Cushman & Wakefield released its 2023 Sustainability Report, highlighting the firm’s global impact and progress across key sustainability areas. The report underscores the company’s commitment to embedding sustainability in its operations and service offerings, helping clients achieve their goals while strengthening corporate reputation and mitigating risks. It reflects Cushman & Wakefield’s focus on transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Chief Sustainability Officer Jessica Francisco emphasized the firm’s dedication to shaping a sustainable future, not only for clients and stakeholders but for the planet. Cushman & Wakefield is actively reducing its environmental impact, fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace, and enabling clients to meet their sustainability objectives. With ambitious future targets, the firm is focused on taking immediate action for a better, more sustainable future.
Mindspace Business Parks REIT – ESG Report 2023-24
Mindspace Business Parks REIT Group is proud to present its third ESG report for the Financial Year (FY) 2024. Sponsored by the K Raheja Group, Mindspace Business Parks REIT (“Mindspace REIT”) and its Asset SPVs (hereafter referred to as “Mindspace REIT Group” or “Mindspace REIT” or “Group” or “we” or “us” or “our Entity”) are defining the future of efficient and equitable workspaces that are designed around the pillars of occupant wellness and sustainability.
Guided by an impact led ESG strategy, we encourage broader stakeholder participation to expand the reach of our sustainability practices and catalyze change across the larger ecosystem beyond our properties. As we grow our footprint to accelerate long-term value creation for our stakeholders, we continue to be powered by our ESG strategy.
Asia Pacific REITs are leading the charge in sustainability, driving the decarbonization of the region’s real estate. With over 200 REITs and a market cap surpassing $250 billion, they are setting new standards for green assets and aligning with net-zero goals.
However, climate risks and regulatory pressures loom large, making it imperative for REITs to innovate and collaborate to safeguard their assets and seize the massive opportunity in sustainable growth. Learn how APAC REITs are navigating these challenges and pioneering a resilient, green future.
Sigrid Zialcita
CEO APREA
Sigrid is the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Pacific Real Assets Association (APREA). Based in Singapore, she is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction, initiatives and operations of the association across Asia Pacific. Under her leadership, APREA repositioned to an industry trade group focusing on real estate and infrastructure.
Sigrid joined APREA’s executive team in January 2019.
Prior to APREA, she served as Managing Director of Asia Pacific Research and Advisory Services of Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) from 2010 through 2018, where she was responsible for research, thought leadership, strategy formulation and client management. Before relocating to Singapore, she was based in Washington, D.C. and led C&W’s U.S. research group in the Mid-Atlantic region, overseeing all aspects of market research activities in the Washington, DC; Virginia; Suburban Maryland, Baltimore; and Philadelphia areas. Prior to joining C&W, Sigrid served as a Senior Economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In that position, she developed NAR’s office, warehouse, retail, multi-family housing, and international research programs.
A recognized expert in global economic, public policy and real estate issues, Sigrid is a frequent speaker at industry events. Her commentary on commercial and residential real estate markets is also regularly featured in a wide array of global publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, New York Times and Reuters. Additionally, she has made several television appearances on financial networks and radio such as CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, National Public Radio and Channel News Asia.
Sigrid holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and a Master’s degree in Economics from Pennsylvania State University. She is a member of several civic groups including the Rotary Club of Raffles City in Singapore, where she has served in various leadership positions, and serves in the Executive Committee of the Crohn’s & Colitis Society of Singapore.
David Fogarty
Head of ESG Consulting & Sustainability Services Paia FROM CBRE, APAC
David Fogarty is the Head of ESG Consulting & Sustainability Services, Paia FROM CBRE, APAC.
He has previously the roles of Executive Managing Director for Property Management in the United Kingdom, Managing Director, Property & Asset Management Singapore and Southeast Asia, and Regional Director, Asset Services, Pacific (Australia and New Zealand).
