COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS
Thought Leadership on Climate Action and Sustainable Development
| Key initiatives | Outcomes and Impact |
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COP28, 30 November to 13 December 2023
CDL’s CSO Esther An joined the COP28 conference to share the Company’s pioneering experience in ESG integration. Engaging in dynamic discussions, she delved into the intricacies of Singapore’s built environment practices, the latest advancements in sustainability reporting, and the evolving landscape of sustainable finance. A veteran in sustainability, CDL’s CSO’s thought leadership in COP25, 26 and 27 prior to COP28 has allowed the Company to establish our presence on the global stage. The Company shared our business case of embracing ESG at several high-level panel discussions and events, with partners such as UNGC, GRI, Microsoft, WEF, Saint Gobain and the Singapore Government. |
Climate Week NYC, September 2023
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Held every year in partnership with the UN General Assembly in New York, Climate Action Week is the largest annual climate event of its kind, bringing together business leaders, political change makers, local decision makers and civil society representatives from all backgrounds.
CDL’s CSO Esther An was invited to speak at three international panels, sharing the Company’s journey as a corporate and how buildings are designed, built, and managed to tackle climate change, heat and biodiversity loss, as well as the importance of innovative and transformative solutions to accelerate decarbonisation. |
| UNEP FI Regional Roundtable: Panel on “Financing the Transition Towards a Sustainable Future in Asia Pacific”, 24 May 2023Speakers: ISSB’s Board Member Tae-Young Paik; Shinhan Financial Group’s Head of ESG division Jeong-hoon Cho; Green Climate Fund’s Deputy Executive Director Henry Gonzales; CDL’s CSO Esther An; and moderator UNEP FI’s Head Eric Usher |
Held in Seoul, South Korea, the roundtable event convened UNEP FI members, policymakers, civil society organizations, and academics to discuss the advancement of sustainable finance, and its regional challenges and solutions.
The panel discussion explored the regional challenges and opportunities surrounding financing sustainable development, the role of innovation, and the importance of stakeholder collaboration. |
| Sustainability Innovation Lab Launch: A milestone collaboration between GRI and IFRS 20 November 2023 
Speakers: CDL’s CSO Esther An; PwC’s Partner and Sustainability and Climate Change Practice Leader Eu-Lin Fang; Sustainable Finance Institute Asia’s CEO Eugene Wong; Deloitte Indonesia’s Partner and Indonesia GSI and Assurance Leader Rosita Sinaga; and moderator ISSB’s Board Member Richard Barker |
The global sustainability community celebrated a milestone collaboration between GRI and ISSB with the launch of the Sustainability Innovation Lab, which brought hope for collaboration and the much-needed support for corporate reporters to raise the bar on the credibility and consistency of ESG reporting.
Featuring GRI’s CEO Eelco van der Enden, and ISSB’s Chair Emmanual Faber, the event was also graced by Guest-of-Honour Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. Speaking on the Panel on “Counting on Sustainability: Accountants and Tech in Credible Reports”, the Company shared that a two-pillar reporting approach serves the purpose of balanced reporting on Impact on the planet and people as well as Value for business and investors. |
| “Peace with Nature” Book Launch, 4 September 2023 | A collection of 50 essays by passionate nature and environmental champions in Singapore, this book captures the wisdom, insight and love for nature by its contributors from diverse sustainability and nature related backgrounds including CDL’s CSO Esther An.
The launch event featured Guest-of-Honour Minister for National Development Desmond Lee. |
Speaking Engagements by CDL’s CSO
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In 2023, CDL’s CSO Esther An spoke at more than 90 local and international platforms reaching out to public, private and people sectors. Thought leadership topics covered climate action towards a net-zero carbon future, strategic ESG/SDG integration, green building and smart technologies, sustainability reporting, ESG investing and green financing and more. |
Women Empowerment
| Key initiatives | Outcomes and Impact |
| International Women’s Day 2023: Celebrating Women Champions in the Sustainable Built Environment, 7 March 2023
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The Company’s SSA and Women4Green Network celebrated International Women’s Day 2023, themed #EmbraceEquity, with a lively panel session featuring five women leaders at the helm of leading trade organisations in the Singapore built industry. Moderated by CDL’s CSO Esther An, the panel comprised distinguished speakers WorldGBC’s Asia Pacific Programme Head Joy Gai; APREA’s CEO Sigrid Zialcita; SGBC’s Executive Director Yvonne Soh; ULI Singapore’s Executive Director Michelle Wong; and The Singapore Contractors Association Ltd’s Executive Director Louise Chua. They shared their personal and professional experiences in a relatively male-dominated sector. |
| Women4Green – Nurturing Women Eco Champions (Initiated in June 2017)Women4Green: A Green Christmas, 24 November 2023 |
The network aims to empower female executives to adopt and champion sustainable lifestyles and practices at work, home and play. Our SSA platform and Women4Green Network organised sessions in 2023 on topics such as women leadership in the built industry, sustainable fashion and composting.
