ENERGY AND CARBON
We appreciate the risk that climate change poses to our business and the world. For our business, primary risks relate to the availability and increased cost of resources and the disruptive impacts that unpredictable and severe weather events could have on our supply chain. Addressing these risks is therefore an important part of our Sustainability Strategy. In addition to making our own operations more energy- and carbon-efficient, we are expanding our initiatives to support our suppliers to do the same in their facilities.
2011 marked the first full year of implementing the energy-saving initiatives recommended by the Investment Grade Audit (IGA) of our headquarters in Hong Kong and of the global campaign for our employees to adopt a range of behavioral changes. Our network of offices around the world also retrofitted existing lighting, where feasible, with more efficient LED, CFL and/or T5 fixtures in 2011. All of these efforts resulted in our global offices reducing our carbon footprint by 18% per m2 and electricity consumption by 13% per m2, compared with 2010. In addition to the environmental benefits of reduced energy consumption, these measures enabled us to save approximately US$490,000 per year in energy costs.
Overall in 2011, our total global electricity consumption was 163,461 GJ (45,405,947 KWh) compared with 171,016 GJ (47,504,4891 KWh) in 2010, and our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions were 32,120 tons of CO2 equivalent, compared with 35,630 of the same unit the previous year. This data comprises part of our disclosure through the Carbon Disclosure Project. For the third consecutive year, we were awarded the Energywi$e Excellent rating for our Hong Kong offices and the "Class of Good" Energywi$e Label under the Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence program of the Hong Kong government.
Going forward, we will continue to adopt energy-efficient technologies, to conserve energy and to support our supply chain partners to improve their energy efficiency and carbon intensity.
WATER AND WASTE
Water scarcity is a significant global challenge and particularly acute across many key producer economies of Asia. Being resource efficient is critical as we expand our business. In 2011, we consumed 124,064 cubic meters of water, compared with 105,310 of the same unit in 2010. Absolute consumption in our offices increased in 2011, reflecting the expansion of our business operations. However, our efficiency and conservation efforts resulted in our water consumption per headcount reducing by 2.8% in the same year. This was achieved through the use of water-efficient technology recommended by the IGA and the efforts of our employees globally to conserve water.
In 2011, our waste reduction campaign again focused on paper, a significant portion of our offices' waste stream. As above with water, our absolute A4 paper consumption increased in 2011 reflecting the expansion of our business operations. However, we reduced our consumption per person by 10% as a result of our continued conservation efforts. Our total paper consumption in 2011 was 149,072 reams compared with 136,6782 reams in 2010. We also again maintained our "Class of Excellent" Wastewi$e Label in Hong Kong. We will continue to seek opportunities to reduce paper, minimize waste, purchase items with sustainability features and enhance recycling.
A summary of our environmental metrics is provided in the table below.
ENVIRONMENTAL METRICS COMPARISON FOR 2010 - 20113
| 2010 | 2011 | 2010-2011 | ||
| ACTUAL tons CO2 equivalent |
CHANGE tons CO2 equivalent (+/-) |
EFFICIENCY REDUCTION tons CO2 equivalent /m2 |
||
| Carbon (Scope 1 & 2) | 35,630 | 32,120 | -3,510 | -18.16% |
| kWh | kWh (+/-) | kWh /m2 | ||
| Electricity | 47,504,489 | 45,405,947 | -2,098,542 | -13.23% |
| m3 | m3 (+/-) | m3 /headcount | ||
| Water | 105,310 | 124,064 | + 18,754 | -2.84% |
| reams | reams (+/-) | reams /headcount | ||
| Paper | 136,678 | 149,072 | + 12,394 | -10.05% |
SUSTAINABLE BUILDING AND RENOVATION
An important determinant of our ability to operate sustainably is the design and construction of our offices. Thus, building and renovating in line with sustainability guidelines forms a core part of our Sustainability Strategy. To that end, we developed our own Sustainable Design, Construction and Renovation Guidelines for New Construction, Major Renovation and Commercial Interiors in 2011. These user-friendly guidelines support our offices and facilities around the world to adopt LEED elements whenever feasible.
In 2010, we reported that two of our offices in the United States were certified to the LEED4 Silver standard. In 2011, we achieved LEED Gold for our offices in Shatin, Hong Kong and Dhaka, Bangladesh; the latter was notably the first LEED Gold certification of a commercial interior in Bangladesh. We also received LEED Silver for three office floors in Istanbul, Turkey, Hong Kong's LiFung Tower and our LiFung Campus, and two floors of our New York Broadway offices. In addition, one floor of our Marylebone Road office in London passed BREEAM5. We are continuing to work towards LEED certification of additional offices in Hong Kong and New York.
In sum, we now have 10 office floors, the equivalent of 23,396 m2, that have been awarded sustainable building certification and we will continue to expand our efforts going forward.
- Total electricity consumption and carbon emissions data reported for 2010 and 2011 covers our office-based activities as these offices have been involved in our targeted reduction campaigns and retrofitting projects. The data reported in this report for the year 2010 have been adjusted downward, from what was reported in our 2010 Annual Report. This adjustment is a result of a revision to our internal reporting system to both enhance the robustness of the data and bring the system in line with our financial reporting. The reporting scope for the next Annual Report will include LF offices and other facilities, which are captured in our new SAP Carbon Impact reporting system that we are rolling out in 2012.
- For the same reasons noted in footnote #1, our paper data reported in this report for the year 2010 have been adjusted downward from what was reported in our 2010 Annual Report.
- Environmental metrics cover data for our office-based operations, which have implemented conservation initiatives as part of our Sustainability Strategy (refer to footnote #1).
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
- Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM).
