Leading Climate Action

Jardines is taking action on climate change and leadership on climate resilient development. This means building resilience through ongoing identification and management of climate-related risks and opportunities.

Flooding, drought, typhoons, sea-level rise and rising heat and humidity are among the observable impacts that make Asia highly vulnerable to physical risks from a changing climate. At Jardines, we recognise the potential impact of multiple climate hazards on our business and communities.

Jardines supports the widespread consensus that effective responses to climate change hinge upon credible strategies to transition towards net-zero. We advocate climate-resilient development to promote a Just Transition towards net-zero in line with climate science. For details, please refer to Supporting a Just Energy Transition .

Our commitment to leading climate action involves two areas of focus that work in tandem to enhance the Group’s resilience as the world and Asia transition towards carbon neutrality: decarbonisation and climate risk.

Key considerations for Jardines’ climate action strategy

Net-zero will be a core strategy for regulators and leading businesses in our key markets and sectors

There is a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity to enable climate-resilient development

Decarbonisation

During 2021, the Climate Action Working Group formulated a decarbonisation strategy that will align the Group as a whole towards the ultimate goal of net-zero.

This work continues in 2022, with the intention of communicating a clear position on the Group’s decarbonisation pathway and timeline in due course. In close consultation with our BUs, we are pursuing a segmented approach with an appropriate degree of flexibility to account for Jardines’ size and complexity. We have segmented our BUs into five categories under two pathways in order to prepare an outline for Jardines’ net-zero goal.

Zero Carbon Building constructed by Gammon

Initiatives across the Group

Hongkong Land joins SBTi with ambitious carbon reduction targets

Gammon Gears up for carbon neutrality

Climate-related Risks and Opportunities

The Group has conducted a preliminary physical climate risk analysis to identify those risks likely to have material impact on the Group through physical damage and business disruption.

Preliminary analysis has found that the geographic regions with the highest physical climate risk exposure are Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Top Climate Hazards

Typhoon

Its severity as measured by wind speed is increasing in Southeast Asia and is also expected to move north, with more frequent and destructive typhoons in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Rainfall flooding

Its severity as measured by flood depth is expected to increase across Asia. This will have major implications for our low lying and flood vulnerable assets throughout the region.

Extreme heat

This is measured by the combined impact of temperature and humidity on the human body and is forecasted to increase in the period to 2030 across Asia. Higher latitudes are expected to be most adversely affected.

The United Nations COP26 Climate Change Conference (‘COP26’) in Glasgow in November 2021 provided clear signals about the global community’s intention to phase down coal power, phase out fossil fuel subsidies, and stimulate demand for clean technologies in transport and power. To explore renewable energy opportunities, the Group held a workshop ahead of COP26 with participation by industry experts, investors and corporates who have invested in energy transition, as well as start-ups in relevant segments. We continue to study the opportunities presented by the world’s shift towards more sustainable energy sources and are exploring the effective integration of identified physical risks into regular risk assessments and business strategy.

Refer to our Sustainability Report for our detailed TCFD aligned disclosures.

Initiatives across the Group

Hongkong Land joins SBTi with ambitious carbon reduction targets

In a move that will further consolidate its position as a leading property investment, management and development group based in Asia, Hongkong Land has committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (‘SBTi’)—an international coalition of non-profit organisations and businesses promoting best practices for emissions reduction in line with the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

To achieve its ambitious targets, Hongkong Land plans to increase deployment of smart green technologies and procurement of renewable energy, while investing in low carbon construction techniques that minimise the embodied carbon of new projects.

Hongkong Land has a long history of pioneering work on green buildings starting in 2007, when York House became the first commercial building in Hong Kong to achieve a Platinum rating using the Hong Kong Green Building Council’s Building Environmental Assessment Method (‘BEAM’).

Today, 93% of Hongkong Land’s total commercial floor area, including the area held in joint ventures, has achieved green building certifications.

