Occupant Wellbeing | Performance (Environment) | Swire Properties Sustainability Report 2024

Occupant Wellbeing

GRI 416
HKEX Aspect B6, KPI B6.4

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. We continuously monitor occupant wellbeing in all buildings in our existing portfolio, and conduct assessments to identify risks and opportunities to improve the health and wellbeing of our tenants. We also seek to incorporate wellness features and initiatives in all our new development projects.

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, while 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 continuing to install UVC lamps in air-handling units across our portfolios that help with sterilisation and improve indoor air quality (“IAQ”). By the end of December 2024, this upgrade had been completed for our entire Hong Kong portfolio.

Our pilot of smart personalised air conditioning control systems on selected floors of our offices at One Island East and Pacific Place continued in 2024. This cloud-based software gives staff personalised control over their workspace environment, creating a “win-win” for energy savings and increased occupant thermal comfort.

We conduct regular water quality assessments across our Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland portfolios to ensure that building occupants have safe access to good-quality fresh water. We have also installed water overflow sensors and flood gates which prevent mould growth and allow us to detect abnormal water levels to protect our tenants’ assets.

Smart IAQ Monitoring System

We continued to roll out our Smart IAQ Monitoring System across our properties in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland in 2024. The system is installed in lift lobbies and the main office lobbies on typical floors of our office buildings, in common areas of our malls, and is being installed in all new office buildings. In addition, we launched an IAQ Dashboard across our Hong Kong properties to provide a platform for improved control and monitoring. Our Chinese Mainland malls have Smart IAQ Display Platforms – public dashboards that give tenants and visitors at-a-glance views of IAQ measurements and performance.

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 heating, ventilation and air conditioning strategy.

The system measures several indoor air quality variables, including:

Indoor air temperature
Humidity
CO₂
Total volatile organic compounds
PM2.5
PM10
Ozone
Formaldehyde
CO

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

Pilot of a Personal Thermal Comfort Digital Solution

In 2024, we expanded our pilot trial of a personal thermal comfort system called “En-trak” to two additional internal office floors, bringing the total trial floors to three.

The system allows staff to individually control variable air volume (“VAV”) boxes, and hence the temperature and air conditioning within their office space, via a dedicated app. The system provides a temporary response to changes in the temperature setpoint when feedback is received. It also learns the preferred temperature setpoints of each individual over the long term, thus enhancing thermal comfort for everyone in the office.

At one of the office floors, before the rollout of the solution, 63% of people surveyed responded that they typically felt cold in the office. After close to a year of the trial, 67% of survey participants responded that the system had improved their thermal comfort, while 24% responded neutrally.

After a full-year rollout on one office floor, a 12% reduction in cooling energy was measured. The conclusion of the remaining two pilot office trials will provide a good indication of the solution’s effectiveness in different buildings and under different environments.

IAQ Certification and Recognition

In 2024, Swire Properties achieved a number of IAQ milestones.

HKRI Taikoo Hui Centre One and Centre Two Win RESET Certification

HKRI Taikoo Hui Centre One and Centre Two both achieved RESET Air (Core and Shell) certification in March 2024, in recognition of their advanced IAQ monitoring systems. RESET is a globally recognised building certification standard that focuses on indoor air quality. It is also the world's first sensor-based standard for real-time tracking of building health performance. Obtaining RESET certification indicates that the overall supply air quality in a building meets global health standards.

The supply air at the two HKRI Taikoo Hui centres is continuously monitored via in-duct IAQ sensors installed in the air handling unit supply air ducts. Five supply air parameters are measured: temperature, humidity, PM2.5, CO₂, and TVOC. To ensure that air quality meets RESET requirements, the sensors cover 30% of total office supply air volume. A local IAQ data platform is used for data storage and processing and IAQ data is transmitted to a RESET-accredited data platform.

If any exceedance in air quality limits is detected, an e-mail alert is sent to the building’s engineering team and follow-up measures are taken immediately. These could include increasing the fresh air supply and investigating the potential causes of the change in air quality. The buildings’ IAQ monitoring system undoubtedly contributes to creating a healthy and safe working environment for tenants.

Taikoo Place and Citygate Obtaining EPD Indoor Air Quality 15-year Commitment Award

Since 2009, Taikoo Place and Citygate have consistently maintained excellent indoor air quality standards. In 2024, both One Island East, Citygate Outlets and One Citygate received a 15-year commitment award from the Environmental Protection Department’s Indoor Air Quality Certification Scheme. These awards recognise Swire Properties’ unwavering dedication to creating a healthy and comfortable indoor environment for our occupants.

Indoor Air Quality Scheme – 15-year Commitment Award (One Island East)
Indoor Air Quality Scheme – 15-year Commitment Award (Citygate Outlet and One Citygate)
Indoor Air Quality Scheme – 10-year Commitment Award (Five Pacific Place)

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Building/Asset Investments

Swire Properties aims seek to obtain certification under environmental building assessment schemes for all our properties to measure and improve our performance.

Nature and Biodiversity

Swire Properties integrates nature and biodiversity considerations into our developments and work to minimise any adverse impacts of our operations on the nature.

Water

Swire Properties monitor water consumption across all properties, using water-saving measures and technologies to reduce water use and recycle water where possible.