Our Stakeholder Engagement Approach
Communication and engagement with our employees, investors, tenants, customers, suppliers, regulators, NGOs, community representatives, and many others is an integral part of our daily operations. This is set out in our SD 2030 Strategy.
We regularly engage with our stakeholders to understand their priorities, expectations and perceptions regarding SD issues.
When we first introduced our SD 2030 Strategy in 2016, we engaged extensively with senior managers and employees from across our business and also consulted external sustainability experts. Today, our SD Communication and Engagement Committee continues to gather the support of our employees and other stakeholders so as to further integrate our SD 2030 Strategy across our business.
Our Stakeholders
GRI 102-40, 102-42, 102-43
Our stakeholders are both internal and external interest groups which have a significant impact on our business, or which experience significant impacts from our operations. We regularly engage with these stakeholders in appropriate ways.
Stakeholder Groups and Methods of Engagement
- Surveys and interviews
- SPLinks intranet and the staff newsletter CornerStone
- Training sessions
- Competitions and team-building activities
- Virtual and in-person forums
- Staff townhalls
- WeChat Work mobile application
- Community events
- Joint projects
- Working committees and consultations
- Multi-stakeholder meetings/seminars on specific issues
- SD-themed tenant engagement programmes
- Joint projects
- Community events
- Surveys and interviews
- Multi-stakeholder meetings/seminars on specific issues
- Surveys
- Customer service mobile applications
- Community events
- Joint projects
- Supplier screening and assessments
- Joint projects
- Surveys
- Forums
- Joint projects
- Working committees and consultations
- Interviews
- Joint projects/research funds
- Multi-stakeholder forums and partnerships
- Seminars
- Surveys and interviews
- Multi-stakeholder meetings/seminars on specific issues
- Joint projects
- SD benchmarks and indices
- Interviews and meetings
- Newsletters
- Events
- Investor Day
- Annual gathering
- Interviews
- Feedback and responses to media enquiries
- Surveys and interviews
- SPLinks intranet and the staff newsletter CornerStone
- Training sessions
- Competitions and team-building activities
- Virtual and in-person forums
- Staff townhalls
- WeChat Work mobile application
- Community events
- Joint projects
- Working committees and consultations
- Multi-stakeholder meetings/seminars on specific issues
- SD-themed tenant engagement programmes
- Joint projects
- Community events
- Surveys and interviews
- Multi-stakeholder meetings/seminars on specific issues
- Surveys
- Customer service mobile applications
- Community events
- Joint projects
- Supplier screening and assessments
- Joint projects
- Surveys
- Forums
- Joint projects
- Working committees and consultations
- Interviews
- Joint projects/research funds
- Multi-stakeholder forums and partnerships
- Seminars
- Surveys and interviews
- Multi-stakeholder meetings/seminars on specific issues
- Joint projects
- SD benchmarks and indices
- Interviews and meetings
- Newsletters
- Events
- Investor Day
- Annual gathering
- Interviews
- Feedback and responses to media enquiries
Stakeholder-driven Materiality
GRI 102-42, 102-44, 102-46, 102-47, 103-1
HKEX Mandatory Disclosure Requirement
In 2020, we initiated a materiality review with the support by an independent consultant, to understand our stakeholders’ perceptions of the progress of our SD 2030 Strategy and their evolving expectations and priorities for the future. These perceptions will help us further align our business practices, improve our decision making and accountability, and guide the refinement of our strategy and focus areas in response to the latest local, regional and global developments, as well as the global COVID-19 pandemic.
We also gathered stakeholders’ feedback about the pandemic’s effects on their businesses, the real estate industry and Swire Properties; this feedback allowed us to develop a proactive, targeted and responsive plan to meet stakeholders’ expectations.
We adopted a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to assess materiality, which is outlined below.
Step 1 – Global landscape review and identification of key sustainability megatrends
- Action: Conduct research to identify sustainability and real estate-relevant megatrends based on their impact and relevance to Swire Properties.
- Outcome: 7 key sustainability megatrends identified as being relevant to Swire Properties.
