Orient Issue 84

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SINGAPORE ISSUE 84 | OCT 2021

BUILDING NETWORKS | CONNECTING BUSINESSES | CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

SPECIAL EDITION: SUSTAINABILITY & COP26 The UK's Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener

33

Working Towards COP26: What it Means for ASEAN and Businesses in the Region

35

In Focus Interview: Paul Kelleher, Corporate Relations Director, Asia Pacific, Diageo

30

The Challenges for Green Finance in Asia Pacific

37

42

Getting to True Zero Carbon in the Built Environment

45

How boards can drive more robust climate risk disclosures

52

COP26 Primer -26 ways Technology is Contributing to Sustainability

RE-IMAGINING 100 THE PANDEMIC’S IMPACT ON LONGEVITY

Singaporeans’ preparedness to live to 100 has grown in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic.

i am ready to #bringon100

Health and wellness perspective:

Yes: 23% 2018

Yes: 31% TODAY

Financial health perspective:

26% 2018

However, the pandemic has also led to considerable health and financial stress for Singaporeans:

35%

shared that their mental wellbeing worsened.

47%

saw their financial wellbeing decline.

Ready to #BringOn100 While Singaporeans remain resilient and optimistic about the future, there is a need to proactively improve our physical, mental and financial health to be holistically prepared for longevity. Are we ready to realise our potential of living to 100?

Read more in Prudential’s 3-part report series: Re-imagining 100: The pandemic’s impact on longevity The reports have been developed in partnership with Economist Impact as part of our Ready For 100 longevity research programme.

29%

TODAY

03

07

President's Message

09

Executive Director's Message

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News

18

Welcoming New Members

22

Recent Webinars

24

Upcoming Webinars

25

Latest from the BritCham Singapore Podcast

26

Celebrating the Winners of this year's Annual Business Awards

28

Special Feature: Sustainability and COP26

30

In Focus interview: Paul Kelleher, Corporate Relations Director, Asia Pacific, Diageo

33

The UK's Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener

35

Working Towards COP26: What it Means for ASEAN and Businesses in the Region

37

The Challenges for Green Finance in Asia Pacific

40

30 by 30: Achieving Urban Food Security in a Climate Crisis Era

42

Getting to True Zero Carbon in the Built Environment

44

Preparing Your Business in a Post-Pandemic World – The ESG Lens

45

How boards can drive more robust climate risk disclosures

47

Introducing Dulwich College (Singapore)'s new SE21 Innovation Hub

50

Responding Positively to Increasing Demands for Sustainable Investment

52

Committee Content: COP26 Primer -26 ways Technology is Contributing to Sustainability

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Committee Content: Battery Storage for Asia

58

Committee Content: The Future of Green Data Centres

60

Committee Content: The Business Case For Sustainability Is Easy To Make

63

Committee Content: Reflections on the Year

65

Member Discounts

Editor: Lucy Haydon lucy@britcham.org.sg Co-Editor: Khairil Faisal khairil@britcham.org.sg 137 Telok Ayer Street, #06-03, Singapore 068602 Tel: +65 6222-3552 Email: info@britcham.org.sg www.britcham.org.sg

ISSN (digital edition): 2810-904X

Advertising and contribution enquiries to be directed to the Editor

Orient is a bi-monthly magazine published by the British Chamber of Commerce, Singapore. © All rights reserved.

The views and opinions expressed or implied in Orient are those of the authors or contributors and do not reflect those of the British Chamber of Commerce, its officers or editorial staff. No reproduction of articles without the prior permission of the Chamber. Unsolicited transparencies and articles are sent at owner’s risk and the Chamber accepts no liability for loss or damage.

Copy is not for sale and images belong to their respective owners. They are for illustrative purposes only, and no copyright infringement is intended.

VIEW THE REPORTS HERE

CONTENTS

05

OUR PARTNERS PLATINUM PARTNER

GOLD PARTNERS

SILVER PARTNERS

BRONZE PARTNERS

D ET U R

P O N S M UN

DO

OUR BOARD

COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS

MANAGEMENT TEAM

PRESIDENT:

BUILT ENVIRONMENT: Alisdair Gillies (Chairperson), Andy Marr (Co-Chair)

Executive Director: David Kelly

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION: Andrew Ashman (Chairperson), Anna Liddell (Co-Chair)

Head of Marketing & Communications and Partnerships; Deputy Executive Director: Lucy Haydon

Richard Warburton, Arcadis

VICE-PRESIDENTS:

Fiona Carney, Microsoft Damian Adams, Watson Farley & Williams

SECRETARY:

Haslam Preeston, Jardine Matheson

TREASURER:

Christina Mason, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

BOARD MEMBERS:

Angel Cheung-Horenfeldt, Barclays James Nesbitt, Standard Chartered Bank Joe Tofield, IBO Luciana Vichino, Barclays

A legacy of learning.

Reinvented for today.

Nick Magnus, Dulwich College (Singapore) Shivkumar Seerapu, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Plc Simon Bennett, Swire Pacific Offshore

In changing times, our values define us. When young people are empowered to be kind, they can change the world.

Steve Firstbrook, Department for International Trade Lucy Watkins, British Council

January 2022 intake now open.

ENERGY & UTILITIES: Tim Rockell (Chairperson), Allard Nooy (Co-Chair), Mark Florance (Co-Chair) FINANCIAL & FINTECH: Mike Rourke (Co-Chair), Francesca McKee (Co-Chair) HEALTHCARE & LIFE SCIENCES: Thalia Georgiou (Chairperson) ICT: Derek Murray (Chairperson), Penny Murphy (Co-Chair), James Price (Co-Chair) LEADERSHIP, TALENT & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Joe Tofield (Chairperson), Don Rapley (Co-Chair),

Head of Events: Helen Starr Events Executive: Safreen Anwardeen Events Executive: Sabeena Nayyar Marketing & Communications and Events Executive: Samantha Nelson Marketing & Communications Executive: Khairil Faisal

STARTUP, ENTREPRENEUR & SMALL BUSINESS: Vanessa Errington (Chairperson), Mary Barrett (Co-Chair)

Trade Services Advisor: Sitti Mariyah Abu

SUSTAINABILITY: Lorena Paglia (Chairperson), Mark Florance (Co-Chair)

Finance Manager: Radhika Chauhan

Contact us today.

TRANSPORT, LOGISTICS & SUPPLY CHAIN: Simon Middlebrough (Chairperson), Nicholas Potter (Co-Chair)

Brighton College (Singapore). One of a Kind.

www.brightoncollege.edu.sg +65 6505 9790

WOMEN IN BUSINESS: Bee Ling Lua (Chairperson), Wanying Lim (Co-Chair)

Registration Number: 201904884D Period of Registration : 14 October 2019 to 13 October 2023

Member Relations Administrator: Melissa Ng

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS: Suzy Goulding (Chairperson), Andrew Clark (Co-Chair)

Scan to find out more

Brighton College (Singapore) Pte Ltd is registered by the Committee for Private Education (CPE), part of SkillsFuture (SFSG)

Business Services Director: Nicole Wharfe

Office Manager: Anna C Garciso

CHAMBER INFORMATION

07

Discover the Difference

Message from the President DE T U

DO R P UN ONS M

PERSONALISED PATHWAYS

Our students follow a path that reflects individual choice, ability and personality, with a broad range of enrichment opportunities.

All our learning experiences are designed with the needs, talents and capabilities of our students as the focus.

We believe education has to be as flexible, creative and adaptive as our increasingly complex, ever-changing world.

Dear Members, In this month’s issue of the Orient Magazine, as Glasgow prepares to host the pivotal COP26 summit of global leaders, we put the spotlight again on sustainability. The UK has recently announced that more than £5.8 billion of foreign investment in green projects has been secured since the launch of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan, along with at least 56,000 jobs in the UK’s clean industries.

What better way to illustrate the importance of our focus on the green economy and jobs in our Road to Net Zero campaign.

We equip our students with the character to stand up and stand out, now and in the future.

Richard Warburton President, British Chamber of Commerce Singapore richard@britcham.org.sg

Since the August edition, the Chamber has continued to represent members and their interests with a series of dialogues with both Singapore and UK Government Ministers. In Singapore, the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, Grace Fu, and MPs Louis Ng and Poh Li San from the Government Parliamentary Committee for Sustainability and the Environment spoke with our members at two in-person events on how businesses can engage with the Singapore Green Plan 2030. Minister for Manpower Tan See Leng, Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon, and Minister of State Gan Siow Huang spoke with members on a virtual manpower dialogue, and we welcomed the UK’s Minister for State for Asia, Amanda Milling MP, as she made her first visit to the region in her new role. These engagements illustrate the value created by the Chamber in connecting members with Government policymakers and we thank all of those who actively participated in these sessions.

Finally, I am sure we were all delighted to hear the news of the Vaccinated Travel Lane for flights from the UK and other countries to Singapore. This opens up the trade corridor and allow members to be reunited with their families, some for the first time in two years. We thank the whole British and business community for your patience and resilience through this period and wish you safe travels.

Best Regards,

singapore.dulwich.org admissions.singapore@dulwich.org (65) 6890 1003

LIVE

Dulwich College (Singapore) CPE Registration Number: 201027137D. Period of Registration: 09 Janurary 2020 to 08 Janurary 2024. School Location: 71 Bukit Batok West Avenue 8, Singapore, 658966

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

09

Message from the Executive Director

Dear Members, Please click on this video image to watch my latest update.

David Kelly Executive Director, British Chamber of Commerce Singapore david@britcham.org.sg

Best regards,

MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

STERLING MEMBERS

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D ET U R

P O N S M UN

DO

STERLING MEMBERS

GET IN TOUCH

GET IN TOUCH

13

137 Telok Ayer Street, #06-03, Singapore 068602 Tel: +65 6222-3552

INFORMATION HUBS In-depth content hubs on our key themes. Includes news, events, thought leadership, explainers, digital content and more.

Email: info@britcham.org.sg Website: www.britcham.org.sg

@british-chamber-of-commerce-singapore

BritCham Singapore Spotify | Apple Podcasts

@bccsingapore

/britchamsg

@britchamsg

/britchamsingapore

Supporting businesses and the community through the pandemic

Ensuring that rich and diverse workforces are working together to support business innovation and growth

Read the Orient Magazine on the go!

The 'Orient by BritCham Singapore' app is available in the Google Play Store at bit.ly/orientplaystore, and in the iOS App Store at bit.ly/orientappstore

Supporting talent and the enhancement of people to support business growth

Focusing on quality education and future skills that businesses will require

Hit subscribe or click here to get your regular copy of the Orient Creating jobs and boosting economic growth in Singapore

Encouraging businesses to do their part for a world that we all want to live in in the future

15

NEWS

British businesses show strong signs of recruitment recovery despite local talent crunch; launch of Information Hub to support skills development and transfer to local workforce In our second annual Manpower Survey, suppot

by Official Future of Work Partner Globalization Partners, members reported a 27% increase in current or planned recruitment, with 84% of companies seeking new hires. In June this year, national employment figures were released which reported there were 163 job openings for every 100 unemployed persons and a 10.7 per cent decrease in the non-resident population. With an increased appetite for recruitment, companies are competing in a confined talent pool for Singaporean or Permanent Resident employees. This is seen particularly in senior and line management functions.

To support companies in upskilling and retraining their workforce BritCham launched our Future of Work Information Hub. The Hub will provide clear navigation to recruitment channels, SkillsFuture programmes, employee engagement resources and other development initiatives alongside the latest news, case studies and content relevant through the entire career lifecycle.

The British business community raised concerns with the technical skills of the local workforce within the results, with almost half of all responding companies highlighting this as an obstacle to the successful recruitment of local talent in the past year.

Click here for the full highlights.

BritCham hosts Minister Tan See Leng, Senior Minister of State Koh Poh Koon and Minister of State Gan Siow Huang in a Manpower Dialogue for members

Held under Chatham House Rules, the virtual dialogue on October 15th focused on fairness, the local talent crunch, travel, opportunities for skills development and business expansion.

Minister Tan said of the event on his social media: "I enjoyed a recent dialogue with about 70 members of the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham). Senior Minister of State Poh-Koon Koh (Dr) and Minister of State Siow Huang Gan joined me on the panel where we discussed strengthening workplace fairness, managing the pandemic, and developing a skilled workforce for our industries of the future."

"On finding local talent with the right skills mix for international businesses, I encouraged members to explore the many programmes set up to facilitate this such as the Career Conversion Programmes under Workforce Singapore, or NTUC’s Company Training Committee. Where there are needs for specialised skills and experience that are not readily available, MOM, MTI and partner agencies will continue to engage our businesses, and refine our support measures."

"Looking forward to working with BritCham for an even closer partnership in the years ahead, and leadership on the future of work agenda."

In recent news, The British Chamber has announced our signatory of the Tripartite Standards on recruitment practices and flexible work arrangements for our employees.

BritCham hosts Minister Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and leaders of the Government Parliamentary Committee in Green Plan 2030 dialogues

In two separate in-person events during September, the Chamber hosted senir Government officials Minister Grace Fu, Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee Louis Ng, and Deputy Chairperson Li San Poh, in discussions with members on the Singapore Green Plan 2030. Members were keen to understand how their businesses can support the Government's sustainabiliy drive and enjoyed opportunities to raise their questions in person while meeting small groups of their peers.

Minister Fu said of the event on her social media: "What are the opportunities and challenges for businesses in the Green Plan? I received keen inquiries from the business leaders from the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore (BritCham) recently. I was heartened to learn that we shared similar perspectives and commitment to advancing #sustainability."

"At the Dialogue, I highlighted opportunities for UK companies to collaborate with us in our #SGGreenPlan2030 to advance the global sustainability agenda. I was delighted by BritCham’s Road to Net Zero campaign, and the interest by UK companies to push ahead on #SustainableDevelopmentGoals 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Change). Such actions help move the needle to achieve a sustainable and low-carbon future for Singapore and beyond. It is an important part of our strategy to work with industry to reduce Singapore’s carbon footprint. This includes increasing energy efficiency in areas such as industry and buildings, and strategic land use planning for both nature preservation and urban development. Key initiatives in these sectors include investing in R&D of low-carbon energy technologies, the Singapore Green Building Masterplan, and the OneMillionTrees movement."