David is a passionate advocate for creating an environment where people thrive, building communities and connections, integrating technology, sustainability, and people to help shape the future of the workplace and real estate.
With over twenty-five (25) years’ experience adding value in the industry across a range of commercial, retail, residential, mixed use, hospitality, and industrial property, David has successfully led Asset, Property and Sustainability businesses, building effective teams, driving strong growth, performance, and profitability.
The Green Transformation of Logistics Real Estate (CBRE)
There is a growing emphasis on sustainability and environmental footprint in the transportation and logistics industries worldwide, with nearly 70% of companies from these sectors in the Fortune 500 having set a net zero carbon target, and around half aiming to achieve this objective by 2030 or earlier. This growing trend is also influencing logistics occupiers’ real estate decision-making worldwide.
In Asia Pacific, an increasing number of logistics occupiers are seeking more environmentally friendly warehouses and distribution centres. CBRE’s June 2024 Asia Pacific Leasing Market Sentiment Index found that energy-related features, particularly renewable energy supply and energy efficiency management, are most preferred. Many survey respondents indicated that occupiers also have a preference for facilities that possess some form of green certification, and that provide charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
With more occupiers embedding sustainability into their real estate strategy, landlords and investors must accelerate the greening of their Asia Pacific logistics portfolios.
This Viewpoint explores occupiers’ most sought-after green features and explains how asset owners in the region should respond to rising demand for environmentally friendly logistics real estate.
Nature Positive: Guidelines for the Transition in Cities (World Economic Forum)
This report, published in collaboration with Oliver Wyman, highlights the pivotal role of cities in leading the global fight against climate change and biodiversity loss. Coordinated city action for nature is not only vital to achieving the goals set by the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), but also strategically necessary given the climate-, health- and infrastructure-related urban challenges arising from existing unbalanced relationships with nature and the biosphere.
The pivotal role cooling can play for meeting company ESG objectives
ESG reporting has brought the conversation on “Net Zero” from the halls of multilateral organisations to corporate boardrooms across the world. Over the past decade, companies have been looking to better their ESG records. In India, since 2023, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has mandated the top 1000 listed companies (by market capitalisation) to file a business responsibility and sustainability report (BRSR) that discloses environmental data including energy, emissions, water, and waste. Starting from financial year 2024-2025 ESG disclosures are also applicable for the value chains of the top 250 listed entities (by market capitalisation) on a comply-or-explain basis.
Large corporations can look to cooling systems in their building infrastructure and operations to improve ESG performance across BRSR-defined KPIs of water & energy footprint, associated GHG emissions, circularity of resources, in addition to other social- economic parameters. In India, the buildings’ sector (residential and commercial) is responsible for 33% of total electricity consumption, projected to increase to 55% demand of total electricity generated by 2047. The building and construction sector also accounts for 32% of the total national GHG emissions inventory. Of a building’s total demand for energy, 57% is towards cooling requirements alone. As per the 2023 World Energy Outlook of the International Energy Agency (IEA), India experienced a 21% increase in electricity consumption from space cooling between 2019 and 2022. Being a developing and a rapidly urbanizing country, India expects to see a 1.5-2x increase in area under building construction in 2027, as compared to 2017, which combined with heat generation and Urban Heat Islands (UHI) effect from vehicles, appliances (air conditioners, refrigerators, etc), and decline in tree cover will further increase the electricity demand for cooling.
Businesses, especially those with large campus requirements, have the capacity to, on one hand, adopt innovative building design that incorporates passive measures to reduce the upfront cooling demand on a square metre basis. On the other, they are also well positioned to adopt disruptive cooling technologies such as district cooling/cooling as a service (CAAS) to meet residual cooling demand in a sustainable manner. Tabreed has demonstrated success across several ESG metrics in its existing projects through the Cooling as a Service model. For instance, at Tata Realty’s Intellion Park in Gurugram, Haryana, cooling system designed, built and operated by Tabreed, is able to serve 700 sft of area per ton of cooling to achieve an energy performance index of 70-90 kWh/m2/year.