To celebrate the festive season while recognising the abundance of waste generated during the holiday period, our Women4Green Network hosted “A Green Christmas”. The session featured three exciting workshops with darifarida, a lifestyle brand that promotes eco-friendly apparel and accessories; Soil Social, a local composting startup that turns organic waste into compost; and Climate Fresk, a climate change-focused workshop aimed at raising awareness on the climate emergency. |
Youth Engagement and Development
| Key initiatives | Outcomes and Impact |
| Youth4Climate (Y4C) Festival, 8-9 July 2023 (Since 2018)
Partners: MSE, South Beach Consortium
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Y4C is one of the Company’s flagship programmes in support of youth empowerment, social good and the UN SDGs. The festival provides Singapore’s youths with a platform to express their love for the environment.
Held at South Beach Consortium, the Y4C Festival returned for its sixth edition this year, comprising the Y4C Concert, an Eco Marketplace, Eco-Educational Workshops and movie screenings of Happy Feet I and II. 2023 was also the Company’s sixth year of support for Go Green SG Week (formerly known as Climate Action Week) organised by the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE), to rally youths to accelerate climate action. The Company has also supported the President’s Challenge for the fourth year running, to help the less fortunate. Minister Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore, delivered closing remarks. |
| CDL-GCNS Young SDG Leaders Award (Launched in 2011)
Partners: GCNS, MSE
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This annual business case competition seeks to empower youths to become future sustainability champions by equipping them with the skills to integrate SDGs into business strategy and operations. It has attracted more than 3,700 youths since inauguration.
Into its 13th year, 2023’s topic focused on SDG 13: Climate Action. 10 finalist teams underwent a work attachment with their assigned case company, in preparation for their final presentations. The top three winning teams were crowned at GCNS Summit 2023, which featured Guest-of-Honour Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. |
| CDL E-Generation Challenge (Launched in 2010)
Partner: GGEF
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This annual competition engages youths to contribute ideas on climate action. In 2023, the top winner from the 2022 challenge embarked on an Antarctic Climate Epic Expedition in February 2023 with over 100 other eco-champions to co-create solutions to tackle the climate emergency. Runner-ups received an educational trip with Earth Company in Ubud, Bali. |
| CDL Young SDG Leaders Fund – Supporting SMU’s Local and Overseas Youth Development Programmes (Launched in 2014) |
This fund has supported 100 student-led community investment programmes and impacted approximately 4,118 students since its launch. In 2023, the Fund empowered 32 students to engage 650 participants through local and overseas projects with Singapore Management University (SMU). |
| Eco-Business Youth A List (Partnership since 2020) | This initiative recognises the exemplary work of individuals under the age of 30 that seek to advance environmental and social sustainability in Asia Pacific. |
| Eco Train Project
Partner: Just Keep Thinking |
Set to launch in 2024, the CDL Eco Train is the first-of-its-kind repurposed train carriage with an aim to engage, educate and raise eco-awareness amongst the community on a broad range of sustainability topics and issues through gallery showcases, trainings and workshops. |
| GGEF SDG Open Hack! Singapore, 13 May – 15 July 2023
(Partnership since 2022) |
In line with the Company’s commitment towards partnering with emerging innovation and ideation partners, we continued our support for the SDG Open Hack in 2023 with the sponsorship of a six-month rent-free space at the Incubator For SDGs for the winning teams. The SDG Open Hack! SG aims to encourage tertiary students to solve societal and/or environmental issues, by way of the 17 UN SDGs while also hoping to foster innovation and entrepreneurship, among other skills. |
| My Tree House – World’s First Green Library for Kids (Initiated in 2013) | In 2022, the Company concluded the My Tree House Library partnership with NLB after a successful 10- year run. In the lead up to World Environment Day 2023 on 5 June 2023, CDL and NLB continued the storytelling partnership for one more contest and jointly organised the fourth edition of the storytelling contest. The best entries were curated in a video titled “We Love Our Planet – Say No to Waste! 2023”, in celebration of WED’s theme to #BeatPlasticPollution. |
| Nurturing Future Sustainability Leaders via Education | In 2023, members of the Company’s Senior Management team were invited to deliver lectures to local and overseas students, at institutions such as NUS, INSEAD, SMU, Nanyang Business School, Temasek Polytechnic and University of St. Gallen. |