"Companies can play a leading role in our transition to a greener future by finding innovative ways to reduce carbon-intensive practices and developing sustainable products and services for a green economy. The government will support such efforts through schemes such as the Enterprise Sustainability Programme, as well as lead through the GreenGov.SG movement, which includes recognising companies with sustainable practices in our procurement approach. Individuals too can play a part by implementing sustainable practices wherever they are in an organisation."

"Thank you to the British Chamber of Commerce for organising a fruitful dialogue!"

Visit our Road to Net Zero Information Hub to start your sustainability journey.

Visit our Flickr page to download photographs from these inperson events.

McKinsey & Lean-In release Women in the Workplace 2021 Report This year, information was collected from 423 participating organisations employing 12 million people. More than 65,000 employees were surveyed, and interviews held with women of diverse identities, including women of color, LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities. The 2021 findings focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion on the experiences of women and the state of work more broadly.

Click here to download the report or visit our Diversity and Inclusion Information Hub.

NEWS

17

NEWS

The UK joins countries added to Singapore's Vaccinated Travel Lanes

BritCham introduces Minister of State for Asia, the Rt Hon Amanda Milling MP, to members on her first visit to the region

With the experience gained from pilot Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) with Brunei and Germany, Singapore has announced additional VTLs over the past few weeks with multiple countries including the UK.

On October 12th the Rt Hon Amanda Milling MP, Minister of State for Asia at the FCDO took time out of her busy visit to Singapore to meet with a representative group of our Board, Sterling Members and Partners.

The announcement has been widely welcomed by the British community in Singapore who are keen to resume business and personal travel, and particularly those who have been separated from their family for up to two years due to Covid measures.

Our President Richard Warburton moderated the conversation on trade, opportunities for the UK, the levelling-up agenda and COP26, which was supported

by Her Excellency Kara Owen CMG CVO, British High Commissioner to Singapore, and Her Excellency Natalie Black CBE, Her Majesty's Trade Commissioner for Asia Pacific. We are grateful for such opportunities to provide a platform for our business community to meet with UK Government representatives, and for businesses in turn to share their thoughts on the opportunities and challenges in this region.

In summary, travellers bookng inbound flights to Singapore from a VTL country can book VTL flights on specific airlines. Capacity is limited by the Civil Aviation Authority and so a reduced flight schedule is likely to be in place, with immediate demand potentially outweighing supply, particularly for the UK. Short term visitors and pass holders will also need to apply for a Vaccinated Travel Pass (VTP) to use the VTL (not required for Singaporean citizens or Permanent Residents). As with the earlier VTLs, travellers will be subject to fewer Covid tests upon entry. There is no restriction on the purpose of travel. Unvaccinated children aged 12 and below in this calendar year will be eligible to enter Singapore on the VTL (e.g. a child who turns 12 in this calendar year will be exempted). They are not required to apply for a VTP. However, they must comply with all other VTL conditions, including being accompanied by a fully vaccinated VTL traveller.

Travellers may transit via any VTL country/region before arrival in Singapore. If transits are made via a non-VTL country/region, Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents will not be eligible for quarantine-free health protocols. Short-term visitors and long-term pass holders may be denied entry into Singapore.

For travellers not using the VTL, they will follow the rules dependent on the Category of the originating country (see table to the right), which may include the requirement for an employer to apply for entry approval for those holding work passes and a 7-day SHN at approved accommodation.

Long-term partner of the Chamber, British Airways, is working alongside Singapore Airlines to provide VTL flights into Singapore from the UK. BA worked with the Chamber to provide this guidance upon the announcement of their VTL flight schedule.

Visit our Covid-19 Information Hub for links to key information such as applying for approvals, validating your vaccination certificates, the latest local health measuresand more.

The Minister of State shared her thoughts on her social media: "The UK and Singapore continue to be fertile grounds for business development, bolstered by the Singapore free trade agreement. I had a productive meeting with the British Chamber of Commerce and other business representatives, learning how we can advance our priorities in digital trade."

Find out more about the UK's trade activities and how we support British businesses to export on our Future of Trade Information Hub.

Investors pledge almost £10bn at UK Global Investment Summit in Wind & Hydrogen Energy, Sustainable Homes, Carbon Capture for Storage ahead of COP26 At least 30,000 new jobs will be created around the UK thanks to £9.7 billion of new foreign investment announced by the Prime Minister at the Global Investment Summit.

The package of 18 deals will support growth in vital sectors such as wind and hydrogen energy, sustainable homes and carbon capture and storage, cementing the UK’s climate leadership for COP26 and beyond. It comes as the Department for International Trade launches a new Investment Atlas, an online platform designed to help international investors identify and execute high priority investment opportunities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In earlier news, more than £5.8 billion of foreign investment in green projects has been secured since the launch of the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan last year, along with at least 56,000 jobs in the UK’s clean industries.

Read the Executive Summary of the UK's newly launched Net Zero Plan on page 33.

NEWS

WELCOMING NEW MEMBERS

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CORPORATE SME MEMBERS

STERLING MEMBERS LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE

LAMDA

LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group) is more than a diversified global financial markets infrastructure and data business. We are dedicated, open-access partners with a commitment to excellence in delivering the services our customers expect from us. With extensive experience, deep knowledge and worldwide presence across financial markets, we enable businesses and economies around the world to fund innovation, manage risk and create jobs. It’s how we’ve contributed to supporting the financial stability and growth of communities and economies globally for more than 300 years.

The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a world class drama school and globally recognised awarding organisation. We offer qualifications in communication and performance to learners around the world and inspire the next generation of confident communicators through our examinations in drama, literature, musical theatre, public speaking and poetry. We believe in the transformative power of the dramatic arts and the value to society of creativity, innovation and authentic, confident communication. Visit www.lamda.ac.uk for more.

Representative Member: Wendy Yamazaki, Senior Director of Government Relations and Regulatory Strategy, APAC

Representative Member: Georgina Firmin, Director of Commercial Development

CORPORATE MEMBERS MISHCON DE REYA LLP (SINGAPORE BRANCH) Mishcon de Reya is one of the UK’s largest independent law firms with more than 1,000 staff and over 500 lawyers with offices in London and Singapore.

Our Singapore office focuses on private wealth, transactional work, and dispute resolution. We have UK qualified solicitors in Singapore that advise on UK tax matters, UK real estate, immigration, and family matters. Our clients are high net worth individuals and their businesses. Our firm was established in London over 80 years ago, but we have always been an innovative firm with a key focus on providing strategic legal advice addressed to solving client problems and achieving favourable commercial outcomes.

VENDING MACHINES INTERNATIONAL VMI is Singapore based company that provides a multiple range of portable vending solutions to beverage companies. Creating an opportunity to remove plastic packaging from our clients product portfolio.

Representative Member: Georgie Ogden, Global Business Manager

Representative Member: Stephanie Pierce, Managing Associate

CORPORATE STARTUP MEMBERS ARGON AND CO

IM SPORTS & MEDIA PTE. LTD.

Argon & Co is a global management consultancy that specialises in operations strategy and transformation. With expertise spanning the supply chain, procurement, finance and shared services, we work together with clients to transform their businesses and generate real change. Our people are engaging to work with and trusted by clients to get the job done. We have offices in Paris, London, Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Atlanta, Auckland, Chicago, Dusseldorf, Lausanne, Melbourne, Mumbai and Singapore.

IM Sports is a Sports Commercialisation and Advisory Company with 25 years of high-level experience in international sports marketing. With a unique cultural understanding of the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region, and a proven track record operating across this growing marketplace, we connect sports to a highly desirable fanbase by developing and executing commercial strategies for the world’s largest sports properties and events

Representative Member: Chris Cave Jones, Managing Associate

Representative Member: Ian Mathie, Managing Director & Founder

WELCOMING NEW MEMBERS

WELCOMING NEW MEMBERS

IAS INSIGHTS AND SOLUTIONS ASIA PTE. LTD. Specialists in HR, Employee Benefits, digital communications (video marketing, e-books/ reports), customer/ employee experience journey mapping for businesses across Asia. Experienced in health & benefits across Asia, we work with many key partners including brokers, insurers, health care providers, TPA’s, wellness experts etc.

We provide knowledge/ information on Employee Benefits to assist clients (discounts for SME’s/ Britcham members) with ‘all things’ benefits – digital comms, flexible benefits, benefits systems review of existing programs, questions they should ask a broker etc.globally for more than 300 years.

Representative Member: Steve McArthur, Managing Director & Founder

THE LOVE FOR LEARNING Give your child the best start to life and early childhood education at the Stamford American Early Learning Village. Reggio Emilia-inspired and purpose-built for early learners from 2 months to 6 years.

CORPORATE OVERSEA MEMBERS FILMDOO LIMITED FilmDoo is an edutainment platform that raises engagement and improves learning outcomes using film- and video-based learning. Since FilmDoo already has one of the world's largest international film catalogues, they started out with language learning and have now expanded into corporate training, especially in Multicultural Communications, Leadership and Diversity & Inclusion. FilmDoo will be able to supply corporates with access to both content and their film- and video-based learning platform which allows users to turn any film & video into an interactive game and lesson in just a few minutes.

To start your child’s journey, speak with our Admissions team admissions@sais.edu.sg +65 6653 7907 Alternatively, scan to book for your session today

Representative Member: Weerada Sucharitkul, CEO & Co-founder

MEMBERSHIP OF THE BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SINGAPORE

The Chamber offers membership types to suit companies at all stages of your business growth journey.

For those looking to investigate the market opportunities and retain connections with the British business community in Singapore while based overseas, we offer an Overseas Corporate membership and additional support options from our Trade Services team.

Small businesses benefit from our Corporate SME membership option, as you look to build brand awareness and a network of connections.

Larger companies may opt for a Corporate, Corporate Plus or Sterling membership type depending on the level of engagement and number of employees you intend to embed within the Chamber. Sterling members also receive exclusive benefits and brand awareness not available to other membership types.

We'd love to hear your business story, your goals and your plans for growth, and we're certain we can help to play a part.

Reach out to us via the enquiry form on our website at www.britcham.org.sg/how-can-the-chamber-help-me.

Cert No. : EDU-2-2038 Validity : 21/2/2020 - 20/2/2024

Stamford American International School CPE Registration Number: 200823594D Period of registration: August 10, 2018 to August 9, 2022

RECENT WEBINARS

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Recent Webinars

Discover more webinars at britcham.org.sg/webinars

11 Aug 2021: Investing with Purpose In this session, our Women in Business and Financial and Fintech Committees as they dive deep into Investments in line with the UN's SDGs.

Series Partner:

Recent Webinars

Discover more webinars at britcham.org.sg/webinars

14 Sep 2021: UK Outlook: Planning For a Smooth and Tax Efficient Move to the UK Together with Select Investors, join us for a webinar as we discuss planning your tax as you consider moving back to the UK.

19 Aug 2021: Board Crisis Preparedness

23 Sep 2021: Battery Storage For Asia

In this session, we address how your Board can continue to strengthen its effectiveness in this area and be better prepared for future crises.

In this session, our Energy & Utilities and Sustainability Committees bring you a webinar on the growing opportunities to invest in, develop and finance the future of battery storage in the region.

24 Aug 2021: Fireside Chat with The Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP

28 Sep 2021: The Future of Green Data Centres

In this session, we welcome The Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP as she sits down for a fireside chat to discuss brexit, cyber strategy, resilience, defence and trade.

In this session, our Built Environment, Energy & Utilities and Sustainability Committees bring you a webinar on the future of Green Data Centres and how this impacts Singapore's Green Plan and more.

9 Sept 2021: Stress Busting Tips to Boost Mental Resilience

29 Sep 2021: Ready for 100? How the Pandemic has Impacted Singapore’s Preparedness for Longevity

In this session, our Healthcare & Life Sciences Committee bring you a relevant webinar for all on how to best improve your mental strength and stress levels.

Series Partner:

In this session, Prudential Singapore as part of our Longevity Agenda Series as we discuss how COVID-19 has impacted health, wealth, work and relationships and more.

RECENT WEBINARS

UPCOMING WEBINARS

25

Upcoming Webinars

Latest from the BritCham Singapore Podcast

Bookmark our Upcoming Events page at www.britcham.org.sg/ events to register for the latest live webinars.

DATE

NAME

TIME

28 Oct 2021

SIEW ThinkTank Roundtable: The NetZero COP - Trade Opportunities on the Journey to Decarbonising ASEAN

4:00 PM 6:00 PM

02 Nov 2021

The Longevity Agenda: Legacy Giving in Singapore

5:00 PM 6:00 PM

09 Nov 2021

The World of Formula 5:00 PM One ft. Fox Sports Asia's Paula Malai Ali & Alex 6:00 PM Yoong

10 Nov 2021

The UK as an ASEAN 4:00 PM Dialogue Partner - ft.

H.E. Kara Owen and H.E. 5:00 PM Jon Lambe, Ambassador, UK Mission to ASEAN

15 Nov 2021

UK Outlook: UK Autumn Budget

4:00 PM 5:00 PM

18 Nov 2021

How Global Mobility Promotes a Fair and Diverse Talent Management Today

4:00 PM 5:00 PM

THEME

EVENT PARTNERS

LATEST FROM THE BRITCHAM SINGAPORE PODCAST

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Celebrating the Winners of this year's Annual Business Awards This year's outstanding achievers were announced in a virtual ceremony hosted by Sharanjit Leyl on 4 October.

H.E. Kara Owen CMG CVO presented the audience-voted award for UK Impact in Singapore and we heard from Singapore Paralympic Swimmer Toh Wei Soong & Singapore Paralympic Archer Nur Syahidah Alim in a special interview. Thank you to all those who entered and our partners.

THE WINNERS

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS

CELEBRATING SUCCESS AT THE 22ND ANNUAL BUSINESS AWARDS

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY AND COP26

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Special Feature: Sustainability and COP26 When we shared the call for commentary from members on sustainability for our special edition timed ahead of COP26, the Chamber was inundated with suggestions. This further demonstrates the keen interest within our business community across all industries on these topics.