District cooling also allow for integrated solutions that can help achieve ESG requirements beyond energy. For example, district cooling plants can utilize grey water from on-site Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) which is generally discharged straight into rivers and lakes. Similarly, district energy integrated with waste to energy plants & city gas distribution plants can first, allow utilization of waste heat for cooling, second, reduce grid power requirement, and third, replace highly polluting Diesel Generator (DG) sets in case of grid failures by creating redundancy. The possibilities for using district energy as a means to achieve integrated solutions that improve resource efficiency from a systems’ lens are limitless. There is an opportunity here for businesses to not only become more sustainable & cost effective, but truly move the needle on energy and resource efficiency for the country.
Sudheer Perla
Managing Director, Tabreed Asia Country Manager, India, Tabreed
Titled “Champion our Ecosystem”, Champion REIT’s Sustainability Report 2023 illustrates a collaborative endeavor that focuses on establishing a value-added network around stakeholders through sustainable performances in line with its 2030 ESG Targets and 2045 Net Zero Commitment.
The report is structured according to local and international regulations and frameworks, including Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) with independent assurance. In its pursuit of higher standard of information transparency, the report further strengthens its climate-related information in accordance with the International Sustainability Standard Board’s (ISSB’s) IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures.
CDL’s Integrated Sustainability Report 2024 is their 17th sustainability report since 2008. Themed “Zero in on Nature”, the digital report communicates CDL’s progress towards their material ESG goals and targets, established under the CDL Future Value 2030 sustainability blueprint. External assurance is key to enhance data credibility and instill confidence in readers. CDL’s external assurance of their sustainability report started in 2009 and has continued to expand. ISR 2023 and ISR 2024’s external assurance has been further elevated in its scope against the GRI Standards, SASB Standards, as well as the TCFD and CDSB frameworks.
This year CDL became the first Singapore company to commit to nature-related disclosures based on the TNFD Recommendations in this report.
A Guide to Renewable Energy in Southeast Asia (Rajah & Tann Asia)
Sustainability is quickly becoming a priority for governments and businesses across the world. Amidst the adoption of reduced emission targets, a key area of focus is investment in and deployment of renewable energy (RE), which is a key solution to decarbonisation and achieving net zero emission goals.
Businesses throughout all industries are increasingly looking towards RE, whether to meet the applicable regulations in their jurisdictions, or to utilise the available green incentives. However, to effectively assess the implementation of RE solutions, businesses must first traverse the RE-related policies, restrictions and green financing in their respective jurisdiction. An added dimension of complication is added if the business operates across country lines, as the policies and focus of each country may differ.
To help businesses navigate the policies and laws affecting the RE sector, Rajah & Tann Asia published the Guide to Renewable Energy in Southeast Asia which provides an overview of the RE landscape in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, where Rajah & Tann Asia has its geographical footprint.
This Guide summarises the salient legal and regulatory issues in each jurisdiction that businesses should be aware of in their implementation of RE, including the regulatory framework and sectoral policies, RE programmes, government incentives, and key issues in the RE sector.
The Growing Importance of the CSO/Head of Sustainability
Navigating complexity, driving ESG strategy integration and adding long-term value to organizations
In today’s rapidly changing world, sustainability has gained significant importance, especially so in the built environment, which contributes an estimated 40 percent to global carbon emissions making rapid decarbonisation of real estate essential if we are to limit warming increases to the 1.5C threshold to mitigate the worst effects of climate change by 2050.
As businesses increasingly recognize the importance of sustainability and responsible business practices, the need for a Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) or Head of Sustainability has emerged as a crucial position within organizations to drive change, navigate complexity and unlock the true potential across environmental, social and governance (ESG) dimensions. The role itself is new, with over 60% of respondents in a recent survey conducted by CBRE and the US Green Building Council noting their role was only created in the last three (3) years.
