We acknowledge that contributing to the development and regeneration of communities comes at a cost to the earth and we are passionate about continuous learning, and developing an action plan to measure and reduce our environmental impact.

Together, we commit to:

• Building a culture of sustainability by developing the awareness and involvement of our team members.

• Establishing business unit-specific strategies for reducing our environmental impact.

• Sharing best practices across our business units.

• Incorporating sustainability considerations into our business decisions.

We believe that sustainability and good design come together. As such, our design philosophy is to:

• Design to last.

• Design to benefit the users.

• Design for harmony between the natural and built environment.

• Design to create opportunities for learning and long-term value creation.

We work with the local construction industry and our suppliers to build:

• Cleverly by minimising resource consumption and using lower carbon materials.

• Efficiently by eliminating waste and embracing new technologies.

And we seek to partner our resident and retailer communities to continuously reduce our environmental footprint through responsible consumption and production.

The real estate industry urgently needs a green transition and we’re working with our sister organisation Rumah Investments to deploy innovative solutions to support the decarbonisation of our portfolio.

Our carbon management strategy involves working with our partners to complete our greenhouse gas (‘GHG’) inventory, seeking opportunities to reduce our overall energy use, increasing our proportion of renewable energy consumption, and offsetting our GHG emissions. Since 2019, Sedar Properties has achieved climate neutrality for Scopes 1 and 2 operational emissions, and partial Scope 3 emissions; in addition to 100% sourcing of green energy for managed properties since 2021.

With on-site renewable energy not currently feasible on managed properties, Renewable Energy Certificates (‘RECs’) are used to validate the consumption of electricity from renewable sources and are measured in terms of electricity units. In Singapore, we work with energy provider, Geneco (Seraya Energy) to obtain RECs from the Tradable Instruments for Global Renewables (TIGRs) Registry for Braddell House-related electricity consumption. In Auckland, we purchase renewable energy from two providers for energy consumed at Pakuranga Plaza – these are Meridian Energy and Mercury Energy. Whilst 100% of our energy consumption for areas under our control at Pakuranga Plaza is sourced from renewable sources (hydro, wind, sun, geothermal and hydro), this has not been certified and hence, has not been included as ‘GHG emissions’ avoided and continues to be additionally offset through carbon credits as described below.

The Group utilises carbon offsets to eliminate any remaining emissions, and does so on an annual basis. We are cognizant of the critiques around the use of carbon offsets as a tool to mitigate climate change. Our position is that purchasing carbon offsets finances sustainable development and establishes an internal price for carbon, which incentivises reductions and reflects the true cost of emissions. We adopt a cautious approach in our selection of carbon offsets and invest in high integrity carbon offsets. In 2022, we purchased carbon offsets from Conservation International’s restoration of Chyulu Hills in Kenya. Kenya’s Chyulu Hills are home to the Maasai people, small-holder farmers and legions of iconic wildlife – including some of the largest populations of elephants in Kenya. These hills are also beset by unsustainable land use and deforestation. Together with key partners in the landscape, particularly the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust and the Big Life Foundation, Conservation International is aiming to put tens of thousands of hectares of Chyulu Hills savannah woodland and grassland under restoration by 2025. The initiative also aims to serve as a demonstration site for other landscapes to emulate, and therefore catalyse the adoption of cost-effective, high-impact landscape restoration practices. The project uses Verra VCS methodology and includes the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCB).

As construction materials make up 60 to 80% of GHG emissions associated with the production of a building, we are exploring alternative materials and methods of construction to both reduce the embodied carbon of our buildings, as well as to reduce construction and demolition waste. In 2022, we signed on to the Singapore Built Environment Embodied Carbon Pledge, which shows our commitment to adopting building materials with lower embodied carbon, minimising materials use and waste, and transforming construction site processes to utilise electricity and renewable sources of energy. To manage the embodied carbon of our portfolio, we are in the process of evaluating the feasibility of introducing mass timber to replace traditional concrete as structural components to our developments. We are currently piloting the inclusion of mass timber at our mixed-use residential complex located at Bellfield Estate. By using sustainably grown and locally treated cross laminated timber (‘CLT) and glued laminated timber (also known as “glulam”), we aim to satisfy the design requirements for open plan commercial spaces, while maximising reductions in embodied carbon.

Click below to read our reports from the following years:

• Sustainability Report 2022
• Sustainability Report 2021
• Sustainability Report 2020
• Sustainability Report 2019

Sedar Properties was formally known as GYP Properties. We underwent privatisation in 2022 and rebranded in 2023.