I.

Benchmarking of 'Best Practices' - Commercial Buildings

Background

In 2007, Swire Properties took the lead in initiating the 'Best in Class' exercise to benchmark and share best practices with nine other leading property development and management companies in Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK. The objectives of the exercise were to understand the best applicable practices adopted by industry leaders and what could be done to enhance our own performance. The results from this benchmarking exercise serve as a guideline to all participants in their efforts to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings. We plan to continue with this benchmarking exercise in 2008 and expand it to industry leaders in other countries.

From our stakeholder Government: Swire Properties is one of the leaders in Hong Kong in terms of EHS performance. In this year's report, we would like to see the Company reporting more in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative and benchmarking its EHS performance against both local and international companies.

Benchmarking Process

The exercise involved evaluation of over 100 practices grouped under three sections:

• Section A: Sustainability in energy efficiency;
• Section B: Reduction in energy consumption; and
• Section C: Continued improvements in operational efficiencies for HVAC.

Benchmarking Results

Of the ten companies which participated in the benchmarking exercise, Swire Properties is considered as an industry leader, particularly in areas covered in Sections B and C.

Please click here for details of the benchmarking results.

Action Plan

The exercise also highlighted that we could benefit from applying a life cycle analysis of energy initiatives in our premises. Further improvements in our energy performance include:

• Carbon off-set projects
• Influencing tenants to promote energy consumptions
• Decisions that take into account environmental considerations at the design stage of new developments
• Collaboration with Tsinghua University specifically for research into energy efficient buildings.

II.

Benchmarking of Energy Intensity

According to the Hong Kong Government Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD)'s Energy End-use Database, the energy intensity of most of our commercial buildings is within the top 10^th percentile which reveals that these buildings are among the most energy efficient of their kind in Hong Kong.

III.

Benchmarking BEAM⁽¹⁾ against LEED⁽²⁾

Most of our buildings have been assessed under BEAM and achieved the highest rating for their environmental performance. According to a benchmarking exercise done by Hong Kong Polytechnic University, our buildings with an excellent rating under BEAM would have an equivalent of excellent rating under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 2.0, a national standard developed by The United States Green Building Council.