ENERGY MANAGEMENT - CDL Sustainability

Energy Reduction and Management Strategy

Electricity constitutes a significant proportion of CDL’s operational expenditure. It impacts the total amount of Scope 2 emissions released through our business activities. CDL places great emphasis on cost-effectively improving our energy performance to reduce carbon emissions and energy intensities. We prioritise effective energy performance and reduction of carbon emissions and intensities. In 2014, CDL became the first developer in Singapore to achieve the ISO 50001 energy management system certification for asset management. We continue to set energy reduction targets for our managed properties in Singapore with regular reviews and implementations of energy management plans.

Lifecycle Approach of Energy Management

We take a holistic view towards energy reduction by adopting measures across various stages of a building’s lifecycle — from design and construction to operation of the asset. Each business unit adheres to guidelines (shown on the right) that detail the strategic initiatives, performance standards and specific requirements relating to energy efficiency and climate change mitigation measures.

Stage in Project Lifecycle	Key Energy Management Initiatives	Benefits
Design	Incorporate passive design strategies that reduce solar heat gain through design of building form, envelope and orientation	Reduce electricity consumption and cooling cost
	Increase building greenery on roof and facade to reduce urban heat gain
	Increase natural ventilation to improve passive cooling and reduce heat gain
	Maximise natural lighting	Reduce electricity consumption and cost
	Use energy-efficient lighting such as LED lighting in all common areas
	Incorporate energy-efficient home appliances in building units
	Incorporate solar panels such as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) systems in common areas, where applicable	Reduce reliance on the grid and lower carbon emissions
Construction	Use electricity directly from the power grid supply to reduce reliance on diesel generators	Reduce emission levels of carbon, sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides and particulates
Operation of Assets	Identify high energy consumption installations and their respective energy management opportunities, e.g. installation of PV, chiller upgrading and lift modernisation	Reduce electricity consumption and cost
	Install sub-metering systems to provide data granularity and identify energy management opportunities	Enhance the monitoring and control of building equipment (e.g. heating ventilation and air conditioning, lifts) to reduce energy use
	Leverage advanced management systems to enhance building performance, e.g. Energy Management System to optimise chiller efficiency and Building Management System to control key equipment in buildings
	Generate on-site renewable energy, where possible, through the installation of PV and BIPV panels	Reduce reliance on fossil fuel; lower carbon emissions

Energy Reduction Strategy and Initiatives

Since 2004, CDL has retrofitted all our managed buildings by upgrading chiller plants, introducing motion sensors, installing energy-efficient lighting and recladding facades. Barring temporary suspension due to business disruptions in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we resumed the implementation of new energy saving initiatives in 2022. Our cumulative initiatives since 2012 continued to yield an estimated annual energy savings of around 14.9 million kWh, equivalent to around S$3.48 million of cost savings. We have also incorporated climate-resilient design and piloted solutions such as sustainable paints, more advanced energy-efficient air handling units with an electronically commutative (EC) fan and micro-climate control solution, at our investment properties to reduce heat gain and improve energy-efficiency.

Green Lease Partnership Programme

Over the years, we have actively engaged tenants to raise sustainability awareness and promote green practices along our value chain. Since 2014, we have encouraged our tenants to adopt energy conservation measures and continued to maintain a 100% programme participation rate for our retail and office tenants in 2022.

Accelerating Renewable Energy Solutions

The adoption of renewable energy is integral in the design and construction of our projects. In addition to installing solar panels at selected buildings since the early 2000s, we have progressively participated in the emerging Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) marketplace since 2017. By procuring locally-sourced RECs, CDL attributed 100% of the electricity consumed by our headquarters’ operations and part of our commercial buildings’ operations in 2022 to renewable sources. This helped to offset 412 tonnes of carbon emissions, equivalent to powering approximately 250 four-room HDB flats for one year.

Energy Efficiency and Reduction Performance

Since 2007, CDL has been tracking and reporting our environmental performance against our energy targets under our ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 environmental and energy management systems.

We regularly review the energy reduction and efficiency plans for all our properties and introduce initiatives where areas for improvement are identified. In 2022, we piloted a dynamic airflow balancing (DAB) technology, which improved occupant comfort by 22% while observing 17% cooling energy savings.

Our current interim targets aim to reduce energy use intensity by 9% from 2016 levels for office and industrial buildings, and 10% from 2016 levels for retail buildings. We surpassed our interim annual targets in 2022, with a performance of 18.1% reduction in energy use intensity¹ for office and industrial buildings, and 23.5% reduction in energy use intensity for retail buildings, respectively.

We monitor and drive energy efficiency and reduction improvements through target and performance tracking for development projects. Our current targets are to achieve an energy use intensity of 95 kWh/m2 or lesser by 2030, with an interim target of 105 kWh/m2 or lesser in 2022, for completed projects that have reached TOP status in the reporting year.

Notes
1	Energy use intensity is for purchased electricity, as base year levels were calculated using purchased electricity only.

Notes
•	Electricity consumption attributed to renewable sources from the purchase of RECs has been excluded from purchased electricity to avoid double counting
^	Total energy usage and intensity for CDL construction sites were restated from 2019 to 2021 to account for a negative 576 MWh electricity adjustment by the electricity vendor for Whistler Grand site in February 2022 that is distributed equally throughout the project’s construction period.
•	Purchased electricity intensity here includes the electricity consumption attributed to renewable sources from the purchase of RECs.
•	Energy intensity for 2022 went up due to the following asset changes: In 2021, energy-efficient Fuji Xerox Tower was redeveloped, in 2022, energy-efficient Tagore 23 was sold.

Notes
•	From 2018, energy from fuel consumption has been included in the data reported.
*	Operations of Ingensys was added upon acquisition by CBM in 2019.
**	CBM and Le Grove’s 2020 values were corrected to include fuel consumption for vehicles.
^	Total energy usage for CDL operations were restated from 2019 to 2021 to account for a negative 576 MWh electricity adjustment by the electricity vendor for Whistler Grand site in February 2022 that is distributed equally throughout the project’s construction period.
^^	As at 31 December 2022, CDLHT is an associate of the Group (instead of a subsidiary), following an accounting deconsolidation in May 2022. However, CDLHT remains a key associate of the Group and its environmental performance is accounted for under the Group’s current SBTi-validated Scope 3 carbon emissions reduction target for 1.5 degree warmer scenario.