In the following pages, expand your knowledge with 14 thought leadership pieces and interviews on green finance, the ASEAN perspective, progress in the built environment, energy solutions, Board governance, Government priorities and more.

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY AND COP26

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SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY IN FOCUS INTERVIEW

First, I’d like to share some context on Society 2030: Spirit of Progress, Diageo's 10-year action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world. The plan aims to amplify our work in three strategic pillars which include promoting positive responsible drinking, championing inclusions and diversity and pioneering grain to glass sustainability. All 25 goals under this action plan are aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and are continuously getting embedded into the way we do business, our culture and are now part of our definition of business success and performance.

local sourcing areas in all of our water-stressed markets

This approach and strategy aligns and resonates across the whole organisation. Goals, policies and targets set at the global level are aligned with regional teams who actively work with markets to make sure they resonate and make the positive impact on the ground. We work together to put in place resources, processes and consistent programmes. We also have goals at the regional and market level that serve our local communities and contribute to the larger, global sustainability targets of the company.

An example of how we translate global goals to markets can be seen in how we aim to achieve Net zero carbon in Scope 1 and 2 by 2030. The work to reach this net zero target is happening through our production sites in markets around the world where we’re making investments, changing processes and adopting innovations.

In Australia, the Bundaberg Distillery is now powered 67% by renewable energy with “green steam” technology to recycle bagasse waste into steam power.

In Scotland, the Brora, Oban and Royal Lochnagar distilleries are now carbon neutral and have been converted to use 100% renewable woodchips, or vegetable oil residue, as well as all operating using renewable electricity. All these efforts are helping us gain traction and so far, we have achieved a 50% absolute reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 emissions (from a 2007 baseline).

Climate change is one of the most significant challenges the world currently faces, and we’re determined to play our part to tackle it. Environmental sustainability sits within our Society 2030 ‘grain to glass’ pillar where we focus on carbon, water, sustainable design and sustainable agriculture.

Society 2030 targets in this pillar include to:

In Focus Paul Kelleher, Corporate Relations Director, AsiaPacific, Diageo

In the Society 2030 plan, Diageo pledges to work with the whole value chain – the people, resources and environment that contribute to success from grain to glass in a 10-year action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world.

• Become Net Zero carbon in our direct operations (scope 1 & 2)

Kelleher shares more on how Diageo plans to achieve their goals and how they filter down from a global initiative to the regional and national level.

• Reduce water use in our operations with a 40% improvement in water use efficiency in water stressed areas and 30% improvement across the company

• Reduce our value chain (scope 3) carbon emissions by 50% • Use 100% renewable electricity across all our direct operations

• Replenish more water than we use for our operations for all of our sites in water-stressed areas by 2026 • Invest in improving access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in communities near our sites and

• Achieve zero waste in our direct operations and zero waste to landfill in our supply chain • Ensure 100% of our packaging is widely recyclable (or reusable/compostable) • Provide all of our local sourcing communities with agricultural skills and resources, building economic and environmental resilience (supporting 150,000 smallholder farmers)

We recognise this work doesn’t stop at our doors and we need to work closely with our suppliers on Scope 3 or indirect emissions – widely accepted as being the greatest challenge, but also where there will be the biggest impact on climate change mitigation. That will be our next step.

One of the goals is to use 30% less water in producing your drinks. What are the steps to achieve this specific goal, as an example?

Water is our most important ingredient and water stewardship has been a longstanding priority for Diageo. We’re a global leader in sustainable water management by CDP, one of only 72 companies, out of 8,400 globally, to achieve an ‘A’ for Water Stewardship.

This puts Diageo in the top 1% of companies globally.

Our 2030 ambition aims to further raise the bar. By 2030, our goal is to use 30% less water than today on every drink we make on an average. To put that into context, based on F20 production volumes, this is the equivalent to saving enough water to meet the needs of 2.9 million people in water scarce environment, or 2,000 Olympic sized swimming pools. It’s a significant target and our holistic ‘grain to glass’ approach will help us reach it, taking into the multiple inter-dependencies between our use of water and the impact on communities, supply chains and the environment. So, we’ll continue to support farmers (especially smallholders), improve water use in our operations, replenish water in water stressed catchments, provide clean water to our communities and strongly advocate for more collective action for a better water world for everyone.

Managing our impact on water and being good stewards of this resource is integral to our management of climate risk and we continue to make improvements in our operations. Over the past fiscal year, our global water efficiency improved by 9.4%. In India, we replenished 198,500m3 of water and this year, we launched our first WASH water replenishment programme in APAC at our Bali product site.

To an outsider, there are a seemingly infinite number of suppliers, wholesalers and retailers involved in the Diageo value chain. How does a company of this scale effectively track and hold others responsible for sustainability commitments?

Environmental sustainability is getting more important for long term business growth and success. We work with a lot of peers and trade associations who share a similar appreciation and value for sustainability– to create a positive impact in the communities they operate in and take collective action to bring about progressive change.

As part of compliance, we have the Diageo Partnering with Suppliers Standard which sets out the minimum social and environmental standards we expect of our suppliers. This includes due diligence across business integrity and ethical standards, human rights and labour standards, health and safety and environmental impact.

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SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY IN FOCUS INTERVIEW

The UK’s Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener In this Executive Summary from the Government’s recently released Net Zero Strategy, policymakers outline what underpins the plans for the way forward and the results of the Ten Point Plan ahead of the upcoming COP26 summit.

We also have Sustainable Agriculture Guidelines that set out the standards we expect in our agricultural supply chains and are applied in conjunction with our supplier code, Partnering with Suppliers. These also provide guidelines to help our suppliers work continuously towards more sustainable agricultural practices by treating farmers and workers fairly, improving environmental impacts, protecting natural capital and supporting wider economic benefits for farming communities.

The company’s sustainability goals, like the diversity ones, form part of senior management KPIs. How has this framework helped to deliver results compared to the more HQ-led approach often seen in other sectors?

Diageo was one of only eight beverage companies globally and 65 companies overall (out of 9,600) to achieve A for both Water Security and Climate Change. On the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, we’re ranked as one of the top four beverage companies worldwide.

At Diageo, reporting is not just about meeting regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations, it’s also fundamental to attracting and retaining the best talent, building deep consumer loyalty, creating new partnerships, and increasing innovation, efficiency and resilience across our operations.

Reporting transparently on our ESG progress and holding our senior management accountable play a vital role in delivering our 2030 goals. It sets the standard for the entire organisation, ensuring collective and individual responsibility to reach the targets. For example, Society 2030 and ESG reporting are now embedded as part of how we define our business success and performance. We have developed an integrated, quarterly reporting system that consolidates cross-functional non-financial performance data at market and regional levels, which gives senior internal stakeholders a clear view of our performance.

This has helped our progress in reaching our sustainability goals and it’s really encouraging that Diageo’s commitment and approach continues to be recognised externally.

ABOUT THE COMPANY Diageo is the world's leading premium drinks business with an outstanding collection of beverage alcohol brands. Their portfolio stretches across spirits, wine and beer categories including international number one brands such as Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Guinness and Baileys as well as leading local brands such as Windsor and Shui Jing Fang. Diageo is a global company, trading in around 180 markets around the world. Find out more at www.diageo.com.

What is net zero and why do we need to act?

From heating our homes to filling up our cars, burning fossil fuels releases the greenhouses gases that increase global temperatures. We are already seeing the effects here in the UK, with devastating floods in the West Midlands in January and torrential downpours submerging London Underground stations earlier this summer.

People are rightly concerned, with the latest IPCC report showing that if we fail to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the floods and fires we have seen around the world this year will get more frequent and more fierce, crops will be more likely to fail, and sea levels will rise driving mass migration as millions are forced from their homes. Above 1.5°C we risk reaching climatic tipping points like the melting of arctic permafrost – releasing millennia of stored greenhouse gases – meaning we could lose control of our climate for good.

But the good news is that there is, still, a path to avoid catastrophic climate change. The science could not be clearer: by the middle of this century the world has to reduce emissions to as close to zero as possible, with the small amount of remaining emissions absorbed through natural carbon sinks like forests, and new technologies like carbon capture. If we can achieve this, global emissions of greenhouse gases will be ‘net zero’.

Delivering this requires urgent global action, including ending coal fired power generation, retiring petrol and diesel engines from all cars, and halting deforestation. These are the steps that the UK is calling for at COP26, the global climate change talks in Glasgow next month.

Why should the UK act first?

Since 1990 the UK has almost halved our greenhouse gas

emissions. Thanks to the efforts of successive governments, we are almost half-way to ending the UK’s domestic contribution to man-made climate change, and in 2019 the UK became the first major economy in the world to legislate to finish the job with a binding target to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

We are proud to lead the world in ending our own contribution to climate change, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because we are determined to seize the unprecedented economic opportunity it brings. We want to build back better from the pandemic by building back greener and levelling up our country with new high skilled, high wage, sustainable jobs in every part of our United Kingdom.

Removing dirty fossil fuels will require the transformation of every sector of the global economy. It means no longer burning fossil fuels for power or heating; it means new ways of making concrete, cement, steel; it means the end of the petrol and diesel engine. These changes are already beginning to happen. Renewable energy is now the cheapest source of power across two-thirds of the globe. Clean, cheap power is already driving the decarbonisation of heavy industry around the world. Almost all major car companies are now developing or producing zero emissions vehicles as battery technology improves and costs reduce.

The question is whether the new clean machinery of the net zero future will be “made elsewhere” or “made in Britain”. By moving first, the UK can get ahead of the pack and make the birthplace of the industrial revolution the home of the new Green Industrial Revolution.

Indeed, as we produce more of our own electricity – from wind farms in the North Sea and state-of-the-art British nuclear reactors – families will be much better protected from energy price spikes caused by volatile international fossil fuel markets. At the same time, by getting ahead of the curve

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY THE UK'S NET ZERO STRATEGY: BUILD BACK GREENER

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THE UK'S NET ZERO STRATEGY: BUILD BACK GREENER in driving down the costs of the latest clean technology, more consumers will enjoy more efficient cars and heating systems sooner. Furthermore, by accelerating the deployment of cheap renewable power, and rolling out further energy efficiency measures, government decarbonisation policies mean that the average consumer energy bill in 2024 will likely be cheaper than it would otherwise have been.

We have shown the world that green and growth go hand in hand, and as a result other countries are already following our lead with their own net zero targets. When the UK was confirmed as host of COP26, less than 30% of global GDP was signed up to net zero or carbon neutrality targets. Today, in part again because of UK leadership, that figure is now over 80% – and rising.

The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution Last year, the Government kick-started its mission to get ahead of the pack, by setting out a Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution. Our ambition was to create the conditions for the private sector to invest with confidence, unleashing the unique creativity of capitalism to generate and grow new green industries.

We mobilised £12 billion of government investment, shared some of the risks of pioneering new industries, and began to introduce regulations to assure industry of the future demand for green products – such as through our decision to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. We have also invested in the skills the British workforce will need for these new high wage green jobs, though our Lifetime Skills Guarantee, and we are helping investors to access capital for green projects by making the City of London the global centre of Green Finance.

At the Global Investment Summit in October 2021, the Prime Minister announced a package of 18 deals worth £9.7 billion that will support green growth and create an estimated 30,000 UK jobs. This is on top of the £5.8 billion already committed for sustainable projects since the Prime Minister launched his Ten Point Plan in November 2020. Now we need to build on this progress with a strategy to take us to net zero by 2050.

Our Strategy for Net Zero Since 1990 the UK has reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 44%, while growing our economy by over 75%. This strategy sets out this Government’s longterm plan to finish the job and end the UK’s domestic contribution to man-made climate change by 2050. Although every study shows that the costs of inaction on climate are far greater, there will, of course, be costs to the investments needed to make this transition happen.

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We will work with businesses to continue delivering deep cost reductions in low carbon tech through support for the latest state of the art kit to bring down costs for consumers and deliver benefits for businesses.

This strategy is a long-term plan for a transition that will take place over the next three decades. Many of the policies in the strategy will be phased in over the next decade or longer.

Given our success in decarbonisation to date we are confident in our approach, but this strategy does not intend to predict the exact shape of the British economy in 2050 and neither should it.

We are making the decisions that are needed now to drive investment into new low carbon technologies and as these develop and we test our approach, we will make informed decisions over how we scale to reach net zero by 2050.

We have consistently underestimated how quickly the costs of clean technology would fall to date. There will be many more decisions to take, and many more steps on the journey to the finish line. But this strategy marks the beginning of the end of the UK’s domestic contribution to climate change.

What is in the Strategy?

Ending the UK’s contribution to climate change is a longterm shift, and the Climate Change Act breaks up this challenge into bitesize chunks – five-year long carbon budgets.

We have hit all of our carbon budgets to date. Our strategy document sets out clear policies and proposals for keeping us on track for our coming carbon budgets, our ambitious Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), and then sets out our vision for a decarbonised economy in 2050.

Whilst there are a range of ways in which net zero could be achieved in the UK, we set out a delivery pathway showing indicative emissions reductions across sectors to meet our targets up to the sixth carbon budget (2033-2037). This is based on our current understanding of each sector’s potential, and a whole system view of where abatement is most effective. But we must be adaptable over time, as innovation will increase our understanding of the challenges, bring forward new technologies and drive down the costs of existing ones.

The policies and spending brought forward in the Net Zero Strategy mean that since the Ten Point Plan, HMG has mobilised £26 billion of government capital investment for the green industrial revolution. Along with regulations, this will support up to 190,000 jobs by 2025, and up to 440,000 jobs by 2030, and leverage up to £90 billion of private investment by 2030.

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We will work with the grain of consumer choice: no one will be required to rip out their existing boiler or scrap their current car We will ensure the biggest polluters pay the most for the transition through fair carbon pricing We will ensure that the most vulnerable are protected through Government support in the form of energy bill discounts, energy efficiency upgrades, and more

Yee Chuin Lim Senior Consultant, Speyside Group

Royston Wah Consultant, Speyside Group

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) occurs in a momentous period amidst a new normal brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

With global economies slowly kicking back into gear after a lull in demand for goods and services, COP26 presents an opportunity to “build back better” with a renewed push towards the Paris Agreement goals.

