As stewards of both our business and the environment, we are committed to integrating sustainable practices into every facet of our operations. ESR-REIT has deepened the foundation of our sustainability ambitions across the past years, through baselining our environmental targets and assessing our climate risks and opportunities against the TCFD framework. We are committed to growing in a responsible manner and plan to collaborate with our partners and stakeholders within our ecosystem to meet our sustainability goals. Material environmental, social and governance factors to the REIT have been identified and encapsulated in our sustainability roadmap. Throughout the past year, we have made significant strides toward reducing our carbon footprint with the implementation of our Decarbonisation Roadmap and enhancing disclosures and Board oversight with the creation of an inaugural Board Sustainability Committee.

Integrating Sustainability Into the Growing ESR-REIT

Over the past two years, our company has undergone significant transformation and expansion into other geographies. This has solidified ESR-REIT’s position as one of the key industrial Singapore REITS and broadened the company’s sustainability ambitions for its properties across Singapore, Australia and Japan.

We have implemented a Decarbonisation Roadmap with clear steps, targets, and timeline to ensure a climate resilient portfolio, starting with Singapore and subsequently progressing to the overseas assets in FY2025. We will be leveraging on the implementation of Electric Vehicle (“EV”) charging stations, sustainable supply chain management, green leases and green fit-out plans to achieve operational efficiencies and cost reductions. As at FY2023, the REIT has 10 properties with green building certifications and will achieve Green Mark certifications for more than 80% of its Singapore properties by FY2030.

We recognise that sustainability is a journey of continuous improvement that requires collaboration with stakeholders at every level. We have engaged with tenants actively through the year with various engagement events such as our annual Chinese New Year lunches and tenant fruits party, and achieved a tenant satisfaction score of 78.0%. We have progressively rolled out green leases to our portfolio tenants and hope to work closely with these tenants to achieve our shared objective of reducing carbon emissions.

We also work closely with grassroot organisations to fill in gaps within the communities in which we operate in. In FY2023, the team inaugurated the company-wide Lunch Time Rescue Vegetable Distribution Programme. Twice a month, on a rotational basis, employees would take time off their lunch hour to distribute vegetables rescued from the Pasir Panjang wholesale market to underprivileged residents living in rental flats within the Chai Chee precinct. This initiative helped to combat food wastage while providing aid to the underprivileged in our society. It also served as an opportunity for employees to bond outside of the office and provide them a more hands-on perspective of giving back to the society.

Keeping Up with the Evolving International Reporting Expectations

In anticipation of global alignment to the IFRS S1 and S2 Standards, ESR-REIT has also included disclosures in line with the SASB Real Estate Standards in this report. This report is in line with the MAS Environment Risk Management Guidelines and SGX-ST’s Listing Rules, and the team works to continuously refine and improve our sustainability disclosures in alignment with regulatory guidelines. We have also attained a score of 66 points for our third Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (“GRESB”) real estate assessment submission, maintaining our two-star rating in FY2023. To further our alignment to the various sustainability standards and improve our ratings, we are committed to be proactive in disclosing material ESG information, tracking data and managing ESG-related risks associated with our operations.

As we navigate the evolving sustainability landscape, we appreciate the ongoing support and collaboration of our stakeholders. We will continue advancing sustainability across all aspects of our business and will continue to set ambitious goals, track our progress transparently, and collaborate with stakeholders to drive meaningful change to create lasting value.