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SM AURA, Taguig City, August 31, 2025 (SDN) — “SM”, or ShoeMart, is a prime example of a business conglomerate that practices and lives and experiences sustainability.

This can be gleaned from the speech that SM Prime Holdings (SM Prime) Executive Committee (ExeCom) Chairman Hans T. Sy delivered at the opening of the first Sustainability Expo (SUSTEX) 2025 on Friday, August 29, here at one of the many SM Supermalls spread in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao,

“For us sustainability is not just part of the strategy, it is the strategy. And the Sustainability Expo puts this strategy into motion by building partnerships, guiding innovation, and scaling real solution,” the SM official emphasizes.

Sy took the chance to cite another significance of the event, saying it is “especially meaningful as it coincides with the 40th anniversary of SM Supermalls, a milestone that challenges us to look beyond growth and measure success not just by what we built but by what we sustained and prepared.”

This year’s expo on sustainability is a partnership linking SM Prime, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and Arise Philippines with the theme revolving around “Innovation Towards Environmental Stewardship” that highlighted sustainable solutions towards resilient communities and a greener future.

Philippine businesses face gauntlet of existential threats

The two-day event featured cutting-edge technologies, eco-friendly initiatives, collaborative opportunities through OneDOST4U: Solutions and Opportunities for All.

DOST Secretary Renato U. Solidum, Jr. lauded SM for “showing how the private sector can play an active role in shaping a greener and more responsible future. ”

The SM official seemed to acknowledge the DOST chief’s statement.

“We believe that SM Malls play a critical role in creating resilient communities and a healthier planet, that is why we are constantly improving the way we design, operate and grow the business,” assures Sy.

Read: Philippines 1st Sustainability Expo 2025 announced https://scitechanddigital.news/2025/08/23/triumvirate-of-sm-prime-dost-and-arise-philippines-to-host-first-sustainability-expo-2025/

The SM big wig thanked DOST for introducing the company to science-based method and processes like waste analysis and characterization study the company uses in its journey, including waste management in the malls. SM is encouraging other companies to do likewise as the private sector can do more through supporting projects by local scientists.

Sy hoped the expo can be “a catalyst for collaboration, a hub for practical solution and a reminder that business can be a force for good when guided by purpose, discipline, and partnership.”

Solidum said his message for the champions of innovation “is a call to action, a challenge to reimagine how do we work and grow…for innovation is not simply about creating the next breakthrough, or launching the next product, but it is about ensuring that the growth we pursue today does not come at the cost of tomorrow.”

He said this makes the science community’s advocacy crucial through One DOST4U: Solutions and Opportunities for All as “we ensure that science, technology and innovation (STI) we develop are not just in journals, or prototypes in laboratories. They are real solutions accessible to businesses, community, and every Filipino.”

He adds: “This is also what we mean by ‘Agham na Ramdam’, science that is not distant, science that is felt, lived and experienced by people in their every lives.”

Solidum noted the gauntlet of obstacles that businesses in the Philippines have to overcome, which could mean extinction of businesses if not addressed adequately.

“Here in the Philippines businesses are facing challenges that are not only external. They are existential, climate-related disaster, biodiversity decline (that) directly affects operation, supply chain, and community.”

To surmount these challenges, the DOST secretary points out that “our task is clear: We must build businesses that do not just thrive in the present but endure. We aim to create enterprises that not only create wealth, but also safeguard our environment, strengthen our community, secure the future for the next generation that will follow.”

Solidum emphasized the importance of being resilient in the face of these existential challenges because for the Philippines “the stakes are high, very high” being that the Phillippines is one of the 10 most affected countries by disasters. He said that since 1990 the Philippines already suffered 565 disaster that killed 70,000 people and inflicted US$23 billion in losses.

Sustainability not a one-time big thing, but a lifestyle

In another note, he said “regulators, investors, and customers alike demand businesses to go beyond profit-making and embrace sustainability as a central business practice.”

Sy welcomed SM Prime’s partnership with the DOST for SUSTEX 2025, emphasizing “we are proud to partner with the Department of Science Technology for this monumental event.”

The SM Prime ExeCom chairman lauded the international community’s participation in the expo, saying. “We value the opportunity to learn from your experiences and work together to build solutions that transcend borders.”

In the press conference that featured SM Supermalls President Steven Tan and Solidum following the opening program, reporters at the event were treated to more information about the expo and its attendant highlights.

Appointed to SM Supermalls as president in 2020, Tan echoed Sy on the conglomerate’s sustainability strategy. Sustainability is something that SM continuously implement.

“So, this is not a one-time, big thing” strategy, he says.

“Sustainability is not for show. It is something we have to embrace in our everyday lives. It is a lifestyle. It is a mindset thing. So, same thing, everything has to have an action plan, a timetable, and a target,” says Tan, who successfully oversaw the establishment of the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City and SM Aura Premier in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.

He was first thrust into the world of SM in 2004, when one of the Sy siblings, Teresita Sy Coson of the SM Group, called him to be the manager of the SM store at the Podium, Mandaluyong City, the smallest of the conglomerate’s stores. Tan was coming off from the hospitality industry in the country, of which his first foray was in Taipei, Taiwan.

Also at the press conference, Solidum laid down how DOST regard sustainability. “For us the question is how do we ensure that the program which we think are good, especially for the industry, for the SMEs, and the people will continue beyond our administration.

“And, so, what we did was to ensure that if you are able to show that certain innovations, smart technologies are good to use, then it is best that local government, national government, private sector, and industry would use those technologies.”

DOST possesses the knowledge, SM has the platform

The DOST chief emphasized that sustainability should endure the tests of time, and it “does not mean that we do it now, tomorrow we stop.” Sustainability is not present in that kind of approach, he added.

Tan, who accomplished his MBA degree in Paris, France, agreed.

“And for us, not just a five-year (plan), but we look at 10 years and beyond. With clear timetable, and tracking on what can you do, how much are you going to do, what you can do. So, how much can you make an impact to society, to the community where we serve,” he points out.

“For us, SM, if you look at the word, the root word is ‘sustain’ and sustain is to continuously do something, that’s an action that we have to do.”

Tan said revealed that SM Supermalls, 94 in the last count, including in China, has around 25,000 tenants, around 70 percent of them MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises). He added that across the Philippines almost five million people come to SM Malls every single day.

The SM Supermalls president said the tenants may not be familiar with the term “sustainability”, but the DOST has the knowledge it can impart to them while SM has the platform.

Charge d’Affaires Peter Dalberg of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in the Philippines and Head of Cooperation Marco Gemmer of the European Union’s Delegation to the Philippines shared best practices in sustainability.

It can be recalled the SM Investment Corporation (SMIC) also partnered with DOST in October 2024 for the Tactics for Better PlasTIK (Technology, Innovation and Knowledge), An Expo & Forum for Sustainability held at SMX Convention Center, Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila.

So, it seems that SMIC and its subsidiaries and DOST have a long partnership through the future! — EDD K.U. (®)

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Update:

In the featured photo, second from the right is Ms. Jessica Sy, Head of Design, Innovation, & Strategy at SM Development Corporation/SM Prime Holdings Inc. | Member of the Board at ARISE Philippines (via LinkedIn)

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