In the dynamic and emerging markets of Southeast Asia, how does COP26 and the road to net zero fit into ASEAN states’ policies and what would it spell for businesses?

So we will approach these with four key principles: 1.

Working Towards COP26: What it Means for ASEAN and Businesses in the Region

This extract is the Executive Summary of the report first published at www.gov.uk/ official-documents.

Click on the image to read the report in full.

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY WORKING TOWARDS COP26: WHAT IT MEANS FOR ASEAN AND BUSINESSES IN THE REGION

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WORKING TOWARDS COP26: WHAT IT MEANS FOR ASEAN AND BUSINESSES IN THE REGION

ASEAN: The Road to Net Zero As of September 2017, all ASEAN member states have signed and ratified the Paris Agreement. However the overwhelming focus in Southeast Asia remains economic development, with a very uneven landscape when it comes to efforts to mitigate climate change. The climate plans of several ASEAN states have come under fire for being critically or highly insufficient. While the Philippines has an ambitious goal to cut GHG emissions by 75% by 2030, any progress is hindered by a lack of strong domestic impetus, since its target is highly conditional on external financing and assistance. Any effort to secure global net zero by 2050 and keeping 1.5 degrees within reach would require significantly more political will and unity by ASEAN. Nevertheless, there are positives at the country level, indicating national priorities are moving in the right direction towards meeting COP26 targets. For example, Vietnam has a National Climate Change Strategy along with recent legislation to advance its green goals, including the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection, which introduced the Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”) concept. Producers and importers now bear greater responsibilities in relation to plastics, with mandated recycling for some and for others, financial contributions to the Vietnam Environment Protection Fund Meanwhile, Indonesia submitted its first LongTerm Climate Strategy in July 2021, looking to peak GHG emissions in 2030 and reach net zero by 2060. Legislation has followed in-step, with the moratorium on forest-clearing permits made permanent in 2019. In Thailand, authorities are drafting a national masterplan to achieve net zero with plans to present it at COP26; the masterplan proposes changes to support low carbon power generation, and electric vehicle adoption, among others. The upcoming legislation to watch will be Thailand’s comprehensive Climate Change Act, approved by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan in March 2021.

The Business of Climate Change While it is primarily up to the governments to provide the infrastructure and initial resources, ASEAN’s efforts are nonetheless impacted and driven by upcoming fast-changing trends in sustainability and practices. To thrive and remain relevant, businesses will need to make adjustments to keep up.

Firstly, slowdown in economic activity due to COVID-19 has prompted many to see it as an opportunity to build back better. In this region, the attention has shifted very much to Indonesia and businesses that could perpetuate unsustainable logging and deforestation. Businesses are well aware of heightened sustainability calls and have made commit-

ments, such as Asia Pacific Resources International Limited’s net zero by 2050 plan. While Indonesia’s GHG emissions goals and anti-deforestation legislations are positive indications, institutional obstacles hinder a coordinated regulatory approach. For instance, authority over forest management is split between the central and regional governments with multiple examples of incoherent policies. Evaluation of emission reductions are also notoriously difficult to ascertain.

To stay ahead of the curve in markets like Indonesia where regulation proceeds in a haphazard manner, businesses will need clearer insights on the regulatory landscape and policy motivations.

Reconfiguration of the energy mix to include more renewables is also a key thrust of the ‘build back better’ movement. Thailand will take time to wean off the use of fossil fuels, but there are long-term plans towards renewables which will impose penalties on fossil fuels while incentivising renewable energy adoption. The effect will be significant, impacting businesses all the way to downstream industries who rely on fossil fuels. But not all businesses are transitioning fast enough. According to Standard Chartered, the majority of ASEAN companies are looking to delay significant action to after 2030, citing the lack of resources and support from executive leadership. Transitioning will require extensive organisational change which if not done early enough, could impact supply chains and bottom lines.

The Challenges for Green Finance in Asia Pacific

Worldwide lockdowns and restrictions due to the pandemic have also accelerated the growth of e-commerce, presenting a major emerging channel to implement sustainable practices. Many are calling for eco-friendly packaging to be used at large scale, which will potentially increase business costs from production and distribution. We need not look further than the EPR concept in Vietnam, effective from 2022, which will impose extra costs to producers, and e-commerce and logistic players. To remain competitive, businesses will need to pivot early to non-plastics to reduce reputational costs and the cost burden from the new legislation. Careful monitoring of and compliance with regulations related to recycling and plastics will prove to be essential in the FMCG industry moving forward.

Conclusion With COP26 occurring amidst major disruptions brought on by the pandemic, the road to net zero will challenge governments, businesses, and consumers in Southeast Asia to revaluate their policies and practices. A concerted and sustainable push in the right direction will require a reimagining of our practices, political will, and financing from both public and private sources. With huge uncertainties down the line, businesses will need to be laser-focussed in managing change and adapting to emerging regulations.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Yee Chuin graduated with a Master’s degree from the University of Oxford and a degree in international relations from Peking University China. As a senior consultant at Speyside, she oversees APAC regional projects and clients, helping businesses to manage commercial, regulatory and political risks. She has a strong background in government, industry body, NGOs and think-tanks across Asia, having lived and worked across Southeast Asia and China. Royston graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the National University of Singapore. With a strong background in research and writing on policy and regulatory issues, he supports APAC regional projects at Speyside to deliver insights across multiple industries including financial services, healthcare, and tech.

Speyside Group is a global emerging markets specialist with more than 25 years of experience of helping multinationals with market entry and growth. Our experienced public policy teams tailor and provide clear insights around political, legislative, and regulatory issues, along with strategic counsel to capture opportunities and mitigate risk. Complementing that is a strong corporate affairs practice to help clients manage reputation and relationships with key stakeholders. We have an unrivalled presence on the ground with offices in Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa. Visit speyside-group.com/ for more information.

Countries across Asia will step up their demand for increased access to climate finance in the upcoming UN climate summit (COP26) in November.

However, Asia’s slow progress in developing robust region and industry specific taxonomies for sustainable activities will pose a greater challenge to green economy growth and energy transition goals.

Reema Bhattacharya Senior Analyst, Control Risks

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THE CHALLENGES FOR GREEN FINANCE IN ASIA PACIFIC Ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, UK, most developing countries, including those in Asia, are gearing up for another round of intense negotiations over the distribution of climate mitigation costs between the global north and the south. With all Group of Seven (G7) nations having committed to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the pressure is on emerging economies to follow suit.

However, if there is no further support to finance climate change mitigation or adaptation efforts, many developing nations will not be willing or able to commit to significantly higher emissions reduction targets. At COP26, they will aim to hold developed countries accountable for falling short on their 2009 pledge to mobilise US$100bn a year by 2020 to help developing countries respond to climate change. Access to green capital is no doubt crucial for Asia’s transition to a low carbon future. However, that assumes the region has a robust regulatory and financial framework to deploy it, which is not necessarily the case.

A taxing tale of taxonomies Despite the surge in green capital allocation across the Asia Pacific in recent years, regulators in several jurisdictions have lagged their EU peers in formulating taxonomies or classifications of economic activities that align with their broader climate or sustainability objectives. Jurisdictions also have substantively differing interpretations of what qualifies as “sustainable” business activity. These divergent interpretations will impede companies’ ability to quantify their sustainability performance or communicate effectively with investors and regulators. Consequently, it will also hinder their access to capital.

In most cases, regulators in the Asia Pacific have been inclined to follow the course adopted by the EU in its taxonomy templates to drive green finance. The EU’s experience in climate stewardship and industry best practices can be instructive for other regions, but there is growing uncertainty as to how classification systems constructed from a European perspective may affect businesses in Asia-Pacific.

To mitigate the challenges of differing ESG standards and regulations, foreign investors and companies will need to map their exposure to market-related ESG issues and focus their risk management on what matters most in the local context.

For instance, the EU’s agriculture-related green taxonomy criteria focus mainly on greenhouse gas reduction, whereas sustainable farming practices and biodiversity-focused techniques are agricultural priorities in Asian markets.

The EU’s disclosure regulations also have very stringent classifications for green versus non-green activities. Applying these principles in the Asia-Pacific region would mean that sectors and companies that do not meet the highest standards of “green” activity will be prevented from receiving funding on all their projects. This is problematic as it would exclude those that have the potential to significantly scale up their sustainability practices. Such factors risk discouraging investment in transition activities, which are crucial for decarbonising emerging markets in the Asia Pacific.

Beyond benchmarks relating to sustainability, there are significant divergences in global regulations when it comes to environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk assessment standards and priorities. For example, the UK emphasises climate risk mitigation in its regulatory statements, whereas Singapore and Hong Kong have focused on broader environmental considerations. The regulations also vary in terms of the scope of examined exposures, timeframes, and granularity of analyses.

Asia’s policymakers in recent months have stepped up efforts towards international coordination on taxonomies, as evidenced by the ongoing talks between the European Investment Bank and People’s Bank of China to align their definitions of green finance. Nonetheless, we are a long way away from developing a common global framework that allows flexibility for regional specificities. Therefore, Asian investors need to examine global green finance regulations within the context of local operational realities in the coming years. This would enable them to make informed comparisons between different needs of developed and emerging markets.

Sustainability reporting conundrum Asia's slow progress in developing robust region and industry-specific sustainability definitions and metrics can have unintended consequences. The currently fragmented global ESG reporting regime has created a dynamic ecosystem of standard setters, data aggregators and third-party risk providers. These entities define ESG topics differently and apply varied methodologies in their ratings and assessments.

Hence the information provided to investors about a company's sustainability performance can often be skewed.

These issues have the potential to erode the long-term efficacy of green finance in Asia. To mitigate the impact of such challenges, foreign investors and companies will need to map their exposure to market-related ESG issues and focus their risk management on what matters most in the local context. This will involve a risk-based approach to third-party and supply chain screening and efforts to identify and gather the appropriate data to inform their ESG reporting priorities and processes.

These issues also pose unique challenges to companies in Asia. Businesses are likely to receive mixed signals about stakeholder expectations and the sustainability actions valued by the market. Consequently, they will set their ESG reporting priorities either to refute or reinforce the narrative told by the ESG ratings and analytics providers instead of assessing their actual ESG performance based on risks most material to the company's operations.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Reema is a Senior Analyst in Control Risks' Singapore office. She plays a key role in expanding the firms services in the Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) risk space and works alongside clients to strengthen their in-house ESG processes. Reema has significant experience in macro and sector-specific political risk assessments, public policy advisory, stakeholder mapping and engagement. She also advises clients on critical political, regulatory risks that may affect their operations and exposure to regulatory enforcement. Reema is a regular commentator for Control Risks in Asia, speaking and writing regularly on ESG, business and broader political-economic trends in APAC.

Control Risks is a specialist global risk consultancy that helps to create secure, compliant and resilient organisations in an age of ever-changing risk. Working across disciplines, technologies and geographies, everything we do is based on our belief that taking risks is essential to our clients’ success. We provide our clients with the insight to focus resources and ensure they are prepared to resolve the issues and crises that occur in any ambitious global organisation. We go beyond problem-solving and provide the insight and intelligence needed to realise opportunities and grow. Visit www.controlrisks. com

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY THE CHALLENGES FOR GREEN FINANCE IN ASIA PACIFIC

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY 30 BY 30: ACHIEVING URBAN FOOD SECURITY IN A CLIMATE CRISIS ERA

30 by 30: Achieving Urban Food Security in a Climate Crisis Era

Education on food production and consumption will be key to success

Chintan Raveshia Cities Business Leader, Southeast Asia Arup

In this article Chintan shares how Arup's multi-stakeholder approach with food producers, distributors, start-ups, government and academia, coalesced in the world’s first Urban Food Masterplan Framework for Singapore in 2019, and how it may help the city-state meet its ambitious ’30 by 30’ food security goals.

Arup’s findings: • Singapore’s small, highly populated footprint provides an excellent testbed and benchmark to explore new approaches to urban food production.

• Achieving long-term urban food security requires circular design principles across systems of energy use, water, waste, industry, and employment.

• From high-tech production to community gardening, changes in cultural and social behaviour will be required as new food production processes come to fruition.

Creating a local and resilient food supply chain Singapore is a small and highly urbanised state that imports 90% of its food. This reliance on imports makes it particularly vulnerable to shocks and stressors such as the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. However, this challenge is not faced by Singapore alone. With 68% of the world’s population projected to live in urban

areas by 2050, Singapore is already dealing with problems many other cities will face in the next 50 years.

How can cities match food requirements with zero-carbon goals?

“On top of that, agriculture uses 70% of the world’s fresh water. In a climate emergency, we must start managing food more sustainably,” said Chintan Raveshia, Arup’s Cities Business Leader in Southeast Asia.

To address the issue, Singapore, in 2018 introduced a target to produce 30% of its nutritional needs locally by 2030. Helping to make this ambition a reality, Arup has been working with stakeholders such as food startups, financing entities and venture capitalists, and government agencies such as Singapore Food Agency and Centre for Liveable Cities to understand the changes needed. The results were collated in the Urban Food Production Masterplan Framework Arup released in 2019.

Arup set out with an objective to understand the link between resilience and food. There is a need to match resource requirements around space, water, electricity, and transport with goals around food security, city resilience, zero-carbon and the circular economy. To help decision makers and city planners make the transitions needed, the team developed a framework that included a series of design interventions, planning guidelines and policy advice that is economically, socially, and environmentally feasible.

“The masterplan is ambitious,” says Chintan. “It addresses the problem from a country-wide perspective, looking at food supply across the spectrum: from large-scale production to community farms. But beyond that, it is a framework designed to be a practical manual for implementation.” Using Singapore as a benchmark, the report highlights how resilience and food security are deeply entangled globally.

This is where a country with a strong start-up environment, like Singapore, can bring agricultural tech, water and energy specialists together to solve these problems and contribute to changing our food culture and social expectations.

Advanced tools can also be used to help streamline and strengthen processes in the supply chain. Digital tools for instance could link up farms and business to better track shelf life and strengthen supply chain efficiency.

Using advanced monitoring devices, urban vertical farms use 70% less water than conventional farming.

Importantly, the framework identified that to achieve success, all stakeholders from high-tech, conventional and community farmers, distributors, financing entities, government, and academia, would need to be part of the same conversation. It recognised their requirements, needs and purpose, and emphasised for all stakeholders to collaborate.

