Occupational Health and Safety ("OHS")

GRI 403
HKEX Aspect B2, KPI B2.3

GRI 403
HKEX Aspect B2, KPI B2.3

Occupational health and safety (“OHS”) is an indispensable part of our business and is enshrined in our SD 2030 Strategy. Our Health and Safety Policy underpins our commitment to providing and maintaining a healthy and safe environment for all employees, customers, contractors and members of our community throughout their association with the Company.

Endorsed by the Board, the policy sets the direction on how to achieve our ultimate goal of Zero Harm through demonstrating solid leadership and effective OHS management in the planning, design and delivery of all our business activities.

The relevant SDG is:

SDG 3

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing.

Our Zero Harm Commitment

Zero Harm is a Company-wide commitment to eliminate or mitigate health and safety hazards across our operations, encompassing all our people, regardless of their seniority or level of experience. It means zero fatalities, zero injuries and zero harm to both physical and mental wellbeing because of our business activities.

Achieving Zero Harm requires an elevated level of commitment by everyone in the organisation to go beyond compliance and proactively work on an ongoing basis to introduce best practice OHS solutions to maintain a safe and harm-free environment for all our stakeholders.

In 2024, our unwavering commitment to Zero Harm and safety remained at all levels of the Company, demonstrated by the resources deployed to various safety improvement initiatives across our properties and hotel operations. These include the adoption of robotic technology for confined space inspections and continued adoption of Design for Safety principles on our projects, amongst others.

2023-2025 Health and Safety Roadmap

The Company-wide 2023-2025 Health and Safety Roadmap is delivering the desired outcomes of raising health and safety awareness as well as identifying and mitigating potential hazards from the workplace. The roadmap clearly defines our OHS priorities, approach and deliverables over a three-year time frame. The four core elements of the roadmap are:

Design for Safety – Our Design for Safety (“DFS”) programme is focused on integrating safety considerations into the planning and design phases of construction projects. Its primary objective is to proactively identify and address potential safety hazards and risks early in the project lifecycle and remove them before they are introduced into the work environment. With an emphasis on safe construction, constructability and maintainability, DFS is a collaboration among various stakeholders – architects, engineers, contractors, safety professionals, and our in-house technical and facility management teams.

By incorporating safety principles and best practices into the design process, DFS creates safer working environments and reduces the likelihood of accidents and injuries during construction and operational phases. This cost-effective means to eliminate hazards across the project lifecycle has also been included in the Company’s Development Charter and is now part of the process for all new developments and major enhancement and renovation projects.
Deep Dive Safety Inspection Programme – Proactively identifies and mitigates potential serious hazards across our properties while fostering awareness and promoting collaboration among stakeholders. Launched in February 2023, this comprehensive 18-month programme covers over 200 pre- and post-operational facilities in Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland, Southeast Asia and Miami. As at the end of December 2024, over 2,000 potential hazards have been identified and mitigated as a direct result of this programme.
Life Saving Rules Campaign – This programme is delivered to frontline teams in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. The campaign focuses on raising awareness and on preventative actions to be taken in relation to potentially fatal hazards associated with their activities. In 2024, the campaign was delivered to all frontline staff and was included as part of our induction safety training. The campaign materials, including an awareness video, posters and guidelines, were also expanded to include other languages, specifically Bahasa Indonesia, traditional and simplified Chinese and English.
High Potential Incidents – This process, which conducts investigations to identify the contributing factors and root causes of serious near-miss incidents with the aim of preventing recurrence via corrective actions and lesson sharing, was established across the Company in 2024 and is an important part of our prevention initiative.

Support for the Health and Safety Roadmap has been robust across all levels of the Company, leading to significant progress on implementation and adoption. The pace of adoption, number of inspections, employee education and removal of hazards from the workplace are all exceeding scheduled timelines.

Safety Management Systems

HKEX KPI B6.4

Swire Properties’ Safety Management System (“SMS”) is certified to the ISO 45001:2018 standard, the international standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management. In 2024, approximately 87% of our assets⁸ in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland conformed to the ISO 45001 systems. Our residential portfolio was certified and operates with an ISO 45001:2018-certified SMS. Our hotels and Brickell City Centre at Miami operate with SMSs that are aligned with the principles of ISO 45001: 2018.