| One Young World ASEAN Leadership Forum held at the SSA, 5 August 2023 | A first-ever in Singapore, the One Young World (OYW) ASEAN Leadership Forum brought together youth changemakers from ASEAN at the SSA. Organised by OYW Ambassor, Seastainable’s Founder Samantha Thian, this forum aimed to ignite inspiration amongst fellow youth as changemakers across the region shared their work in transforming their communities across the Climate, Education, and Mental Health space, and also connected people with like-minded individuals to spark conversations, connections and accelerate the impact needed in ASEAN. Attended by 100 youths across seven countries, they discussed OYW 2023 Belfast Plenary topics on the climate emergency, education and mental health. |
| Roots & Shoots Awards, 3 March 2023 | In commemoration of World Wildlife Day, the Company was proud to partner JGIS to present the JGIS Roots and Shoots Awards at the Dairy Farm Nature Park Wallace Educational Centre. The ceremony featured student speakers as they shared more information about their meaningful projects, as well as special guest speakers JGIS’ President and primatologist Dr Andie Ang and Nature Society’s President and JGIS’ Co- Founder Dr Shawn Lum. The ceremony concluded with an exclusive guided nature walk by JGIS. |
| Storytelling @ Toa Payoh Public Library, 23 May 2023 | n celebration of World Environment Day, the Company and NLB presented the fourth storytelling session. Parents and their children learned the benefits of storytelling and received tips on being an engaging storyteller. |
| Youth4Climate Global Conversations (Launched in 2020)
#9: Hear Inspirational Experiences of Young Eco-Champions’ Visit to Jane Goodall Institute Tanzania, 31 January 2023 #10: Mission Blue & Green for a Net-Zero Future, 24 June 2023 |
The ninth session featured an engaging sharing session from the 2020 CDL E-Generation winners who led us through their travels in JGI Tanzania, and their remarkable interactions with Dr Jane Goodall herself. This was followed by a conversation with JGIS’ President Andie Ang, where the young advocates shared about their work in researching and protecting the region’s biodiversity, their climate-related worries, as well as their wishes for a more sustainable future.
The 10th session brought together a panel of eco-champions that shared their experiences on engaging children on green topics, youth efforts to protect mangroves and coastal areas in the region, the impact of waste on our environment and on restoring coral reefs in Singapore and the Southeast Asia region. |
Community Education and Outreach
| Key initiatives | Outcomes and Impact |
| “Melting Ice, Sinking Cities” Climate Action Exhibition, 23 June 2023 to 31 March 2024 | For more details on this event, refer to page 131 of CDL ISR 2024. |
| Asia Carbon Institute Launch held at the SSA, 29 August 2023 | The Asia Carbon Institute (ACI) announced its launch in Singapore as a non-profit organisation at the SSA. ACI is the first voluntary carbon credit standard of its kind that provides certification and registration of carbon credits with a focus on technology-based and urban-related solutions. ACI was established to address the gaps in the Asia voluntary carbon market and to accelerate the development of more GHG mitigation projects across the region and beyond. |
| Antarctica Climate Expedition 2023: Reflection from the Tropics, 8 June 2023 | To celebrate World Ocean Day, the Company hosted “Antarctica Climate Expedition 2023: Reflections from the Tropics”, which spotlighted the once-in-a-lifetime expedition of ACE Singapore Ambassadors as they traversed across the Antarctic and learned about the impact of climate change on our ocean and polar regions. The session featured a panel discussion with nine Singaporeans of diverse backgrounds who spoke on their experiences of the educational voyage, as well as a sharing by Ocean Geographic’s Founder Michael Aw on the past, present and future of the Antarctic. |
| Building a City in Nature – Greening the Built Environment and Communities, 28 June 2023 | Organised in partnership with WorldGBC and the Singapore Botanic Gardens, this session focused on the need for urgent and concerted efforts by stakeholders across sectors to develop climate-resilient buildings while safeguarding the environment. The panel session covered three broad areas – The Global Perspective: Race to Zero, The Sustainable Built and Urban Environment, and A Harmony Between Nature, Buildings and People. |
| Embracing SBTi to Advance Net-Zero Built Environment, 2 February 2023 | This session, organised by the Company, brought together subject matter experts from WorldGBC, SBTi, and CDP to explore how businesses can take action by setting science-based reduction targets and adopt green building technology and solutions that advance the decarbonision of the built environment. |
| Green is the New Black (GITNB) Conscious Festival’s “Rewriting the Future – Changing Narrative on Climate Futures” panel held at South Beach, 13-15 October 2023
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The festival brought together over 3,500 sustainability enthusiasts, innovators, and changemakers, 60 conscious brands and 54 renowned speakers to explore and celebrate eco-conscious living through panel discussions, workshops, and sustainable showcases. The panel highlighted the urgent need for collaboration across 3P sectors to drive changes towards net-zero.