Hongkong Land’s commitment to join SBTi marks the next major milestone on its sustainability journey. Its progress has attracted the attention of the finance and investment community, who are partnering with Hongkong Land to issue financial instruments tied to its strong sustainability performance.

Gammon gears up for carbon neutrality

Gammon has long advocated for decarbonisation in its own operations and by supporting customers to reduce the lifetime emissions of major developments through sustainable construction practices.

For the Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 2 project, in addition to targetting to achieve a BEAM Plus Platinum rating, Gammon is deploying prefabricated modular construction and low carbon ready-mix concrete to minimise waste and emissions. It is also recycling treated marine sediment and felled trees, displacing diesel power generation with a battery energy storage system and tracking its carbon performance using a Carbon Assessment Tool developed by the Construction Industry Council (‘CIC’).

Gammon co-launched the Power Up Coalition with Business Environment Council (‘BEC’) in April 2021, to advocate for emissions reductions on construction sites in Hong Kong. It is engaging with customers, power companies, consultants, architects and industry peers to accelerate electricity supply on construction sites and avoid diesel generators, in order to reduce emissions and health impacts. The coalition has grown to include 22 members, including JEC, another Jardines business.

Investing in a Just Transition for Southeast Asia

As Southeast Asia continues to undergo largescale socio-economic transformation, a Just Transition towards a low carbon economy will help to reduce energy poverty, create jobs and economic opportunities, and strengthen climate resilience. As an organisation that is deeply embedded in our communities around the region, we want to help realise the shared benefits of an orderly and equitable transition.

JC&C is committed to no investments in new thermal or metallurgical coal mines and new thermal coal-fired power plants, and to diversifying to non-coal mineral mining. It is expanding its renewable energy investments in Vietnam, one of the region’s fast-growing markets for renewables where installed capacity of wind, solar and hydro is forecast to double to 150GW by 2030. Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (‘REE’), a Vietnam-based associate of JC&C, has been a leading developer of sustainable infrastructure since 2010. It is currently the largest investor in roof-top solar power generation in the country, with a portfolio comprising over 700MW of equity-adjusted capacity, including 138MW of solar, 44MW of wind, and 488MW of hydro.

In 2021, REE acquired three additional wind plants with a total designed capacity exceeding 100MW. During the year, a subsidiary of REE also commenced commercial operation of a new hydro project with a capacity of over 220MW.

In support of Indonesia’s Roadmap to Low Carbon Economy, Astra will no longer acquire new coal mining assets and will no longer invest in coal-fired power plants. Astra is expanding its interests in renewable energy, including hydro, wind and solar projects. Astra is also exploring new technologies and innovations in biomass waste-to-energy and increasing utilisation of biofuels such as B30 biodiesel in its operations.

PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk (‘Astra Agro’), Astra’s palm oil subsidiary, utilises biomass waste such as palm fibres and palm kernel shells to generate electricity for its palm oil mill and offices. It also operates two methane capture facilities.

Please refer here for more on JC&C’s position and here for more on Astra’s position.

JEC Delivers Powerful Building Management Solutions

JEC has embarked on a new era of delivering sustainability as a major driver for business growth. It’s AI-powered analytics platform, Jardine Engineering Digital Insights (‘JEDI’), helps customers to reduce consumption of energy and other resources and perform predictive maintenance in their buildings by facilitating energy optimisation, fault detection and sustainability reporting, among other solutions.

In 2021, JEDI helped to conserve 4 million kWh of energy—the equivalent of 3,000 tCO2e of carbon emissions—from JEC’s client portfolio, which includes major organisations such as MTR Corporation, LINK REIT and The University of Hong Kong.

As a testament to the success of cross-group collaboration, JEC is working closely with other BUs such as Hongkong Land, Hactl and Astra. During the launch of an optimisation model in 2020, JEDI assisted Hongkong Land to achieve 10% efficiency improvement in the cooling system of its Central Portfolio. At its heart, JEDI supports customers to reduce the climate impact of commercial buildings.