The success of food resilience in Singapore does not only depend on local food production and the introduction of novel foods, but also on the sustained consumption of those products. Novel foods including plantbased and cultured meats that seek to replace environmentally intensive foods like beef could bring huge benefits for the planet and its ecosystems.

Complementing local agriculture, these novel foods have the potential to optimise land use, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and have a guilt-free appeal for the ethically minded. These cultured meats do, however, require a lot of water to produce at this juncture.

But social acceptance of local produce and novel foods still has some ways to go in the Singapore food story. There are reservations about new sources of protein or fibre, as well as the price and quality of local produce. Fostering a deeper understanding of what is required to grow food can help with making the transition. “There is work to be done to enable people to take these changes on board,” Chintan says.

“People will be more willing to give up year-round access to a seasonal fruit like apples if they have a better understanding of the broader context.”

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Click on the image to watch the replay of our webinar

But social acceptance of local produce and novel foods still has some ways to go in the Singapore food story. There are reservations about new sources of protein or fibre, as well as the price and quality of local produce. Fostering a deeper understanding of what is required to grow food can help with making the transition. “There is work to be done to enable people to take these changes on board,” Chintan says.

“People will be more willing to give up year-round access to a seasonal fruit like apples if they have a better understanding of the broader context.”

On this front, the framework looks at the importance of enriching people’s immediate relationship with food production. It suggests that community involvement, such as having children help to water and weed a community garden alongside their grandparents could help build an understanding of food production, while giving social connection and community spirit a big boost. It also addresses a global problem by offering local solutions and in doing so, helps the city-state meet selected United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). This includes SDG 2: Zero Hunger via sustainable food production systems and resilient agriculture, and SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production, to reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

Singapore can set the benchmark for other countries looking at food security Following testing in Singapore, Arup is already working to bring the framework to other cities such as the new capital of Indonesia. With climate change and population growth likely to catalyse global change in land use and food production, the team ensured that the framework can also be applied in less dense countries with more direct access to land. Vast countries including Australia, already experiencing a change in arable land availability, are expressing interest.

If action is taken now, high-tech, conventional and community farmers, distributors, financing entities, government and academia can help improve policies and social perspectives to enable urban food production before cities reach a crisis point. Working together as a collective, there are opportunities to implement new ways of providing food security, and in doing so, increase resilience through a more integrated and circular approach to water, electricity, and transport connections.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE COMPANY

An architect and urban designer, Chintan has worked with governments to shape and implement national, regional and precinct-level urban planning and design strategies, and deepened his local understanding and knowledge across many geographies. In 19 years, he collaborated on and led some of the most iconic projects around the world including the Indonesia new capital city, UK's High-Speed 2 and Smart Urban Habitat Masterplan in Singapore. Passionate about climate action, Chintan is undertaking research that galvanises the built environment against climate risks while exploring opportunities in food resilience and active mobility. He is also a World Cities Summit Young Leader, and a visiting lecturer at the National University of Singapore.

Arup is an independent firm of 15,000 designers, planners, engineers, architects, consultants and technical specialists, working on projects across every aspect of the built environment in more than 140 countries worldwide. With over 50 years of city-shaping excellence in Singapore, Arup has earned a reputation for our pioneering innovations and fresh approaches to complex challenges. Our pursuit of quality is reflected in our award-winning portfolio comprising of the Singapore Sports Hub, Marina Bay Sands, Downtown Line, Thomson-East Coast Line, The Helix, and Singapore Flyer. Arup’s success in Singapore is founded on our delivery of global and local expertise, and we now have over 400 staff offering a suite of specialist services – helping our clients to realise exciting ideas as we strive together to shape a better world. Visit www.arup.com for more.

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Getting to True Zero Carbon in the Built Environment

Pei Ya Boon Sustainability Manager, Arcadis

To meet the Paris Agreement objectives, the built environment sector needs to reach net-zero emissions across all activities in the building and construction system. Systemic change needs to happen to reduce both operational and embodied carbon.

This includes the wider adoption of circular economy principles and nature-based solutions.

Above: Triodos Bank, a reconstructable office building in Netherlands

Have you ever walked past a construction site and marvelled at the amount of material piled up at the site waiting to be used? Or thought about how far the material could have travelled to get here? Or going beyond that, all the work and transport needed to extract the raw materials for manufacture into products like cement and steel in the first place?

Each of these stages requires energy consumption which in turn results in the production of greenhouse gas emissions.

These carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions that are released during the non-operational phase of a project are known as ‘embodied carbon’. This includes the aforementioned manufacturing and transportation phases but also the construction, maintenance, repair and end of life phases. These emissions contribute around 11% of all global energy-related carbon emissions and 28% of building sector emissions1. In Singapore, where the lifespan of buildings is shorter due to urban renewal, embodied carbon emissions could be higher at up to 40% of building sector emissions2.

Moreover, as building operations becomes more efficient and energy sources become greener, embodied carbon is estimated to become the sector’s dominant climate impact driver. For context, the built environment sector is currently responsible for close to 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions3.

With the latest IPCC report sounding the code red for humanity that the window of opportunity for climate action is fast closing, the built environment sector needs to accelerate its efforts in contributing to a zero carbon world4. This means decarbonizing the whole lifecycle of our built assets, addressing not only operational carbon, but also embodied carbon.

In Singapore, whilst there has been momentum on reducing operational carbon, with the Building and Construction Authority (BCA)’s super low energy program in place since 2018 and the country’s first new-build net zero energy building in the National University of Singapore constructed in 2019, the push for embodied carbon reductions is still in its nascen-

cy. Just like operational carbon, tackling embodied carbon requires systemic change and is more complicated than tackling operational carbon, given the multiple stakeholders5 that need to play their part. For example, material manufacturers need to invest in research and development of new low carbon materials and disclose the embodied carbon footprint of their products whilst designers need to publicly share life cycle assessment data and propose best practise embodied carbon reduction measures, including implementing circularity principles1.

Industry organizations such as the Singapore Green Building Council and Urban Land Institute Asia Pacific have both recently launched embodied carbon initiatives to help amplify and unify industry action. Arcadis, with our sustainability ambition to accelerate the transition to a net zero world in a way that improves quality of life for all, is a signatory to both initiatives. We are committed to supporting our clients in their journey towards whole lifecycle decarbonization.

Our award winning6 quantity surveying team recognizes that quantity surveyors have the unique opportunity to expand our current service of providing insight on cost drivers, the estimated overall cost of a project, and the current state of the construction materials market, to include the cost of embodied carbon. Given the national and local embodied carbon

regulations in Europe7, Arcadis, as a global consultancy, has experience in whole life carbon assessments of projects and we hope to bring that service to more clients in Singapore and the rest of Asia.

Transforming our built environment from the current linear model to a circular one is also key to reducing embodied carbon. The value of materials in buildings can be retained through designing buildings dynamically and flexibly, a concept known as buildings as material banks. An example is Triodos Bank office in Netherlands, one of the world’s first large-scale, 100% wood, reconstructable office buildings.

Materials were selected and planned with re-use in mind, and as a building held together by screws, it is possible to dismantle the building without producing waste. Arcadis led the landscape architecture advisory, spatial planning, environmental research and green building (BREEAM) certification.

Lastly, addressing impacts on nature has synergistic effects with climate action and should always be considered. For NIKE Wings Distribution Center in Belgium for example, Arcadis advised on nature-based solutions to attain no net loss for biodiversity. Arcadis provided consultancy for landscaping, biodiversity measures and biodiversity design. To drive the wider nature positive agenda, Arcadis is also part of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)’s Nature Action Project, which is developing nature

positive roadmaps for various sectors, including the built environment.

A true zero carbon future is one where all new buildings, infrastructure and renovations are both net zero operational and embodied carbon, just as envisioned in The World Green Building Council’s 2050 target for the industry1. With the adoption of circularity principles and nature positive measures, we can accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future. Because there is no planet B. Footnotes:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront (2019) World Green Building Council In Focus: Is there an environmental cost from Singapore’s love affair with en bloc sales? (2021) Channel News Asia 2020 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction. Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction How the Built Environment Must Respond to the IPCC’s 2021 Climate Change Report (2021) Arcadis The Building System Carbon Framework (2020) World Business Council for Sustainable Development Arcadis 2nd Consecutive Win as Quantity Surveying Team of the Year at the RICS Decarbonizing Construction: Guidance for Investors and Developers to Reduce Embodied Carbon (2021) World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Below: Nike Wings Distrubtion Centre, a no net loss for biodiversity project in Belgium

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Pei Ya is the regional corporate sustainability lead for Arcadis Asia.

She is responsible for translating Arcadis’ global sustainability strategy into regional programs and goals. She drives Arcadis Asia’s carbon reduction plan as part of Arcadis’ global net zero by 2035 goal and supports Arcadis’ key business lines and client development team in integrating sustainability into client solutions in Asia. Pei Ya also supports the sustainability advisory team, helping clients spanning the real estate industry to the investment industry in sustainability strategy development and sustainability reporting.

Arcadis is the leading global design & consultancy organization for natural and built assets. We maximize impact for our clients and the communities they serve by providing effective solutions through sustainable outcomes, focus and scale, and digitalization. We are over 27,000 people, active in more than 70 countries that generate €3.3 billion in revenues. We support UN-Habitat with knowledge and expertise to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world. Visit www.arcadis.com for more.

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PREPARING YOUR BUSINESS IN A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD - THE ESG LENS

How boards can drive more robust climate risk disclosures

Preparing Your Business in a Post-Pandemic World – The ESG Lens

Boards can help address gaps in the quality of climate risk disclosures by focusing on three key areas.

Thinking sustainability is good for the planet and your P&L The pandemic has turned the spotlight on many critical sustainability issues we face alongside the growing concern about how these challenges might accelerate in the future for businesses.

In times like this, company leadership during this Covid-19 crisis should sharpen their focus on the adoption of environmental, social and governance – the risks and opportunities.

ESG is heading mainstream as the growing interest from the investor piques beyond robust risk management but practices, progress and challenges that intertwine the environment, health and economy. There is a noticeable trend that smaller, medium-sized businesses are seeing the benefits of being green conscious that open new doors for growth. The big agenda on sustainability is no longer limited to listed companies.

Fergus Boyd, Investment Management Partner of UK accounting firm, Smith & Williamson, said: "Investors are taking a holistic approach to investment analysis, where material factors – both ESG and traditional financial information, are identified and assessed to form a responsible investment decision."

The distinct differences exist based on your investment needs evolving beyond traditional financial measures that may have a material impact on the performance of that investment. Fergus also notes that there has been an increase of younger generations emphasizing the importance of environmental and social impacts, and more clients are demanding transparency about how and where money is invested.

It goes to show that ESG is the business plan for the planet. Embracing sustainability is not a distant goal but a journey that strengthens the resilience of our communities and businesses. A common struggle that companies may face while attempting to identify these goals are the key material topics to report on, cited Pamela Chen, Head of Internal Audit, Nexia TS.

Nexia TS speaks to sustainability professionals and business leaders at a recent webinar titled, 'The 3Ps of Preparing Your Business in a Post-Covid World'. "As leaders, we need to prepare our business to cope in a post-Covid world – in terms of mentally, strategically and sustainably," said Henry Tan, Group CEO & Chief Innovation Officer of Nexia TS. "If we did not react to the challenges arising from this pandemic to make a better change to our business, to strive and do better than the last, this pandemic would have gone to waste."

She adds, "ESG revolves around the company's value – what drives the company. An example of a value driver would be people – talent. This cascades down to your employee engagement which translates as a social topic in your sustainability framework."

While most are spurred to invest responsibly however often baffled by the industry terms bodied around by professionals and clients alike. Through the lens of an investment professional,

On the other hand, accountability is key to sustainability claims where companies can't just talk the talk and not walk the walk. The ability to substantiate the claim and demonstrate clarity in such

disclosures are vital to investors. Greenwashing is becoming a tipping point for some companies who are exposed to making false or misleading claims on being environmentally friendly than they really are.

Instead of slowing our progress towards achieving sustainability goals, verification mechanisms are essential to avoid deceptive marketing. "ESG is all about mindset," said Daphne Ng, Co-founder of Dedoco. "The 's' (social) component is in relation to your stakeholders – customers, investors and employees. This will set the tone on how a company can organise their ESG strategies." The rise in caring for the greater good matters to everyone in the planet. It is no longer an option but something that all of us cannot afford to ignore.

ABOUT THE COMPANY Founded in 1993, Nexia TS today is recognised as an established accounting and advisory firm. Headquartered in Singapore, the firm has strong presence in various countries across the region. Nexia TS Shanghai is a one-stop centre providing advisory services for foreign-invested enterprises in China. NTS Malaysia and NTS Myanmar provide a full suite of corporate advisory services for clientele with operations and new foreign investments in the respective countries. Being an independent member firm of Nexia International also means that we have more than 35,400 staff serving clients at 752 offices in 128 countries. It is ranked as the 8th largest international accounting and consulting network. For more information, visit www.nexiats.com.sg.

Simon Yeo EY Asean Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader; Partner, Assurance, Ernst & Young LLP

Climate risks are moving up the boardroom agenda as companies face increasing pressure to tackle climate change more proactively. Investors are increasingly interested in how organizations plan to contribute to a decarbonized economy and would reconsider or even walk away from investments based on climate risk. Likewise, employees, customers and other stakeholders expect corporate leaders to lead the way in addressing climate change.

Clearly, businesses need to widen their view of both physical and transition climate risks, and the opportunities that may arise from responding to these risks. Board leadership is critical for guiding organizations in decarbonizing their business models and supply chains. There are three ways in which boards can drive more robust climate risk disclosures and position the company to better navigate climate risks and leverage opportunities.

With the fast-growing urgency of climate action, businesses must understand their climate risks and opportunities, speed up their implementation of climate strategies and communicate their performance. Amid this shift, companies continue to make progress in both the quality and coverage of their climate-related financial disclosures, according to the June 2021 EY Global Climate Risk Disclosure Barometer. The research draws on companies’ public disclosures — such as in annual reports, sustainability reports and CDP responses — on the uptake of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations and covers more than 1,100 companies across 42 countries.