Leadership oversight of OHS performance is part of our SMS and is demonstrated by having OHS as a standard agenda item at monthly Executive Committee meetings chaired by the Chief Executive, reported in quarterly board papers and reviewed at every board meeting. The Chief Executive is accountable for OHS matters and oversees their implementation. OHS performance indicators and initiatives are also presented to our parent company, Swire Pacific, on a quarterly basis. Swire Properties is supporting the Hong Kong Development Bureau’s Smart Site Safety System (“SSSS”) initiative, using various technologies and systems to enhance the management of safety at our construction sites. We have also introduced SSSS into our construction projects in the Chinese Mainland - Taikoo Li Xi’an is an example.

Swire Properties has Safety Management System Steering Committees (“SMSSCs”) in place in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. These are formed by health and safety representatives from each management office. The SMSSCs meet quarterly to monitor and evaluate the Company’s safety performance, risks and progress towards targets. Findings and updates from the SMSSCs are communicated down to the portfolio level through each portfolio’s Health and Safety Working Group and Human Resources Department.

Similar health and safety coordination meetings are held with representatives from Swire Hotels and Brickell City Centre in Miami on a quarterly basis. Relevant matters of significance relating to health and safety are regularly reported to the Board.

In 2024, Swire Properties launched a heart attack prevention programme that included workshops on healthy living, as well as automated external defibrillator (“AED”) review and AED training sessions across our Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland operations.

⁸	Calculated based on the number of employees.

OHS Employee Engagement and Communication

Effective communication and employee engagement are essential elements of our Zero Harm Commitment.

Safety Engagement in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland

Life Saving Rules Campaign Roadshow

The Life Saving Action Campaign roadshow was held across our properties in Hong Kong throughout 2024. The “Make Safety Personal” theme summarised the objectives of increasing individuals’ knowledge of and ability to identify nine key high-risk hazards and the associated preventative safety measures, as well as enhancing overall awareness of workplace health and safety. The campaign included videos, posters and other visuals presented in Putonghua, Cantonese and English. A total of 1,769 frontline staff participated in the campaign.

Inaugural EHS Engineer Safety Workshop

Our Health and Safety Team hosted the first “EHS Engineer Safety Workshop” for our Chinese Mainland colleagues. The goals were to align priorities and focus on enhancing contractor management strategies to ensure safe and secure workplaces for all stakeholders. The workshop covered contractor management, best practices and collaboration, alignment with 2024 H&S goals and priorities and how to improve efficiency and effectiveness. A total of 22 colleagues participated in the workshop.

Confined Space Safety Campaign

A revised Code of Practice on Safety and Health at Work in Confined Spaces has been issued by the Hong Kong government to strengthen safety controls on confined space activities. In light of this, Swire Properties has been reviewing and reinforcing our safety control measures.

In 2024, we conducted a safety campaign and a series of activities to prioritise safety in confined spaces. The campaign sought to enhance our awareness of the risks associated with working within confined spaces as well as our ability to manage these risks, including working with our contractors to focus on safety to avoid accidents and incidents.

We also conducted risk assessments for over 2,000 confined space locations in our Hong Kong portfolio, held professional confined space training for engineers and technicians, evaluated our contractors’ abilities to conduct safe operations in confined spaces, and conducted train-the-trainer exercises in the Chinese Mainland. We also began using robotic technology for inspections of high-risk locations, such as underground areas and pipes, to eliminate the need for workers to enter these spaces.

The Confined Space Awareness classroom course and e-learning course provide essential knowledge to identify, manage and mitigate risks associated with working in confined spaces. Designed for personnel in the technical and PMT staff, this course covers hazard recognition, safety regulations and emergency procedures, ensuring a foundational understanding of safe working practices in confined space management. In 2024, 1,200 people participated in the training.

Construction Site Safety Inspection Course

We developed a series of safety inspection courses for construction sites to enhance our employees' ability to oversee safety at these locations. These courses are designed to equip construction site management staff with the necessary knowledge to identify potential hazards and implement safety precaution measures. They cover all critical aspects of construction site safety, empowering staff to address issues promptly and maintain a safe working environment. In 2024, 1,800 participants took part in the training.

2024 Health and Safety Performance

Occupational health and safety is an indispensable part of our business. This year, we maintained a record of zero workplace fatalities and zero serious injuries among our employees. Through our continued investment in training and awareness programmes, we successfully achieved and maintained our LTIR target.

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