Wanda launches 3rd Five-Year Plan for green building, energy conservation

Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group released its third "Five-Year Plan" (2021-25) in green building and energy conservation, setting an example of environmental protection to fulfill its corporate social responsibility.

Over the past five years, Wanda Plazas across China have saved 150 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, equivalent to 150,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. This is a major achievement of Wanda Group's second "Five-Year Plan" for green building and energy conservation.

The new plan, which takes effect between 2021 and 2025, raises higher requirements for the group in terms of green building and saving energy. According to the plan, all projects, including Wanda Plazas, Wanda Hotels & Resorts, and Wanda Tourism Villages, should acquire a Certificate of Green Building Label with no less than one star, while projects such as Wanda Malls and Wanda Hospitals should get the certificate with at least two stars.

In addition, the plan requires the company to complete 30 green shopping mall certificates and 20 green hotel certificates during the plan period, further boosting energy savings and cost reductions.

"Wanda began promoting green building and energy saving as early as in 2010, when the government had no mandatory provisions on the issues. We regard environmental protection as our corporate social responsibility," Liu Mingsheng, a spokesman for Wanda Group, said.

The real estate conglomerate proposed its first "Five-Year Plan" (2011-15) in 2011. The plan established an organization dedicated to green building and energy conservation, clearly specifying that new projects to be opened from 2011 onwards must obtain green building design certificates. The plan made Wanda the first large private enterprise in China to fully implement green building and energy savings.

In the second "Five-Year Plan" (2016-20), Wanda further lifted the requirements, ordering newly-established projects to acquire both green design certificates and green operation certificates.

To ensure the green operation in Wanda Plazas nationwide, the group developed an intelligent management system. The system took control of 16 sub-systems to connect more than 1 million units of equipment in Wanda Plazas. Every year, 100 billion (1000亿)pieces of operating data are generated. Through big data modeling, the system achieved intelligent management over Wanda Plaza, saving energy costs of about 480,000 yuan ($74,352)per plaza per year.

In addition, using Building Information Modeling, a digital tool for construction projects, while adopting a more precise approach to the design, construction, maintenance and operation of infrastructures, Wanda launched an intelligent system to further boost green construction. Data from the company showed that by the end of 2020, Wanda had acquired 862 green building certificates, taking the lead among Chinese enterprises.

Liu said the third Five-Year Plan will involve more Wanda buildings, and raise higher energy-saving standards, enabling the company to further reduce carbon emissions to fulfill its social responsibility.