The Company supported the festival at South Beach in 2022 and 2023, and at SSA in 2021. |
| Incubator For SDGs
Partners: UNDP, Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise, and Social Collider |
In support of social enterprises with purposes that are aligned with one or more UN SDGs, the Incubator For SDGs provides rent-free workspaces for selected social enterprises, start-ups and scale-ups for a year. See page 133 of this report for more details. |
| NTU SAIL Corporate Partners Roundtable, 31 March 2023 | The Company hosted NTU’s inaugural SAIL Corporate Partners Roundtable on Sustainability which aimed to bring together business and sustainability leaders to ideate on key sustainability issues facing the agri-food industry. It discussed topics ranging from decarbonisation and supply chain traceability to multi-stakeholder partnerships and sustainable finance. |
| Silver Ribbon Singapore Appreciation Ceremony for President Halimah held at the SSA, 26 August 2023
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Silver Ribbon mobilised 21 mental health agencies and 13 mental health advocates in Singapore to thank President Halimah for her kind support in mental health advocacy and promotion. The event opened with a welcome address by Silver Ribbon Singapore’s President Ellen Lee, JP, PBM, and was followed by appreciation speeches by community partners: Agency for Integrated Care Ltd, Care Corner Singapore Ltd, Club HEAL, Institute of Mental Health, Limitless and Singapore Anglican Community Services. |
Charity Initiatives
Mission: To light up the lives of the less fortunate by offering our friendship and to contribute towards making our society a better place
The Company has always believed in engaging our stakeholders, with active employee volunteerism being a key driver. To this end, the Company has a dedicated employee volunteer arm, City Sunshine Club (CSC), which was founded in 1999 by our late-Deputy Chairman Kwek Leng Joo, to nurture a spirit of volunteerism among employees and cultivate an engaged workforce. Through CSC, the Company facilitates and encourages employees and their families to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate through a wide range of programmes. Notwithstanding the restrictions and strict adherence to social distancing and safety measures, our Group employees managed to achieve a participation rate of 74.7% and clocked more than 1,086 volunteer manhours in 2023.
| Key initiatives | Outcomes and Impact |
| Assisi Hospice (Partnership since 1999) |
Assisi Hospice CDL Challenge: An in-house fundraising campaign that rallies donations from staff and business partners.
Assisi Hospice e-Fun Day: Fundraising campaign through virtual stalls, and provided donations-in-kind, including shopping, F&B and hotel vouchers towards the event’s lucky draw and game prizes. Impact:
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| North West Community Development Council (NWCDC) – WeCare@NWCDC Service Week (since 2015) |
The Company supported this initiative for the eighth consecutive year to benefit needy households living in public rental flats in Limbang.
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| Kembangan-Chai Chee Senior Activity Centre (since 1999 and 2014 respectively) |
The Company has been active in a monthly food distribution and befriending programme for the elderly.
Impact:
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| Boys’ Brigade Cares (since 2007) |
Launched in support of the President’s Challenge to promote the spirit of volunteerism and kindness amongst Singapore’s youth.
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| Arc Children’s Centre (Founding corporate supporter since 2011) |
The centre aims to be a sanctuary for children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses, and families in its care.
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| Henderson Senior Citizens’ Home (Since 2003) |
Our annual celebratory lunch during the Lunar New Year for the elderly.
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