Connect climate reporting more directly with risks and opportunities

But the quality of these disclosures still lags behind coverage of the TCFD recommendations, and Singapore is no exception. An analysis of more than 90 listed and non-listed companies across 11 sectors in Singapore found that while the companies’ disclosures covered 45% of the TCFD recommendations on average, the average quality score across the organizations was only 18% of the maximum quality score across the 11 recommendations. These findings suggest that companies in Singapore still find it challenging to come to grips with their exposure to climate risks and act on it.

The research found that many organizations still lacked reporting on metrics directly connected to risks. While disclosing the company’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions (i.e., direct emissions from controlled sources and indirect emissions from purchased electricity respectively) is critical, it is equally important to disclose metrics that are used to assess its exposure to physical risks like the weighted average carbon intensity metric, which measures exposure to carbon-intensive companies. A more rigorous assessment may be required to develop the climate-related financial disclosures that drive behavioral change. Boards should assess whether sufficient coverage is given to both the risks and opportunities in the company’s climate reporting to allow the business to better assess the potential impact on the corporate strategy.

Another common pitfall is that companies may be limiting climate risk assessments to certain parts of the business and only including qualitative analyses. Clearly, there is a need to widen the scope of assessment as physical and transition risks from climate change can have an impact on

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SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY HOW BOARDS CAN DRIVE MORE ROBUST CLIMATE RISK DISCLOSURES products and services, supply chains and operations across the organization, materially affecting operating costs and revenues.

Review climate risks and opportunities across the value chain Companies should look beyond their internal operations when assessing climate risks and opportunities. In fact, the upstream and downstream emissions in most organizations’ value chains (Scope 3) are much higher than those from their own operations (Scope 1 and Scope 2). Boards should evaluate if the executive team has reviewed the value chain holistically to identify material climate risks and opportunities, and whether suppliers are actively involved in their decarbonization process.

This won’t be a straightforward task as many businesses currently have opaque supply chains. But with increasing stakeholder scrutiny on value chain emissions, particularly in carbon-intensive and consumer-facing industries, the board needs to work with the management to actively pursue decarbonization strategies throughout the company’s value chain.

Analyze climate scenarios for robust risk assessment Scenario analysis is important for companies to understand how future climate risks can potentially impact their business and supply chain activities, and should inform risk assessment, strategy formulation and investment decisions.

Yet, only 17.2% of the organizations in Singapore assessed in the study are conducting scenario analysis. This is of concern, given that scenario analysis is perhaps the most critical aspect of the TCFD framework as it helps turn theories into tangible strategies.

Boards should mandate climate-related financial disclosures to be included in mainstream financial filings. Climate risk information should also be included in financial statement estimates and assumptions, including asset impairment

models or asset depreciation models. So far, companies have had limited progress on this front.

Companies should also stress test their business models against the different climate scenarios. Depending on the level of climate risk disclosure, boards can then guide their organizations to move toward operating models, revenue streams and markets that are better positioned for a decarbonized economy, and wind down operations with high climate risk exposure.

With growing political will and public opinion pressuring businesses to tackle climate change urgently, a strong uptick in climate-related financial disclosures looks likely.

Companies will be expected to assess and fully disclose the physical and financial risks that climate change poses to their assets. They will need to demonstrate a robust strategy that protects value and makes commercial sense in a decarbonized economy. Boards that can guide their organizations to respond nimbly in this way will help the business improve its operational resilience, expand its customer base, and maintain access to institutional capital.

Introducing Dulwich College (Singapore)'s new SE21 Innovation Hub Contributed by Kai White Manager Manager of of Sustainability Sustainability and and Global Global Citizenship Citizenship at Education in Motion (EiM), Dulwich at Education College in Motion (Singapore) (EiM)

Boards should ask the following questions: • •

•

• •

What are the organization’s risks and opportunities as a result of climate change in the short, medium and long term?

What are the current processes used by the organization to identify, assess and manage climate-related risks and to what extent are these processes integrated into the company’s risk management framework?

What are the top emission reduction levers in the company’s value chain and how can the business work with its supply chain partners more closely to involve them in its decarbonization journey?

What internal governance structures are in place to foster deeper engagement with the senior management on climate-related issues?

Are the organization’s disclosures robust enough to address the needs of stakeholders and provide “decision-useful”, forward-looking information?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Simon is EY Asean Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader and an Assurance Partner at Ernst & Young LLP in Singapore. He helps to manage sustainability advisory services for key SGX-listed companies across diverse industries, MNCs as well as companies in the public sector. His transaction advisory experience includes due diligence as well as business valuations for M&As and divestments in Southeast Asia. Simon is a fellow member of Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants and CPA Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Accountancy from National University of Singapore.

EY exists to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets. Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate. Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today. Find out more at www.ey.com.

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SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY INTRODUCING DULWICH COLLEGE (SINGAPORE)'S NEW SE21 INNOVATION HUB At Dulwich College (Singapore) we are excited to announce that work has started on the building of our new SE21 Innovation Hub. This seven-storey state-of-the-art structure will provide additional creative learning spaces, including a 400seat multi-purpose auditorium, a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) workshop to accommodate our SE21 initiative (STEAM and Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century), a professional teaching kitchen, film and media suites, three additional black box theatres, IT rooms, another gymnasium, tennis courts and a sports science laboratory.

It will also include a vast two-storey IB library, workspaces, study rooms and social areas for our pre-university students.

Sustainability and global citizenship is embedded across our whole organisation. Our goal is to encourage our communities to make informed choices, take inspired action and create positive impact on a personal, group and global level. As part of our journey towards a sustainable future, we made the commitment to make our new building at Dulwich both Green Mark Platinum certified (the highest sustainable construction certification), and a net-zero energy building.

Through this commitment we not only set the standard for our existing and future schools, but we also hope to inspire other education groups to make similar commitments for a sustainable future. Everything, from its architectural design, construction materials and function, has sustainability and global citizenship permeating through it.

The biggest challenge was achieving a net-zero building with the limited space on campus to install renewable energy sources. Through working with sustainable design and architecture experts, we managed to find innovative ways to maximise our renewable energy production. On the building itself, the architects have designed an eco-envelope to surround the building to maximise our total solar panel area.

Additionally, by installing more solar panels across our entire campus, we have maximised the amount of renewable energy we are able to produce on site. However, despite maximising our renewable energy output, we still had to reduce the energy usage of the building in order to match the amount of energy the solar panels are able to produce and reach net-zero.

To minimise energy usage, we had to implement numerous energy saving technologies and designs. On top of installing efficient lighting systems, we wanted to reduce the need for artificial lighting by maximising natural lighting. Through installing light shafts that run across the top floor of the building and putting in a central atrium that runs through the centre of the building, light is able to permeate the entire building. The atrium also provides natural ventilation to keep the building cool and reduce the need for air conditioning systems. We are also able to drastically increase our energy efficiency by using passive cooling technologies, energy-saving chiller systems and environmental sensors linked to a smart building management system. All of these innovations work together to significantly reduce the energy usage of the building and have allowed us to achieve net-zero. To reduce our water usage, we are installing a rain-water harvesting system to collect rain water and recycle it for irrigation. We are also committing to use sustainable building materials, such as mass engineered timber, mixed low-carbon concrete and recycled wood or plastic for interior design and furniture to reduce our waste and carbon footprint in the process.

Most importantly, to engage our students and community

with sustainability, we will be including several sustainable initiatives in this build.

For our cooking classes and CCAs we have put in a working kitchen where we will have an on-site hydroponic farm to grow several different plants and herbs for students to harvest and experiment with in making plant based meals. We will even have a mushroom chamber to grow and use mushrooms as the base for plant based meats!

We hope that the new SE21 Innovation Hub will expose our students to the many exciting developments and opportunities in the sustainability field, no matter what area of interest they have. We are not only teaching our students about global issues, but also making our students aware of the local and global efforts being made to solve them. By engaging our students early with these global issues and solutions, we hope to provide the necessary skills for them to thrive in a forever changing world and better understand their place and purpose on this planet.

The roof of the building will have a full edible forest based on woodland ecosystems for our students to engage in foraging for fruits and nuts to expose them to a more natural form of food production, instead of the more commonly seen farmed foods. To deal with any food waste from the edible forest, a vermi-composter and an insect farm will be incorporated into the roof garden where we will be breeding black soldier flies. The larva from the black soldier flies will then be fed to the fish in the pond, where the water is also used to irrigate the forest, creating a circular ecosystem on the roof for our students to engage with.

For further engagement with the building, we have also included several new innovations in the sustainability field such as energy generating floor tiles and energy generating gym equipment. The floor tiles will be linked to a screen in the lobby of the building and will show the amount of energy that is produced when students walk across them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Kai is the Manager of Sustainability and Global Citizenship for Education in Motion (EiM). His journey in sustainability started in biology class in Dulwich College Shanghai PX watching an episode of Planet Earth, narrated by his hero David Attenborough. He developed an almost obsessive curiosity with the ocean and the way different ecosystems interact, which led to several sustainability courses and eventually a degree in biology from the University of Washington. He then went on to serve as a Naval Officer for 2 years and realized that even in the military, where you are taught about morals and discipline every day, we would still be forced to dump our trash over board in international waters due to the lack of waste infrastructure at the ports. It was a huge shock to find out how little the environment is considered when building our economies and societies. In the end this all boils down to education. In his opinion, we are not taught to think about sustainability or the environment from a very young age and this has led to where the world is today.

As a leading education group, there is a responsibility to equip students with the necessary skills to thrive in a world where sustainability is already a need. To do so, on top of embedding sustainable practices within the schools, the group has also started the process of both Environmental, Social and Governance reporting and group carbon mapping. These initiatives, amongst many other projects like the DCSG net-zero Phase 3 building, are to set and achieve the ultimate goal of becoming a leader in pioneering education for a sustainable future.

ABOUT THE COMPANY Similarly, we have put self-powering gym equipment into the sports facility that charges an internal battery when being used, as well as showing the power generated during different movements.

Another exciting initiative being brought in is the plastic recycling machine from the “Sea Monkey Project” to engage our students with the design side of sustainability. Through the collection of external waste plastic, our students will be able to recycle the plastic into either art projects or possibly even products to be resold!

Education in Motion is a global education company that aspires to be a leader in pioneering education for a sustainable future. What started as a single Dulwich College school in Shanghai has now grown to a family of premier education brands, nurturing more than 10,300 students to Live Worldwise. Our vision at EiM is to pioneer Worldwise education solutions that are innovative, creative and world-changing, with the goal of inspiring and empowering students with the passion, skills and opportunities to make a difference in the world. To do this, we are committed to investing in and developing education brands with diverse focus areas, but a strong common commitment to the global sustainability agenda.

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RESPONDING POSITIVELY TO INCREASING DEMANDS FOR SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT

Responding Positively to Increasing Demands for Sustainable Investment

Sustainable finance has been on a journey of evolution both in Asia and across the globe and, in recent times, a series of factors are combining to fuel faster growth.

Informed by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focus has grown increasingly over a number of years on how re-wiring the financial system can help accelerate solutions to global issues, not only biodiversity loss and climate change, but other complex problems such as inequality and poverty. This shift in thinking is noticeable in the statistics.

For instance, between 2016 and 2018 the value of sustainable investment assets managed globally grew 34% to more than US$30 trillion. (Global Sustainable Investment Alliance’s Review 2018) During the last 18 months, the momentum has been further stepped up as a result of both the increasing visible evidence of climate change and especially by the pandemic; a factor which has given governments the difficult task of rebuilding economies while limiting further damage to the planet’s ecosystem. In terms of climate change, the COP26 conference in November may prove to be a pivotal event in tackling the problem.

Mainstream The impact of all these developments is to bring sustainable finance further into the spotlight and move it increasingly into mainstream public consciousness.

In relation to sustainability, commentators have suggested COVID-19 has sharpened the focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria and practice within financial services, embedding sustainable finance as a strategic priority, and adding greater sophistication in an area where there is still plenty of scope for progress in terms of weighting across the E, S and G strands, as well as better measurement and evaluation.

Supported by improvements in ESG standards, greener investments are becoming an increasing priority as the industry responds to investor demand for portfolios and

investments that make a positive impact.

There is plenty of evidence for this acceleration in ESG investing. According to recent research from Deutchse Bank and GSIA, ESG assets are forecast to exceed US$100 trillion by 2028* and US$150 trillion by 2034, and already one in every three US dollars currently invested takes account of ESG factors (Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (2020)). Meanwhile, another encouraging statistic has been revealed in analysis from S&P Global markets intelligence, which found that during the pandemic, ESG funds were found to have achieved gains of up to 20.1%, outperforming traditional funds.

Asian markets are showing intent also. Studiesshow that the Asian wealth management community, especially the next generation (NextGen), have embraced the move in that direction. In research Jersey Finance conducted last year in association with the Asian financial publisher Hubbis, entitled ‘The Evolution of Wealth Management in the World of Islamic Finance - Views from the Islamic Finance Wealth Management Community’, 69% of respondents indicated that between a quarter and three quarters of the NextGen financial investment portfolios will be centred on ethical, impactful or ESG investments. While within the funds sector, asset managers are increasingly reviewing their products, domiciles and fund administration solutions in line with the critical success factors demanded by sustainable investing.

Maria McDermott Business Development, Asia, Jersey Finance

Cities’ initiative and is pursuing a carbon-neutral strategy.

We have responded also as an industry and implemented a new ten-year strategy with the ultimate objective of being recognised by clients, key stakeholders and other partners as the leading sustainable IFC in the markets we serve.

Collaboration The intention going forward is to build partnerships with stakeholders, to integrate sustainability across sectors, to enhance collaboration, implement independent performance measurements and to make investment in the depth of skills needed even more of a priority to help in meeting changing investor strategies. Collaboration with government, regulator and other parties will be vital in meeting our ambitions.

For example, as ESG priorities accelerate, investors will have mounting concerns about the dangers of green washing and will want reassurance about how their investments are deployed. Jersey service providers, working with the digital industry, are developing the measurement and analysis tools necessary which will provide investors with the confidence they seek.