Sustainability—sometimes used interchangeably with ESG—encompasses such a wide and broad spectrum of issues, ranging from climate change and human rights to board diversity and corporate governance. A fast moving regulatory and legislative environment with increasing reporting and compliance requirements, mounting stakeholder pressures, climate change risk mitigation and adaptation, and rapid technological change – all combine to make the world of ESG Increasingly complex and challenging to navigate.
A CSO (or head of Sustainability) therefore plays a pivotal role in navigating complexity, integrating ESG considerations into an organization’s overall strategy and ensuring that sustainability becomes an integral part of decision- making to add ongoing value to the organisation.
In the Asia Pacific region, the role of CSO is rapidly gaining prominence as investors display increased appetite for sustainable portfolios and occupiers seek energy efficient and healthy buildings in line with their own net zero and sustainability commitments. With increasing new regulations requiring even greater sustainability disclosures, the role of a CSO is becoming mission critical, and the hunt for talent in APAC is on.
Increasingly, and importantly, the CSO serves as a bridge between the organization and its stakeholders, including investors, customers, employees, and communities. Internally, they must collaborate with various departments to develop and implement sustainability initiatives, identify opportunities for innovation and efficiency improvements, and build organisational capabilities.
Eighty-four percent (84%) of survey respondents noted managing stakeholder relationships and fostering cultural change (76%) as key elements of their roles. They must develop and maintain transparent communication channels, addressing stakeholders’ concerns and expectations, both internally and externally.
CSOs also indicated concerns regarding future regulatory changes and the nascent stages of understanding risks that climate related disasters pose to their portfolios. They acknowledge much more work needs to be done to promote the long-term benefits that sustainability adoption has on corporate branding, talent attraction and climate risk mitigation. Embedding Sustainability takes time, strong business acumen and stakeholder management – and a powerful desire to make a positive change recognising that people, planet, and business performance are interdependent.
CSOs have a broad remit to track ESG project progress and enhance transparency
In response to the tighter regulation of sustainability-related disclosure, the primary focus of CSOs is ESG monitoring and reporting, as well as implementation of related projects.
CSOs are also responsible for fostering corporate change to promote and align with their company’s ESG goals. This includes assisting different business lines to develop ESG capabilities and acccountability.
As many CSOs tend to focus on implementing internal corporate priorities, relatively fewer are engaged with lobbying policymakers on related policies. However, as the path to decarbonisation involves significant regulatory change and policy support, this is an area CSOs cannot overlook.
At CBRE, we have witnessed the benefit of having the clarity of leadership and direction with our first Chief Sustainability Officer Rob Bernard, who joined CBRE last year with 20 years of experience working at the intersection of sustainability, business and technology—including serving as Microsoft’s first Chief Environmental Strategist. His leadership has galvanised the integration of sustainability across our business globally to better serve our clients and deliver on our own commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040. We are positioned to simplify complexity so that we can accelerate sustainability progress through clear and executable strategies for our clients. We do this for clients big and small, global, regional, and local.
We have significantly invested in tools, partnerships, technologies, and services that have the power to drive change at scale and transform the industry for a sustainable future. And we also recognise that to champion sustainability within the built environment, our efforts begin at home as we tackle the very same challenges faced by our clients.
The role of the CSO will continue to evolve as sustainability matures, and organisations that have invested in this role are better placed to manage risk, drive cost savings and operational efficiencies, engage stakeholders, foster innovation, and promote employee engagement. The CSO is multi-faceted and affects all parts of the organisation, reflecting the wholesale change that is needed to gain a competitive advantage as we transition to a decarbonised world. The role is critical in creating long-term value, enhancing brand reputation, and positioning their organisations as leaders in sustainability and ESG practices.
David Fogarty
Head of Sustainability & ESG Consulting Services, Singaporeand South East Asia CBRE
