Swire Properties’ “Green Performance Pledge” exceeds 50%^ target participation rate

(29 July 2024, Hong Kong) Swire Properties’ proprietary sustainability initiative for office tenants, the Green Performance Pledge (GPP), celebrated its third year with a host of new achievements that included participation from over 100 tenants across Taikoo Place, Pacific Place and Citygate.

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Participating tenants achieved substantial energy and waste reductions over the past year, including a collective reduction in electricity consumption of nearly 750,000 kWh, equivalent to the annual electricity usage by 227 three-person households in Hong Kong, and diverted over 200 tonnes of waste from landfill through reuse and recycling, with the support of the tools provided, such as smart energy and water meters, water flow regulators and smart waste solutions.

The GPP offers a user-friendly platform for landlord-tenant collaboration, and supports tenants as they adopt the best sustainability practices throughout the entire tenancy lifecycle – from fit out and occupation to subsequent renovation and reinstatement. As of June 2024, participation rates in the GPP stood at 54% of the occupied lettable floor area (over 3.8 million sq ft of office space*) across the Company’s Hong Kong portfolio, including signups from 100% of new tenants at Six Pacific Place and 75% of Two Taikoo Place tenants. The programme was also rolled out to the Company’s office portfolio in the Chinese Mainland in November 2023 to drive a broader impact.

Marking another successful year, the Company hosted the 2024 edition of the Annual GPP Forum in Hong Kong, which was attended by over 170 tenant representatives and sustainability partners across multiple sectors.

Occupiers recognised for outstanding environmental performance included Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Greater Bay Airlines, Kennedys, LVMH Fragrance Brands, Securities and Futures Commission and Veolia who received the highest Platinum ratings for their sustainable office operations, while Swire Coca-Cola Limited (SEAHKT) received the highest Three-Seed rating in the sustainable office fit-out and renovations scheme.

Special recognition was also given to those tenants who had achieved the best energy efficiency and waste diversion performances, and highest year-on-year improvements in these two areas. They included Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, CITIC CLSA, the Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Greater Bay Airlines, HKT, LVMH Fragrance Brands, NetApp (Hong Kong) Limited, PAG, The Executive Centre and Triton International Limited.

Don Taylor, Director, Office at Swire Properties said, “We’re delighted to see the rapid growth in the number of tenants participating in the GPP, and are fully committed to collaborating closely with our entire office community to assist with their sustainability and ESG efforts, to drive significant improvements in energy, waste and water reduction.

In the three years since its launch, we’ve already achieved our 2025 goal of having 50% of our Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland office tenants sign up to drive collective change^. The GPP not only provides tools to improve our collective ESG performance, it also serves as an effective platform where we can share our experience and knowledge to have a bigger impact. Moving forward, we’ll continue to enhance the GPP through innovation and technology, which will generate more analytics capability, performance benchmarking and offer greater insights to help our tenants define and achieve their sustainability goals so that working together, we can make a more positive impact.”

Outstanding GPP Results

Over the past year, our GPP tenants have delivered significant results in terms of energy and waste reduction. Some highlights and figures from participating tenants (who reported electricity and waste data for both the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 cycles) include: 

• Collective reduction in EUI by 3.8% – saving nearly 750,000 kWh, approximately the equivalent amount of electricity used by 227 three-person households in Hong Kong over one year, or collectively achieving nearly HKD1 million in tenant electricity cost savings;

• Waste diversion rate collectively increased by 10 percentage points, while total waste generation dropped by 41 tonnes; and over 200 tonnes of collected waste was diverted from landfill through reuse and recycling in 2023/24; 

• Over 60% of GPP tenants maintained or improved their energy efficiency and waste diversion performance;

• More monitoring and data generation – 42% of GPP tenants have installed smart energy meters to facilitate the monitoring of 24-hour electricity usage patterns and identify energy-saving opportunities; 45% are now recording waste generation data digitally; and nearly all have installed smart water meters.

GPP Benefits, Programmes & New Offerings

GPP members enjoy exclusive access to a broad range of tailored programmes and special tools that drive performance benchmarking and encourage collaboration. 

Aside from tools such as sustainable fit-out technical guidelines, smart meters, water flow tests and flow restrictor retrofits as well as free energy audits, the “GPP Academy”, a partnership with the Business Environment Council (BEC) launched in 2023, is also available to participating tenants to exchange ideas on the topics of sustainability leadership, decarbonisation, waste management and green buildings. The GPP has launched a bi-monthly e-newsletter and a dedicated website to showcase tenants’ sustainability efforts including new developments within the GPP community, further enhancing our exchange platform.

Visit Swire Properties’ website at www.swireproperties.com.