To further support this new strategic approach, Jersey’s financial regulator, the Jersey Financial Services Commission, recently made changes to a number of its Codes of Practice, with the aim to counteract the potential for greenwashing by supporting sustainable finance through a commercially viable disclosure regime.

New landscape The landscape for financial services has been re-shaped in this new post-COVID era and there is no turning back. The same is true within Asian economies as it is for those in the West. IFCs, which have often been the preferred location for cross-border investment solutions, will need to be nimble if they are going to meet the challenge. They will need the right frameworks that are committed to the cause of sustainable investments, complemented by the new supporting tools and evaluation services. If they respond accordingly, while also maintaining robust yet flexible regulatory regimes that meet the global standards expected, they can play an important role in channeling funds where they will make a positive difference.

International finance centres

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ABOUT THE COMPANY

International finance centres (IFCs) have a vital role to play in meeting these new objectives, including within Asian markets, provided they respond to the global shift towards a greener, more inclusive economy and they reflect this new ESG thinking.

Maria is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and an associate member of the Chartered Governance Institute. Born in Jersey, she has more than twenty years’ experience working in the international finance industry and is experienced in investment funds, private wealth, compliance, risk management and project management. Based in Asia for the last ten years, having transferred from Ogier Fiduciary Services Jersey to develop their fiduciary services business in Hong Kong, Maria has also worked for various listed entities and financial service providers in Singapore and Shanghai, where she is now based full time.

Jersey Finance is proud to work with key partners to represent and promote Jersey, a forward-thinking international finance centre.

We champion the competitive position of Jersey's finance industry, both locally and internationally, supporting the highest regulatory standards and the most attractive products and services to suit the needs of global investors. We have a global presence with offices in Jersey, Dubai, Hong Kong and New York; representation in London and Johannesburg; and virtual offices in Shanghai and Mumbai. For more information visit www.jerseyfinance.je.

By way of example, Jersey, one of the long established IFCs and one with strong links with Asian investors, has recognised the importance of embedding sustainability into its approach for some time. At a government level, it has taken part in the United Nations ‘United 4 Smart Sustainable

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY RESPONDING POSITIVELY TO INCREASING DEMANDS FOR SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY - COMMITTEE CONTENT COP26 PRIMER: 26 WAYS TECHNOLOGY IS CONTRIBUTING TO SUSTAINABILITY

Committee Content: COP26 Primer -26 ways Technology is Contributing to Sustainability It has been a significant year for sustainability momentum, where technology and innovation is key in enabling sustainable solutions as we continue to progress on the Road to Net Zero. With COP26 almost upon us our ICT, Sustainability and Energy & Utilities committees set the challenge of identifying 26 ways that technologies contribute to sustainability, which BritCham members can either engage with, delve deeper into, or apply to daily practices.

Derek Murray

Digital Advisory Lead, Mott MacDonald and Chair, BritCham ICT Committee

Lorena Paglia

Regional Engagement Leader Customer Experience and Sustainability, Microsoft and Chair, BritCham Sustainability Committee

Mark Florance

Investment Committee, Climate Investor One and Co-Chair, BritCham Sustainability and Energy and Utilities Committees

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY - COMMITTEE CONTENT COP26 PRIMER: 26 WAYS TECHNOLOGY IS CONTRIBUTING TO SUSTAINABILITY

for Sustainability Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability: Empowering organizations on their path to net zero The Official Microsoft Blog.

Thought Provoking Impacts

18 So, how well do you know your

device? Find out via London Design Museum Award for 2019 Anatomy of an AI System - Design Museum.

19 Cryptocurrencies and the energy that is consumed How Bitcoin's vast energy use could burst its bubble - BBC News.

20 With the launch of the iPhone 13, Apple has taken the step to reduce the use of plastic in its packaging and relies on recycled materials for the manufacture of the device itself.

How Does The New iPhone 13 Fare In Apple's Sustainability Efforts? - iPhone 13 Product Environmental Report (apple. com).

21 Whilst it is something we’re all very used to by now (not necessarily by choice), it appears that there are environmental benefits of meeting clients and colleagues virtually, rather than jumping on a plane or driving to the office for an in-person meeting.

Perhaps a strong case for the future of hybrid work.

• Working From Home During the Pandemic Has Environmental Benefits — But We Can Do Even Better (The Revelator) • Just How Green is Video Conferencing? New Study Explores the Environmental Impact of Large

•

Online Meetings (RESET.org) What’s the environmental impact of your weekly Zoom meeting? (livemint.com)

BritCham Sustainability Events with discussion and debate

22 Battery Storage for Asia (23

September) looked at the developing energy storage sector - watch now ondemand.

23 The Future of Green Data Centres

(28 September) looked at Singapore's plans for the Data Centre industry, the energy challenges this poses and how providers are raising to the challenge to ensure Singapore can continue to play a leading role in this global industry without running out of the power needed to support it - watch now ondemand.

24 The Singapore Green Plan 2030, a

Dialogue with Parliamentary Ministers Louis Ng & Li San Poh (22 September). In this in-person session, Ministers Ng and Poh talked openly with members about the need for industry engagement and collaboration to drive Singapore’s 2030 (and beyond) Sustainability Plan. We discussed the 2030 vision and what it means for Singapore, the impact of Carbon, the Green Economy and also, why commercial collaboration, technology and innovation is so important for this to become a reality.

25 Leaders in Business Lunch with Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (8 September).

In the Minister's own words from her social media: "At the Dialogue, I highlighted opportunities for UK companies to collaborate with us in our #SGGreenPlan2030 to advance the global sustainability agenda. I was delighted by BritCham’s Road to Net Zero campaign, and the interest

by UK companies to push ahead on SDGs 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Change). Such actions help move the needle to achieve a sustainable and low-carbon future for Singapore and beyond. It is an important part of our strategy to work with industry to reduce Singapore’s carbon footprint. This includes increasing energy efficiency in areas such as industry and buildings, and strategic land use planning for both nature preservation and urban development. Key initiatives in these sectors include investing in R&D of low-carbon energy technologies, the Singapore Green Building Masterplan, and the OneMillionTrees movement.

Companies can play a leading role in our transition to a greener future by finding innovative ways to reduce carbonintensive practices and developing sustainable products and services for a green economy."

26 As an official part of Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), BritCham is hosting a ThinkTank Roundtable on 28 October: The NetZero COP - Trade Opportunities on the Journey to Decarbonising ASEAN.

Committee Content: Insights from the Energy & Utilities Committee A special double feature for our sustainability issue on energy storage solutions and Singapore's green data centres.

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY - COMMITTEE CONTENT INSIGHTS FROM THE ENERGY & UTILITIES COMMITTEE

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SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY - COMMITTEE CONTENT BATTERY STORAGE FOR ASIA

Battery Storage for Asia Economic energy storage is one of the key technologies to develop and accelerate the achievement of goals for a net-zero world. Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk have all added energy storage to the list of technologies to conquer. In this article the BritCham Energy and Utilities Committee review the sector.

Tim Rockell

Managing Director and Founder, EnergyStrat Asia Pte Ltd, Consultant for KPMG, and Chair, BritCham Energy and Utilities Committee

Storage is a dynamic sector and developing solutions at scale is critical to achieving net-zero. Broadly, energy storage includes the spectrum of Electric Vehicle (EV), grid level and behind the meter batteries, pumped storage, and the burgeoning green hydrogen industry.

Under the Chamber’s Road to Net-Zero campaign, the Energy & Utilities Business Committee convened a panel of experts to walk through battery storage developments globally and, in the region, with a focus on: • the growing opportunities to invest in, develop and finance the future of battery storage in the Asia region, and • the human imperative to accelerate the roll-out of battery technologies and a commercial rationale for doing so.

•

Siobhan Clarke, BP Launchpad, discussed investing in and scaling energy companies. She drew on her experience in sales and strategy roles in start-ups and big tech. Her expertise lies in finding the value exchange and getting the right things done.

Bert Jan Armand Deprest explained that ENGIE’s core mission is to partner with and assist large corporations, industry, businesses and local governments in their energy efficiency, energy management and renewable energy needs by designing and delivering cost effective and sustainable solutions as-a-service in accelerating common ambition and journey towards zero-carbon transition.

Beni Suryadi outlined the role of the ASEAN Centre For Energy. Beni manages two ASEAN major projects: the ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT), the first integrated energy and climate change project in

The Asian region includes countries at very different stages of development, with different operating models for their energy systems, disparate policy objectives and stakeholder interests.

Some countries are further along the path than others on the transition of merchant and state-controlled electricity markets and introducing renewable electricity into the grid. Many face challenges to build a pathway towards net-zero, increase energy capacity and even to ensure consistent, affordable energy access for all.

With over 82 percent of new capacity coming from renewables in ASEAN, storage is becoming an issue to achieve targets and to deal with associated intermittency. Storage is important to drive market development to shift renewably generated electrons around the region through interconnections.

Costs of battery storage are predicted to decline by 30 percent in Asia over the next five years. Battery storage for microgrids is already cost competitive versus the comparative cost of connecting remote islands to the grid.

This is important for the archipelago geography of ASEAN countries. Engie

is running testbeds in Singapore to see how batteries can be incorporated into microgrids.

Adoption of storage at scale is still heavily reliant on government support through fiscal incentives to introduce the technology. However, if costs come down, which we have seen with solar and wind development, we can expect storage to scale and become integrated into the grid, becoming part of renewable electricity project offerings. This will have impacts for feed in tariffs with commercial arrangements reflected in the terms of offtake agreements.

In the merchant markets batteries can pay for themselves as ‘power plants’, trading electricity as prices spike and dip. Exciting developments are also afoot with the emergence of vehicle to grid (V2G) energy technology enabling EVs to become mobile batteries in the next decade.

Battery storage and energy storage more broadly will play an increasing role in the region and offers four key opportunities: 1.

Deferring investment in trans-

2.

3.

4.

mission systems by easing grid congestion.

Reducing curtailment by storing renewable electricity which would otherwise be lost through lack of grid access.

Provide flexibility which coal-heavy power generation systems in Asia cannot achieve.

Enable a smarter grid, combined with smart meters to build increased competition in power markets.

In the broader APAC region, Australia is seeing battery deployment progressing at breakneck speed with recent regulatory changes pushing towards the use of portfolios of varied storage assets, aiming to lower electricity costs.

Exciting policy, technology and market developments are to come in the battery storage sector with predictions for a tremendous pick-up in studies for battery projects, both for those self-invested, or as a service agreement with a large provider. Batteries in the grid, behind the meter, and integrated into transport will surely grow through a constantly developing approach.

Bree Miechel

Partner, Ashurst LLP and BritCham Energy and Utilities Committee member Click on the image to watch the replay of our Battery Storage for Asia webinar, recorded on 23 September and featuring our expert panellists: ASEAN, and the ASEAN Interconnection Masterplan Study (AIMS) III, the regional blueprint for electricity interconnection in the region.

Mauricio Riveros, Carbon Trust, covered some of his experience at the Carbon Trust where he has worked in the low carbon energy sector on several projects related to smart grids, renewables, and storage for a range of high-profile public and private clients, including local governments in the UK, Latin America, and Asia.

• • • • •

Bree Miechel, Partner at Ashurst LLP (Moderator) Siobhan Clarke, Operating Partner at BP Launchpad Bert Jan Armand Deprest, Regional Head of Business Development at Engie Beni Suryadi, Manager, Power Generation, Fossil Fuels, Alternative Energy and Energy Storage at ASEAN Centre for Energy Mauricio Riveros, Senior Manager, Energy Systems at The Carbon Trust

Guests had the opportunity to join breakout group sessions with the panellists to share experiences through networking. This generated some very interesting discussions. One panellist reflected that the session provided more insights within an hour on the topic than had been garnered in the past six months!

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY - COMMITTEE CONTENT BATTERY STORAGE FOR ASIA

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SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY - COMMITTEE CONTENT THE FUTURE OF GREEN DATA CENTRES

The Future of Green Data Centres Singapore and the region's view of the data centre industry

Tim Rockell

Managing Director and Founder, EnergyStrat Asia Pte Ltd, Consultant for KPMG, and Chair, BritCham Energy and Utilities Committee

Singapore is firmly in the digital industry sector, winning a race to attract high tech companies and build its own homegrown clusters of innovative corporations. The government has played its own part in developing innovation with a smart nation and digital government technology agency driving strategy across ministries. This has further led to the development of digital districts such as Punggol.

The attractiveness of Singapore as a key commercial hub for the region creates a demand for secure data storage and management, this has resulted in an explosion of data centres across the island with many more planned in the coming years. Although this has left Singapore with a dilemma.

Data centres are well known energy guzzlers and one of the major contributing factors being the massive airconditioning systems required to cool the large quantities of heat being produced by the IT equipment on a small island with year-round average daily temperatures of 30-34 Celsius. The tropical climate results in 35-40 percent of the energy consumed by a data centre meeting cooling need.

There are around 60 data centres in Singapore with an anticipated growth rate of around five percent. These accounted for around seven percent of Singapore’s electricity demand in 2020 and are additionally a large user of water resources. In 2015 power for data centres in Singapore was 240 MW, rising to 500 MW in 2020 and 700 MW in 2022. By 2030 this is forecast to exceed 1,200 MW, according to estimates by Keppel DC. Whilst Singapore has the power capacity to meet this demand, the challenges of building sufficient renewable energy capacity on a small island has led to a conflict with

Paul Currie

Account Leader, Mott MacDonald and BritCham Energy and Utilities Committee member

attaining Singapore’s climate goals and meeting green ambitions of the tech giants like AWS, Microsoft, and Google.

In 2019, the government announced a moratorium on new data centre development until Singapore can find a solution to this dichotomy.

A panel formed by the Energy & Utilities, Sustainability and Built Environment Committees examined Singapore's plans for the Data Centre industry, the energy challenges this poses and how providers are rising to the challenge to ensure Singapore can continue to play a leading role in this global industry.

The panel discussion and presentations focused on: • how data centres will manage their huge demand for energy from a practical perspective as well as • regional developments, international practices for adaptation and, • how they can tackle the challenge of decarbonisation through efficient design and transitioning to renewable energy sources and or mitigating emissions through carbon offsets.

