ESR-REIT Annual Report 2024 153 MATERIAL TOPIC: WASTE Impact of Waste Management to Stakeholders REITs can generate significant waste due to their large property portfolios and tenant activities. Effective waste management is crucial to reduce environmental impact and operational costs. This presents an opportunity for property managers to adopt effective waste management practices and involve tenants in these initiatives. On a large scale, these initiatives can decrease operational cost, reduce unnecessary resource consumption and divert waste from landfills. How We Manage Waste The team implements waste management strategies aligned with Singapore’s Zero-Waste Masterplan: Reduction, Reuse then Recycling of waste. To promote recycling, we have provided recycling bins in Singapore and Japan properties. We also comply with Singapore’s National Environment Agency’s (“NEA”) Mandatory Waste Reporting scheme to report our monthly waste disposal and recycling rates. In FY2024, we conducted a detailed analysis of waste collection data in Singapore’s MTBs, focusing on common areas. This assessment aimed to evaluate total waste generation and the recycling rate. General waste from business parks contributed to higher waste generation, highlighting them as critical targets for improvement. Our business parks and 7000 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 have successfully implemented on-site waste segregation and recycling programs. These initiatives will provide us with benchmarks for our waste management efforts, enabling the establishment of measurable improvement targets aligned with the NEA Mandatory Waste Reporting scheme for industrial premises in future. Looking ahead, we are preparing to conduct a waste audit for properties identified with high waste generation in FY2025. This audit will help us pinpoint opportunities to broaden our waste collection and recycling practices, especially within business parks. By gaining insights into waste generation behaviours and identifying the factors contributing to low recycling rates, we can formulate targeted strategies aimed at enhancing waste reduction and boosting recycling efficiency across our portfolio. This data-drive approach ensures that our waste management initiatives are both focused and impactful, reinforcing our commitment to advance a more sustainable built environment. 2024 PERFORMANCE: WATER WITHDRAWAL Singapore 2023 500,000 400,000 m3 m3/m2 300,000 200,000 100,000 0 3.00 2.56 383,403.5 420,420.4 2.61 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.00 0.50 0 2024 Water withdrawal and intensity for Singapore MTBs Water withdrawal Water Intensity Water consumed by ESR-REIT’s Singapore properties was withdrawn from the Public Utilities Board municipal water supply and NEWater. The utilisation of NEWater, which is high-grade recycled water produced from treated used water, reduces our demand of other water sources and improves water conservation. FY2023 data has been restated to align on the scoping of tenant and landlord’s water consumption across ESRREIT’s portfolio, and to express water withdrawal in m3. To track the effectiveness of our initiatives, we have set water intensity reduction targets for our Singapore MTBs, aiming to reduce water intensity by 14.0% from FY2023 to FY2030. In FY2024, there was an 8.8% reduction in absolute water withdrawal, and a corresponding decrease in water intensity by 1.8%. The reduction in absolute water withdrawal is largely attributed to 2 Fishery Port Road as it was vacated and decommissioned since late FY2023. Japan Whole building water withdrawal for Japan portfolio was 1,503.0 m3 in FY2024, reduced from the 1,564.0 m3 in FY2023. Absolute water withdrawal for common area was 351.0 m3 in FY2024, and the water intensity is at 0.23m3/m2, largely attributed to the water consumption in ESR Yatomi Kisosaki Distribution Centre from its date of acquisition. Due to the limitations of metered data, water consumption in the common area of ESR Sakura Distribution Centre is currently calculated based on utility bills and tenant recovery, resulting in a negative value. This will be improved in future years as we continue to enhance our data collection and monitoring systems.
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