Keppel Land Limited emerged as the winner of the 2011 Singapore Awards for Sustainability Reporting (SASR), at the awards ceremony organised by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and attended by more than 100 business leaders. The annual awards is to identify and reward companies for their excellence in sustainability reporting, and also serves to encourage more companies to begin sustainability reporting.
The other 9 finalists for the SASR Awards include: ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited; CapitaLand Limited; Cerebos Pacific Limited; Keppel Corporation Limited; Swire Pacific Offshore Pte Ltd; The China Navigation Co Pte Ltd; Origin Exterminators (S) Pte Ltd; SMRT Corporation Limited; and Wilmar International Limited.
ACCA chose Keppel Land as the winner because its Sustainability Report 2010 was comprehensive, concise and credible. The report clearly articulated the company’s sustainability strategies and practices in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3 Level B+ guidelines, and highlighted the economic, environmental, and social aspects of the company’s activities and developments across its properties in Singapore and overseas.
The report includes Keppel Land’s efforts in 3 key areas: Sustaining Growth, Empowering Lives, and Nurturing Communities. For Sustaining Growth, Keppel Land is committed to high standards of environmental performance, with the following targets:
- Achieve at least the Green Mark Gold award by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore or its equivalent overseas for new projects in Singapore and overseas
- Expand the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System (EMS) certification to the Group’s other business operations
- Engage and raise eco-consciousness among staff, tenants and the wider public through regular activities and events
- Promote recycling among tenants and implement the Green Office Programme in Keppel Land’s offices
- Build a core team of in-house green building specialists through courses on sustainability and green building technology
- Preserve biodiversity and maintain high standards of environmental protection in native environments to ensure a balanced and intact eco-system
For Empowering Lives and Nurturing Communities, Keppel Land is committed to create a safety culture and ensure the well-being of its employees, to be an employer of choice and provide employees with career growth and personal development opportunities, and also aims to conduct its business in a socially responsible and ethical manner.
The Sustainability Report 2010 can be easily accessed online by the public atwww.keppelland.com.sg/sr2010 (available for download). As part of Keppel Land’s efforts to minimise the impact on the environment, limited copies of the report were printed.
Keppel Land also improved the credibility of the report by appointing an independent third party, Ere-S Pte Ltd, a CSR consulting company, to provide assurance on the report based on the AA1000 Assurance Standard. All underlying systems and processes that support the company’s sustainability framework were reviewed, in adherence to the principles of inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness.
Keppel Land’s sustainability reporting is a good example for other local companies to follow, and as Mr Darryl Wee, Country Head of ACCA Singapore, rightly pointed out: “Through the SASR Awards, ACCA hopes to call out to more Singapore organisations to begin sustainability reporting. The rising global trend in reporting suggests that local companies need to start focusing on sustainability as a way to improve their business. If we want to position ourselves as global players, we need to increase our efforts in producing more sustainability reports.”
