Hongkong Land, the biggest landlord in Hong Kong’s Central business district, has launched a new sustainability scheme to help its office tenants reduce their carbon footprints.
Through its Tenant Sustainability Partnership Programme (TSPP) launched on Tuesday, the developer aims to improve both its own and its tenants’ environmental performance by collaborating on the fit-out and operation of their offices.
“In order to move the sustainability or ESG (environmental, social and governance) agenda forward – and that includes Hong Kong’s journey towards net zero – the property sector plays a major part,” said Lam.
Buildings account for about 90 per cent of electricity consumption in Hong Kong, according to Diane Wong, the under secretary for environment and ecology.
Electricity generation is the major source of harmful emissions in Hong Kong, accounting for 63 per per cent of the 34.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent released into the atmosphere in 2021, according to the most recent data published by the Environment and Ecology Bureau in July.
“Through the TSPP, we hopefully can gather more [environmental] information and data from the tenants because this is one of our key objectives, to share our data and experience,” said Yeung.
“Ultimately, there is no net zero or decarbonisation unless everyone does it. Any efforts by any of our peers and anyone in the sector should be seen as a positive,” said Lam.
Swire Properties’ initiative covers the entire tenancy cycle in the areas of office fit-out and operations, with a focus on reducing energy and water use as well as waste.
On average, participating tenants diverted around 33 per cent of their waste from landfill in the period from April 2022 to March 2023.
“We’ll be introducing more initiatives to give tenants new tools to meet and hopefully exceed their ESG goals,” said Don Taylor, Swire Properties’ director of office.
Swire Properties aims to have half of its office tenants in Hong Kong and mainland China join the programme by 2025.
In July, Nan Fung Group launched a new initiative aimed at driving sustainability through collaboration with tenants, employees and community partners.