Step 2 – SD issue identification
- Action: Identify new and emerging SD issues relevant to the key megatrends against existing materiality issues.
- Action: Consolidate analysis of issues and definitions.
- Outcome: Identify and define 28 issues.
Step 3a – Qualitative interview
- Action: Interview 23 stakeholders to understand their perceptions of the identified issues and our SD 2030 Strategy.
- Outcome: Identify new challenges and opportunities seen as important to stakeholders and Swire Properties.
Step 3b – Quantitative survey
- Action: Survey 547 stakeholders.
- Action: External stakeholders rank the 28 issues in order of perceived importance to the environment and society.
- Action: Employees rank the issues in order of perceived impact on our business.
- Outcome: Collate answers and feedback from interview and survey responses which represent the views of our tenants, investors, other external stakeholders, and our employees.
Step 4 – Materiality Matrix
- Action: Plot the survey data on a matrix which represents internal and external stakeholder views.
Step 5 – Review and report
The outcome of the materiality review, which comprises the updated list of material SD issues and the materiality matrix, was reported, discussed and endorsed at both the SD Steering Committee meeting and the Board meeting.
The materiality matrix maps 28 SD issues, with their importance to external stakeholders plotted on the y-axis and their importance to our business continuity and development plotted on the x-axis. Overall materiality was determined by the aggregate score assigned to each SD issue by our internal and external stakeholders.
Swire Properties Materiality Matrix
Top Material Issues
The top material issues in the matrix, namely Tier 1 and Tier 2 issues, are consistent with the focus areas of our SD 2030 Strategy and have been addressed in this report in accordance with the relevant Global Reporting Initiative Standards (“GRI Standards”).
As summarised in the following table, the content of this report also reflects additional emerging issues that are the subject of increasing public and regulatory attention, such as indoor air quality and water conservation.
| Material Issues | SD 2030 Strategy Focus Areas | GRI Standards | Impacts and Boundaries | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employee Groups | Community/NGOs | Suppliers | Tenants | Consumers/Customers | Regulators/Government | Joint Venture Partners | Ind. Experts/Academia | Shareholders/Investors | Media | ||||
Green building construction & renovation
| GRI 417 Marketing and Labelling (2016) | ||||||||||||
Technology & innovation
| Integral to multiple focus areas | N/A | |||||||||||
Energy efficiency
| GRI 302 Energy (2016) | ||||||||||||
Tenant & customer engagement
| N/A | ||||||||||||
Local economic development
| GRI 203 Indirect Economic Impacts (2016) | ||||||||||||
Community investment & engagement
| GRI 413 Local Communities (2016) | ||||||||||||
Local revitalisation
| GRI 203 Indirect Economic Impacts (2016) | ||||||||||||
Corporate governance
| GRI 205 Anti-corruption (2016) | ||||||||||||
Climate adaptation & resilience
| GRI 201 Economic Performance (2016) GRI 305 Emissions (2016) | ||||||||||||
Decarbonisation
| GRI 305 Emissions (2016) | ||||||||||||
Employee wellbeing
| GRI 403 Occupational Health & Safety (2018) | ||||||||||||
Stakeholder engagement & collaboration
| Integral to multiple focus areas | N/A | |||||||||||
Resource & circularity
| GRI 306 Waste (2020) | ||||||||||||
Visitor/occupant health & wellbeing
| GRI 416 Customer Health and Safety (2016) | ||||||||||||
Talent attraction, retention & development
| GRI 401 Employment (2016) GRI 404 Training and Education (2016) GRI 405 Diversity and Equal Opportunity (2016) | ||||||||||||
Renewable energy
| GRI 302 Energy (2016) | ||||||||||||
Responsible supply chain management
| GRI 301 Materials (2016) GRI 308 Supplier Environmental Assessment (2016) GRI 414 Supplier Social Assessment (2016) | ||||||||||||
Long-term financial performance & value
| GRI 201 Economic Performance (2016) | ||||||||||||
Risk management
| GRI 201 Economic Performance (2016) | ||||||||||||
Indoor air quality
| GRI 416 Customer Health and Safety (2016) | ||||||||||||