The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) and the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA) have recently released the ratings of the participating companies for the year 2023. Yuexiu Property Company Limited's GRESB rating has jumped from 2-star in 2022 to 4-star in 2023, and at the same time its score has risen from 79 points in 2022 to 92 points in 2023, which ranked the second highest in the residential group in the Eastern Asia; and the HKQAA's sustainability rating has been upgraded from "BBB+" in 2022 to "A-" in 2023, which is an impressive performance.
（Photo Credit: 2023 GRESB Development Benchmark Report）
（Photo Credit：Yuexiu Property HKQAA Sustainability Performance Summary Report）
About GRESB
GRESB, Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark, was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. GRESB is a rating system that assesses and compares the ESG performance of real estate and infrastructure-related companies worldwide, providing capital markets with standardised data on an annual basis.
In 2022, GRESB recorded the highest increase in the total number of participating entities in its history, with 1,820 entities participating globally, covering 74 countries with a total asset value of USD 6.9 trillion. Significant growth is concentrated in the Americas (30%), Asia Pacific (21%) and Europe (16%). There are currently 170 institutional and financial investors using GRESB data, with more than $51 trillion in assets under management.
（Number of global participants in GRESB, Photo credit: GRESB website）
In 2023, Yuexiu Property achieved an overall GRESB score of 92, an improvement of 13 points from the 2022 score, 6% above the peer group average score of 87 and 11% above the GRESB average score of 83. In GRESG's evaluation system, Yuexiu Property achieved a perfect score of 30 points in Governance module, ranking first among 321 Asian entities, and the Development module achieved 62 points. When broken down into environmental, social and governance (ESG) dimensions, Yuexiu Property scored 44, 24 and 24 points respectively, with the governance dimension achieving a perfect score.
As a result, Yuexiu Property's sustainability governance has achieved excellent performance under the leadership of the company's management, which has been greatly recognised by GRESB and is among the top in the world.
（Yuexiu Property GRESB model and ESG dimension scores，Photo Credit: 2023 GRESB Development Benchmark Report）
About HKQAA Sustainability Rating
The HKQAA Sustainability Rating is highly regarded by the market as an effective indicator of a company's ESG performance. As part of HSIL’s continuous efforts to support the development of ESG, HSIL has appointed the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (‘HKQAA’), an independent and professional assessment body, to carry out the annual evaluation of the sustainability performance of listed companies since 2014. The sustainability ratings serve as a well-regarded indicator of corporates’ ESG performance and a key selection criterion for formulation of ESG indexes, such as the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Index Series and the Hang Seng ESG 50 Index. These ESG indexes launched by HSIL provide a useful benchmark for sustainability investments. The sustainability assessment covered 517 Hong Kong-listed companies and over 1,300 Ashares companies that are constituents of the Hang Seng China A (Investable) Index and fulfil the eligibility criteria for Northbound Trading under the Stock Connect scheme.
In 2023, Yuexiu Property's HKQAA sustainability rating was upgraded from 'BBB+' to 'A-', with better scores on governance and social dimensions, while environmental dimensions still need to be improved.
Highlights of Yuexiu Property's Sustainability Practices
Yuexiu Property attaches great importance to the practical integration of the concept of sustainable development into all dimensions of corporate development, and solidly promotes ESG work in an all-chain, all-encompassing and all-covering manner. We have set up an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Committee under the Board of Directors, with the Chairman of the Board as the Chairman of the Committee, and further set up an ESG Leadership Group and an Executive Group under the ESG Committee to clearly define the ESG work responsibilities of relevant persons in charge of each functional department and regional company, forming a top-down ESG governance framework. In addition, in accordance with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), we have set up a TCFD working group under the ESG committee framework, which is responsible for identifying specific climate-related risks and opportunities and implementing management work.
（Yuexiu Property Sustainability Governance Framework）
Yuexiu Property attaches great importance to ESG disclosure and endeavours to improve the level of disclosure. We have released annual social responsibility reports for 6 consecutive years since 2010, and renamed it as Environmental, Social and Governance Report (i.e. ESG Report) in 2016, and published ESG Report for 7 consecutive years after that, which is a total of 13 years of presenting the company's annual achievements in social responsibility and sustainable development in the form of a report.In 2022, we refer to the recommendations of the TCFD framework and follow the four elements of "Governance", "Strategy", "Risk Management", "Indicators and Targets". "Governance", "Strategy", "Risk Management", and "Indicators and Targets", and disclose in detail Climate change-related risks and opportunities, as well as measures to address them. In addition to the ESG report, we have set up a column on "Sustainability" on our official website and official WeChat to provide a more convenient and comprehensive channel for stakeholders to understand the progress of Yuexiu Property's ESG work.
（Yuexiu Property Official Website "Sustainability" Column）
Yuexiu Property attaches great importance to integrating ESG concepts with our core business. With the national 2030 carbon peaking and 2060 carbon neutrality targets as our leadership, we are actively and steadily promoting our corporate dual-carbon strategy, designing all new building projects at least in accordance with the one-star green building standard, and vigorously promoting the application of assembly buildings, continuously exploring the creation of ultra-low-energy buildings, utilising intelligent energy management tools and other measures to help buildings realise energy conservation and emission reduction, and promoting the tenants' green and low-carbon covenant to promote the green transformation and development of society. We attach great importance to the circular economy and apply the concept of the circular economy to our operations and management, with a view to ultimately achieving the least negative impact on the environment, the highest efficiency in the use of resources, and coordinated optimisation of the economic and social benefits of our projects, so as to promote the high-quality development of the enterprise and society.
Yuexiu Property's ESG rating performance in 2023 is significantly higher than that in 2022, which fully demonstrates that Yuexiu Property's sustainable development work has made great progress in the past year, and has gained the recognition of the company's sustainable development performance from international authoritative ESG rating agencies. It also means that Yuexiu Property will receive more attention from ESG investment institutions, further enhancing its visibility in the capital market. Looking ahead, under the leadership of the company's management, Yuexiu Property will continue to improve its sustainable development and its ESG rating performance will be even better.