CapitaLand Ascott Trust retains ‘global sector leader’ title under sustainability rankings

LATEST Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) rankings released on Tuesday (Oct 18) showed that CapitaLand Ascott Trust (Clas) continued to hold pole position as the global sector leader for hotels for the second time running.

Meanwhile, Frasers Property Group’s Frasers Property Industrial, Lendlease Global Commercial Reit and Suntec Reit were termed regional leaders for their respective categories – industrial, retail and office.

The GRESB rankings recognise real estate and infrastructure companies, funds and assets that have demonstrated outstanding leadership in sustainability each year. 

Apart from pitting companies against one another, GRESB also rates companies on how well ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues are integrated into the management and practices of companies and funds. 

This rating – which gives five stars to the top 20 per cent of the benchmark globally – is generally used to gauge a company’s or fund’s ability to obtain interest rate savings from their sustainability-linked loans and bonds.

CapitaLand Investment (CLI), in a statement on Tuesday, confirmed that the GRESB performance of the company, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) and Clas meant that they “will obtain interest rate savings”. While CLI and CICT did not feature as a global or regional leader, they both maintained the highest five-star rating, the company said.

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To date, CLI and its listed real estate investment trusts and business trusts have partnered 17 financial institutions to secure a total of S$10.9 billion in sustainable finance comprising sustainability-linked loans and bond, green loans, green bonds and perpetual securities.

This year alone, the amount secured through 18 sustainable financing instruments came up to S$4 billion, CLI stated. Of the S$4 billion, S$1.3 billion, from seven sustainability-linked loans, are pegged to their GRESB performance.

CLI’s chief sustainability officer Vinamra Srivastava said the interest rate savings will be channelled to fund the company’s decarbonisation initiatives and innovations, accelerating its transition to a greener future. 

“Leveraging technology to increase efficiency in energy and water can yield tangible financial results and is a key lever in our carbon mitigation hierarchy,” he added. 

Srivastava also said CLI will continue to expand its global network of capital partners to step up its sustainable financing. 

Its competitor Frasers Property, separately, announced that Frasers Centrepoint Trust, Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust, Frasers Property Australia, and Frasers Property Industrial (Australia) managed to retain five-star ratings for their respective portfolio of existing assets in the standing investments category.

In the development projects category, Frasers Property Holdings (Thailand) and Frasers Property Vietnam also posted remarkable improvements – with both recording a jump of over 10 points in its scores compared to its 2021’s results, it also said.

Frasers Property’s group chief corporate officer Chia Khong Shoong said the performance is “further affirmation” of the group’s comprehensive sustainability efforts across its entities. 

“The annual rankings are useful to benchmark ourselves in our relevant markets and sectors. There is a growing need for transparency in disclosure and reporting consistency, thus having all business entities participate together helps provide greater accountability to stakeholders,” he said.

Lendlease, meanwhile, highlighted that two of the funds it manages in Asia – Asia Retail Investment Fund 3 and Lendlease Jem Partners – clinched regional sector leader status in the Asia Retail (Non-Listed) category.

It also noted that Lendlease Global Commercial Reit has emerged as regional sector leader in Asia Retail across listed and non-listed entities for a third consecutive year.

Lendlease’s chief executive officer for Asia Justin Gabbani said the company will continue to target some of the most ambitious accreditations on its upcoming developments in Asia to further raise the bar.

These developments refer to the redevelopment of Singtel’s Comcentre, Certis’ headquarter, and the new Shaw Tower. They will be gunning for the Building and Construction Authority’s Green Mark Platinum (Zero Energy) and Green Mark Platinum (Super Low Energy) accolades, as well as Well Platinum, issued by the International Well Building Institute, Lendlease said in a statement.