Panellists included: • Paul Currie, Energy Sector Leader at Mott MacDonald Singapore Pte Ltd (Moderator) • Lorena Paglia, Regional Engagement Leader, CCE Sustainability Subject Matter Expert, Microsoft Asia Pacific (Session Chair) • A/Prof Lee Poh Seng, Executive Director, Energy Studies Institute at National University of Singapore • Dennis Wee, Head, Innovation at Keppel Data Centres • Andrew Roche, Partner at Ashurst LLP

PS Lee set the scene for the demand and sustainability of data centres in Singapore and what lessons can be taken forward when looking at the technical solutions and standards in Singapore. Setting the pathway to greening the data centre industry.

Dennis Wee elaborated on how the data centre of the future might look like in Singapore. Keppel has been at the forefront of commercial data centres in multiple countries. With a focus on Singapore and technology, Keppel Data Centres has been exploring both supply side and demand side innovations for sustainable data centre development in Singapore.

Andrew Roche highlighted the regulatory and commercial consideration for those seeking to build data centres in ASEAN. He has been advising on data centre developments in the region and recently in Indonesia. There is actually very high competition in the region to attract data centre development, although electricity markets, and grid stability, have a major impact on the greening of data centres.

According to the International Energy Agency, data centres already account for 200 TWh per year in energy consumption. While the amount of computing done in data centres increased by about 550 percent between 2010 and 2018, the amount of energy consumed by data centres only grew by six percent during the same period. These energy efficiency gains outpaced anything seen in other major sectors of the economy. As a result, while data centres now power more applications for more people than ever before, they still account for about one percent of global electricity consumption—the same proportion as in 2010.

Singapore’s moratorium in 2019 was intended as an opportunity to buy time for the government to reassess the market and allow the industry to come up with new and more energy efficient power solutions. Amsterdam also applied a data centre building moratorium in 2019 due to strains on the property market and power networks. The ban was lifted after a year under conditions including locating data centres in specific zones, with limits on power use and floor space.

Investors need to question whether other ASEAN locations may be viable alternatives. For other southeast Asian

countries there is an opportunity to attract projects that might otherwise have been in Singapore. Jakarta, for instance, has the second highest sub-sea cable hub for connectivity in the region after Singapore and is rapidly building-out onshore fibre connectivity. Data sovereignty laws are attracting new investment in digital infrastructure with added benefits of access to huge renewable energy potential for hydro, solar and geothermal. Grid stability needed for data centres does present a hurdle as does accessing new renewable generation through PLN, except for designated industrial parks.

Singapore has opportunity cost in three areas, investment lost today due to the moratorium, loss of job creation opportunity in the industry, and reduction in long run competitiveness, for what is an increasingly critical service.

The moratorium can spur innovations within Singapore's data centre industry, making Singapore a world leader in terms of computing density, energy use, and sustainability.

Keppel has been instrumental in leading research for the data centre of the tropics. High rise data centres and floating data centre parks have been considered with a focus on energy efficiency. Centralised power and cooling are proposed with advantage of reduced land footprint. Modular construction brings advantages of faster time to market and recyclable parts.

Singapore’s exploration for green energy options includes short to medium term imports of green electrons through interconnectors with its neighbours and from even further afield with high-capacity super connectors, and over the medium to long term, the establishment of a hydrogen supply chain. Keppel has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kawasaki, Linde, MOL and VOPAK to study the technical and commercial viability of a liquified hydrogen supply infrastructure to power Keppel’s data centres in Singapore.

The panel considered that it is not a question of whether the moratorium will be lifted, but one around the timing and conditions for it to happen to retain its regional lead as a digital nation.

Click on the image to watch the replay of our Future of Green Data Centres webinar, recorded on 28 September and featuring our expert panellists.

For information on the work of the committee and to access upcoming and past content click here.

The Energy & Utilities Business Committee is delighted to once again be a partner of Singapore International Energy Week. It is holding a ThinkTank Roundtable as part of the conference programme on trade and commercial opportunities on the journey to decarbonising ASEAN. Click here to register.

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY - COMMITTEE CONTENT

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THE BUSINESS CASE FOR SUSTAINABILITY IS EASY TO MAKE

The Business Case For Sustainability Is Easy To Make

Wildfires are scorching flora and fauna from the earth, floods and landslides are wiping away communities, the polar ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising and biodiversity is ravaged in many regions. We are not waiting for a climate crisis; it is here.

In the run-up to COP 26, companies face mounting pressure to become more ‘sustainable’. Does this complement or contradict internal business priorities?

Sustainability makes commercial, strategic and ethical sense.

Since the industrial revolution we have seen profound economic and technological development and population growth. A nation’s measure of economic success has been growth in production and consumption. ‘Success’ has meant that in one year we are now using the resources it takes the Earth 18 months to regenerate. We are red-lining in a period labelled The Great Acceleration - the relationship between civilisation’s progress and the planet’s deterioration has to be changed because the wellbeing of life on the planet is in the balance.

There is growing recognition that businesses must shift from a pure-profit, short-term focus to a “Triple Bottom Line” outlook. Profit. People. Planet. If we are to avert catastrophe, we must come up with solutions that take externalities into account. For instance, we cannot create more fresh water by spending vast amounts of energy in desalination plants. We need to apply systems thinking to these global challenges, with private and public sector collaboration to reshape value chains.

International organisations, national governments, and professional bodies can and do take action to encourage sustainability. Their toolbox is quite varied; a business can be subject to regulation, taxation, trading schemes, incentives, voluntary agreements and other carrots, sticks and ‘nudges’. But with a significant gap between the laggards, grappling to comply with the minimum requirements, and the progressive organizations, with high sustainability aspirations and performance, it is a challenge for external influences to be wholly effective. Whilst

Tables: The Great Acceleration. Stefan et al, 2015.

Stuart Farrell

Founder and Managing Director, 8SQUARE Consulting and BritCham Sustainability Committee member

Roisin Reynolds

Managing Director, Ivydale and BritCham Sustainability Committee member

the hope is that as we move beyond COP26 we will see parameters tighten, businesses must not wait to make sustainability become part of their competitive advantage. If governments set the direction, then finance fuels the movement. Slowly we see more and more innovative approaches to providing capital for sustainable approaches to business - it’s recognition that a business which solves societal issues has a bright future.

The real ahha moment for securing buy-in for sustainability is when you demonstrate the real financial value of initiatives either through added revenues or savings.

63

SPECIAL FEATURE: SUSTAINABILITY - COMMITTEE CONTENT THE BUSINESS CASE FOR SUSTAINABILITY IS EASY TO MAKE Indeed, Sunny Verghese, co-founder of Singapore’s Olam International says “the real ah-ha moment for securing buy-in for sustainability is when you demonstrate the real financial value of initiatives either through added revenues or savings”. The encouragement towards sustainability from a business’ immediate stakeholders is a good place to begin thinking around the business case.

actions can have a rapid and acute commercial impact on a business, positive or adverse. According to McKinsey 47% of consumers disappointed with a brand’s stance on a social issue stop buying its products, and 17% will never return. While the appearance of ‘greenwashing’ is a real danger to a business, authentic efforts to be sustainable present benefits for brand reputation and commercial opportunities.

Employees are now considered to be a company’s most important stakeholder (Edelman, 2021). The evidence is overwhelming that an engaged workforce drives better returns, and engagement comes from feeling that there is a match of values between employee and company. Companies that adopt sustainable practices find it easier to attract and retain talent. This underpins competitive advantage, through productive high-performing people and reputation, and reduces the replacement and training costs associated with higher rates of attrition. Globally 34% of survey respondents said they have left an organization solely because of the silence on a societal issue, while 62% of job seekers say that a responsible approach to sustainability is a compelling factor to take a job.

Suppliers are critical stakeholders in both business success and sustainability. The disruption of the pandemic highlighted the need for resilient supply chains and threw into relief the difference between transactional supplier relationships and partnerships. The opportunity is to improve the sustainability of supply chains, to go beyond compliance. Addressing the supply chain to be sustainable will future-proof the business by securing improved pricing, better availability and a relationship that will facilitate an agile response to the next great business challenge.

Consumers are increasingly aware of their ‘voting power’ as stakeholders to encourage organisations towards sustainable practices. The rise of ‘conscious consumerism’ means the social or environmental impact of business

The notion that sustainability can underpin growth is reinforced by the data.

While sustainability transformation may constitute a step-change, the commercial argument is compelling: over 2,000 studies have examined the impact of ESG propositions on equity returns: 63% found positive results and only 8% were negative (McKinsey). When sustainability is embraced as a responsible and authentic response, it complements a business’ value proposition, enhancing

Reflections on the Year

their ability to build trust, to adapt, and to deliver results. Indeed, companies driven by purpose achieve compound annual growth rates of 9.9% outperforming the S&P 500 average of 2.4% (Korn Ferry, 2021).

In this feature members of the BritCham Leadership, Talent and Professional Development Committee look back at 2021 for our last edition of the year.

Embracing sustainability involves a mental shift, to question established norms. Circular economic models replace linear value chains. Designs and materials consider restoration and recycling. Financing considers longer term returns. Smart buildings, energy usage, renewables are all increasingly important. Zero waste should now be a standard aim everywhere. As is often the case, business will innovate, modernise and drive a changing world.

In leading the charge into sustainability, a business stands to unlock lower capital costs, more secure supply, improved supplier relationships, a more engaged workforce, a greater reputation, lower fixed expenses and more loyal customers. As well as all that, it might just bequeath a more habitable world to future generations.

Whether new to embracing sustainability, or farther down the road, the advice here is to transform your business into one which embeds sustainability into every practice and decision. That way you will deliver on your Triple Bottom Line. People. Planet. And lots of profit.

Joe Tofield

Senior Manager, International Baccalaureate and Chair, BritCham Leadership, Talent and Professional Development Committee

Don Rapley

Co-Founder and Director, Transform Your Conversations and Co-Chair, BritCham Leadership, Talent and Professional Development Committee

2021 was certainly a challenging year for businesses and the pandemic continued longer than many expected. Instead of the anticipated opening of travel and restrictions, much of the world had to cope with a continuation of the same policies we saw in 2020 to keep people safe. This in turn however, created new opportunities for many of our members with organizations pivoting to stay relevant in the areas of LTPD. This included the shift to online learning and leveraging on new technologies to create greater collaboration and increase productivity.

We saw a more permanent move to hybrid working, with even many ‘work from office’ companies allowing staff to work from home a few days week. However, this in turn has caused challenges with engagement and building a strong company culture.

We tackled this in our panel event ‘Back to the Future’ which is available of download. However, LTPD will be looking at the future of hybrid work and what this means in the coming months to support members with the new world of work.

Hiring the right talent is also becoming increasingly difficult with global mobility reduced, but the need for skilled workers increasing every year. We were pleased to round off our podcasts for the year with the new Chamber Gold Partner Globalization Partners to discuss just this issue. This is a topic we will also be provided members more content and value on to support this challenging area.

To find out more about the work of this committee, catch up on earlier content and access upcoming events, click here.

We are pleased with another strong year from the committee and want to thank our engaged members who share their expertise and networks with the chamber to produce these great events and content. Some of our committee members have also kindly shared their thoughts from the year.

COMMITTEE CONTENT REFLECTIONS ON THE YEAR

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COMMITTEE CONTENT REFLECTIONS ON THE YEAR

Paola Morris

Director of Business Administration, Dulwich College (Singapore) and BritCham Leadership, Talent and Professional Development Committee member

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2021 continued to be a year where face-to-face communication remained difficult. In the areas of professional development learning and staff wellbeing, we had to rely heavily on digital platforms for staff engagement. At Dulwich College (Singapore), we had to adapt our PLD offerings, using online coaching and moving to webinar options and online sessions. Whilst faceto-face workshops and activities were the norm before the pandemic, there is now an array of facilitator-led online training, one-on-one virtual employee coaching, and online self-paced e-learning options for staff. These options were all utilized to ensure staff continued on their professional learning journeys. With staff working from home for extended periods, selfpaced e-learning was vital as it allowed staff the flexibility to access it whenever suited them. In the area of staff wellbeing, the College focused on providing more emotional support for employees in 2021. This was crucial as most expat staff had not travelled home for almost two years. For all staff, the various restrictions in place and the uncertainty created frustration and anxiety with no end to the pandemic in sight. Examples of support provided included wellbeing webinars on topics such as mental health, online yoga and mindfulness classes, and virtual counselling sessions. As the pandemic has stretched on to another academic year, ‘virtual fatigue’ is a serious issue, with endless online meetings and most activities, including PLD, having moved online. Collaboration and interaction among coworkers in online settings is ultimately different from in-person activities, and has its drawbacks and limitations. With some lifting in the restrictions, we are re-starting face-to-face PLD with an Away Day in October for mid-level management focusing on Strategic Plan drafting and agile leadership. We certainly hope 2022 will allow for more in-person learning and collaborative opportunities to return.

Cecilia Leong-Faulkner

Founder and Managing Director, British Theatre Playhouse and BritCham Leadership, Talent and Professional Development Committee member

COVID has driven change in our company. The hardest part was staying calm while surrounded by chaos. But it also allowed us to reflect, question and challenge ourselves. In line with the trends in the market, we launched the British Theatre Playhouse Academy, offering Masterclasses and workshops in leadership, team building, business communications, and video conference presentations delivered by acclaimed British actor, author of best-selling book SPEAK SO YOUR AUDIENCE WILL LISTEN, and communication coach, Robin Kermode. The pandemic has forced us to accelerate digital transformation and a culture of continual learning. We are excited about our digital journey and future! Life's ups and downs have provided windows of opportunity to determine our values, goals and character.

Stuart Farrell

Founder and Managing Director, 8SQUARE Consulting and BritCham Leadership, Talent and Professional Development Committee member

2021 was a year where business leaders met new and greater challenges. They took responsibility for societal and environmental issues. They reacted decisively and promptly to changes in circumstances. While some politicians around the world played fast and loose with the truth, business got on with it. They reinvented the norms of work and mitigated the impact of COVID, mental health and threats to local community. 2021 was a great and challenging year for leadership.

To find out more about the work of this committee, catch up on earlier content and access upcoming events, click here.

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