interests in malls, residences, offices, hotels, and convention centers as well as tourism-related property developments. SM's interests in banking are in BDO Unibank, Inc., the country's largest bank, and China Banking Corporation, the fourth largest bank by total assets among private banks.

For more information, please visit www.sminvestments.com

SOURCE SM Investments Corporation