CapitaLand has unveiled its first Sustainability Master Plan that articulates the company’s sustainability targets, strategies and plans for the decade until 2030. 

The plan focuses on three key themes to drive CapitaLand’s sustainability efforts in the environment, social and governance (ESG) pillars, enabling it to create a larger positive impact for the environment and society: building portfolio resilience and resource efficiency, enabling thriving and future-adaptive communities and accelerating sustainability innovation and collaboration.

An integrated development in Singapore, Funan, boasts the largest area for urban agriculture on the island with a 12,000sq.ft food garden and a 4,000sq.ft urban farm offering the community a green oasis in the heart of the city.

Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group CEO, said: “At CapitaLand, sustainability is at the core of what we do.  It is embedded into every stage of our real estate life cycle, from investment to development and operations. 

“CapitaLand’s Sustainability Master Plan will be our strategic blueprint, focusing on areas where we can create the greatest positive impact and pursue profitable business growth in a responsible manner. 

“The Master Plan will guide us to galvanise efforts across our global network of properties, enabling CapitaLand to make a bigger contribution to the environment and the communities where we operate, and position CapitaLand as a progressive employer of choice.”   

“As a leading sustainable real estate company, we have set ambitious sustainability goals that build on CapitaLand’s successes in the past 20 years, to innovate and amplify the impact of our sustainability efforts in the next 10 years.  We will review our Master Plan every two years to ensure that we remain on track as the group continues to grow and evolve.

“Investors and governments are increasingly incorporating ESG considerations in their investment and policy decisions. CapitaLand’s continued excellence in ESG will enable us to remain at the forefront of these evolving demands while building resilience and future-proofing our organisation. 

“As a responsible real estate company, we seek to deliver long-term economic value to our stakeholders, while continuing to contribute to the environmental and social well-being of our communities.”

Lynette Leong, the company’s chief sustainability officer, said: “We acknowledge that the solution to sustainability challenges requires collective efforts and the pushing of boundaries. 

“To advance sustainability innovation and collaboration for CapitaLand and within the built environment, we will introduce our inaugural ‘CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge’. It is the first sustainability challenge by a Singapore real estate company on a global scale. 

“Participants from across the world will not only stand to win project funding but, more importantly, pilot their solutions at CapitaLand’s global network of properties and be mentored by our business leaders. 

“The ‘CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge’ will enable CapitaLand to source and deploy impactful and scalable innovative solutions.

“To accelerate CapitaLand’s sustainability efforts to meet our 2030 goals, we will also deepen our partnerships with financial institutions to triple our quantum of sustainable finance and further dovetail our sustainability performance to reap greater financial benefits.  We will also implement our green lease programme globally, work with our customers to lower their resource consumption levels and drive better energy efficiencies together.  Through the different approaches, we aim to amplify sustainability outcomes and measure the impacts by our new ‘return on sustainability’ metric.”

CapitaLand’s 2030 Sustainability Master Plan

CapitaLand’s 2030 Sustainability Master Plan focuses on three themes to drive its sustainability efforts under the ESG pillars, which are anchored by CapitaLand’s strong governance and finances.  As CapitaLand grows in a responsible manner, it can generate six capitals:  Manufactured Capital, Environmental Capital, Human Capital, Social & Relationship Capital, Financial Capital and Organisational Capital. 

CapitaLand will develop a new metric, return on sustainability, to quantify its sustainability outcomes, and continue to benchmark its performance against global standards and indices to track its progress. 

This metric will incorporate factors such as operational efficiencies achieved, utilities cost avoidance and interest rate savings from its sustainability-linked loans.

Theme 1:  Build portfolio resilience and resource efficiency

CapitaLand has set ambitious carbon reduction targets which include a 78 per cent reduction in carbon emissions intensity by 2030.  The new target is more than double the 29.4 per cent reduction it achieved in 2019. 

CapitaLand also seeks to reduce its energy consumption intensity at its operating properties by 35 per cent and increase the proportion of total electricity consumption from renewable sources by 35 per cent by 2030. 

In 2019 CapitaLand reduced its energy consumption intensity by 19.2 per cent, and about 2 per cent of the group’s total electricity consumption was from renewable sources.

CapitaLand has also outlined other environment-related targets in its new Sustainability Master Plan.  This includes a higher 45 per cent reduction of water consumption intensity at its operating properties.  New targets include achieving a 25 per cent recycling rate at operating properties and to divert 75 Per cent of its construction waste away from landfills. 

These targets are in addition to CapitaLand’s existing target to green its entire global portfolio by 2030.

CapitaGreen - A high-rise office tower in Singapore that exhibits many innovative eco-friendly features. The building has earned a Green Mark Platinum Award from the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore.

Theme 2:  Enable thriving and future-adaptive communities

The CapitaLand Sustainability Master Plan will see CapitaLand fostering a diverse and dynamic workforce and a talent pool which will enable the company to achieve its next phase of growth.

CapitaLand will implement its green lease programme to all tenants across asset classes and geographies by 2030.  The green lease programme encourages tenants to implement environment-friendly features in their premises and embrace more sustainable practices.

The programme is part of CapitaLand’s focus to work collaboratively with its customers to support their changing expectations and needs. 

Theme 3:  Accelerate sustainability innovation and collaboration

To ensure sustainable operational excellence across its global portfolio, CapitaLand will foster deeper collaborations with its partners. It will also leverage technology and innovation to raise productivity, elevate service quality and improve the well-being and safety of its customers.

CapitaLand will be the first real estate company in Singapore to set a public sustainable finance target. 

By 2030 it intends to secure S$6 billion through sustainable finance such as sustainability-linked loans, green loans and green bonds. This is triple the S$2 billion it has raised so far through sustainable finance. 

As a company, CapitaLand and its real estate investment trusts have raised over S$3.3 billion through sustainable finance so far. 

The company will step up its support for innovation to deploy advanced sustainability solutions at its properties and the built environment. 

The inaugural CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge will seek out innovations on a global scale to meet its sustainability targets as set out in the Sustainability Master Plan. 

Participants can submit their solutions from November 2020. Two winners will be selected, with each getting up to S$50,000 in project funding to further develop their innovations and pilot their solutions with CapitaLand. 

For more information on CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge, please visit www.capitalandsustainabilityxchallenge.com.

CapitaLand will review and recalibrate its 2030 targets every two years in line with shifts in the global landscape. 

For more information on CapitaLand’s Sustainability Master Plan, please visit, https://www.capitaland.com/international/en/about-capitaland/sustainability.html.