Occupant Wellbeing

GRI 416
HKEX Aspect B6, KPI B6.4

We aim to operate and maintain our buildings and workspaces in ways that promote occupant health and wellbeing.

The relevant SDG is:

SDG 3

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing.

On top of numerous physical and mental health and wellbeing considerations, we also design and construct our buildings to enhance visual comfort using natural daylight, glare indices and diverse types of lighting, at the same time minimising the adverse impacts of external lighting, such as sky glow, source intensity and building luminance. We also consider acoustic impacts throughout the design, construction and operational phases of our buildings.

We are also gradually installing UVC lamps in air-handling units across our portfolios. By the end of December 2023, this upgrade had been completed for the entire Taikoo Place portfolio to help with sterilisation and improve indoor air quality (“IAQ”).

This year, we piloted a smart personalised air conditioning control system on selected floors in our office. The cloud-based software aims to provide our employees with personalised control, striking a win-win situation of energy savings and increased occupant thermal comfort.

We conduct regular water quality assessments across our Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland portfolios to ensure our occupants access to safe and quality freshwater. We have also installed water overflow sensors and water-flood gates. These measures prevent mould growth, and allow us to detect abnormal water levels in order to protect our tenant's assets.

For our existing portfolio, we continuously monitor occupant wellbeing in our buildings and conduct assessments to identify risks and opportunities for improving tenant health and wellbeing, while we seek to incorporate wellness features and initiatives in all our new development projects.

Smart IAQ Monitoring System

This year, we continued to roll out our Smart IAQ Monitoring System across properties in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. The system is installed in all lift lobbies and the main office lobbies on typical floors of our office buildings, in the lift lobbies and common areas of our malls, and will be installed in all new office buildings. At our Chinese Mainland malls we have also installed Smart IAQ Display Platforms – public dashboards that allow tenants and visitors to view IAQ measurements at a glance.

All IAQ data in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland are fed into our technical cloud. This information is used in our IAQ dashboards, providing an effective, interactive tool for IAQ analysis that is also contributing to the development of a broader HVAC strategy.

The system measures several indoor air quality variables, including

Indoor air temperature
Humidity
CO₂
Total Volatile Organic Compounds
PM2.5
PM10
Ozone
Formaldehyde

Nearby outdoor air quality sensors also measure the same variables, providing a comparison between indoor and outdoor air quality.

Pilot of a Personal Thermal Comfort Digital Solution

In October 2023, we launched a pilot trial of a personal thermal comfort system in our internal offices. In partnership with a selected vendor, the system allows individual staff to control individual variable air volume (“VAV”) boxes, and hence air-conditioning and temperature, via a dedicated app. We expect the trial to be a success – showcasing we continuously look to improve our portfolio occupants’ wellbeing, while also delivering meaningful energy savings through automation and tailored solutions.

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Building/Asset Investments

Swire Properties aims to obtain certification under environmental building assessment schemes that provide benchmarks against which we can measure our performance.

Biodiversity

Swire Properties integrates biodiversity considerations into our operations by undertaking biodiversity assessments and minimising any adverse environmental impacts.

Water

Swire Properties monitors water consumption in our buildings and utilise a large number of water-saving mechanisms to ensure as much water as possible is conserved.

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