The buildings
sector contributes about 16% of Singapore's greenhouse
gases. Buildings are also accountable for significant
electricity and water consumption and waste generation.
As a green and responsible developer, CDL recognises
the impact our buildings may have on the environment
and is committed to reducing our environmental impact.
CDL cares for the environment and our
stakeholders. Our EHS Policy sets the strategic direction
for all employees to take practical efforts to ensure
effective EHS management so as to create a "Safe
and Green" culture, continually striving to conserve
resources and prevent pollution.
Our environmental management focuses
on energy and water conservation, recycling and minimisation
of waste across our operations.
The EMS, which is based on a Plan-Do-Check-Act
model, is integrated into CDL's overall operations.
It provides a systematic approach to minimise our
operational impact on the environment and provides
the framework for continua l improvement in our environmental
performance.
CDL established the Corporate EHS Policy
in 2003 and all operations are to adhere to the principles.
With the policy in place, CDL (Projects Division)
attained the ISO 14001 EMS and OHSAS 18001 Occupational
Health and Safety Management (OHSMS) System certifications
for property development and project management in
the same year.
CDL (Property & Facilities Management
Division) was awarded the Integrated Management System
of ISO 9001 Quality Management System (QMS) and ISO
14001 EMS standards for property and facilities management
in 2007.
In 2008, CDL had all our core divisions
and supporting operations conform to the ISO 14001
certification. The scope covers all headquarter activities
of Group Finance and Accounts, Corporate Affairs,
Projects Division, Property & Facilities Management
Division, Marketing/Leasing, Information Systems,
Business Development and Asset Management, Customer
Relationship Management and Internal Audit. This has
been a significant development, with all parts of
the business now adhering to the EMS.
CDL acknowledges that all employees,
including those working on behalf of the Company such
as our contractors and suppliers whose jobs may cause
significant environmental impacts, should have the
necessary expertise, training or experience to carry
out their work.
Training and awareness programmes are
provided to increase the environmental consciousness
of employees and contractors. Al l new employees are
given a detailed introduction to CDL's Corporate EHS
Policy and their responsibilities in the EMS. We also
strongly encourage our employees to attend external
seminars and workshops to upgrade their skills or
knowledge related to environmental management. As
for our contractors, we have been conducting the CDL
5-Star EHS Review Seminar for them on a quarterly
basis since 2001 to raise their EHS standards. Best
practices are shared during the review sessions to
encourage peer learning.
CDL also believes in engaging the support
of our stakeholders, including employees and external
interested parties, to achieve excellent environmental
performance. We provide various modes of communication
to share our commitments, best practices, programmes
and environmental performance as well as solicit their
feedback and suggestions for continual improvement.
We are committed to take all necessary action to prevent
the occurrence of potential non-conformance or recurrence
of non-conformance. All CDL employees are encouraged
to be forthcoming when reporting of environmental-related
accidents, complaints, incidents, non-compliance and
non-conformity. At CDL work sites, we also provide
a hotline number where the public can report to us.
CDL is committed to complying with all
applicable legal requirements. Compliance evaluations
are carried out quarterly, especially when there are
new regulations or changes to the legal requirements.
We also constantly assess our activities and operations
to ensure full compliance to the regulated limits
enforced by the local governing authorities such as
the BCA, NEA, PUB and Singapore Civil Defence Force
(SCDF) and other relevant enforcers where appropriate.
CDL also takes measures to ensure regulatory
requirements are taken into consideration at the planning
stage for any activity or operation. Hence, we are
proactive in influencing and engaging our stakeholders,
such as the architects, contractors, designers and
engineers to embrace a safe and environmentally-friendly
designs, plans and programmes. CDL continues to follow
through the compliance status during the construction
and operational phase. This is done through regular
audits and our CDL 5-Star EHS Assessment system.
Managing the environmental aspects is
a key element in the EMS. We identify significant
environmental aspects for activities, products or
services that can potentially have critical negative
environmental impact. The risk assessment criteria
used consist of the likelihood of the occurrence,
severity of the impact and control measures.
The key significant environmental aspects
of our business are energy, water and waste. In the
last few years, CDL has placed our priority on reducing
energy use across our operations in recognition of
the impact of global warming and climate change being
a major global environmental challenge. In addition,
our focus also includes water management and waste
minimisation as Singapore does not have abundant natural
freshwater sources and has limited disposal sites.
CDL implements and evaluates measures
to mitigate all significant environmental aspects.
This is done through setting objectives and targets,
establishing programmes and/or putting in place work
procedures and guidelines. The guiding principle of
the mitigating measures is to follow the hierarchy
of control, including elimination, substitution, isolation,
use of engineering control, use of administrative
control and last of all, use of personal protective
equipment .
Due to the different nature of operations
and activities, the Projects Division, Property &
Facilities Management Division, and Corporate Management
and Operations will each evaluate its set of significant
environmental aspects and establish the corresponding
environmental objectives and targets and programmes.
CDL recognises that we must regularly
audit our operations and activities in order to know
what is effective and what can be improved upon. CDL's
EMS audit programme involves teams of internal and
external auditors conducting audits at least once
a year.
Internal audits are essential to ensure
the EMS ha s been properly planned, implemented and
maintained in conformance with the ISO 14001 international
standard and to identify areas of improvement. The
actual frequency of internal audits depends on past
audit results as well as the potential risks and importance
associated with the activity or operation. Typically,
each project development is to be audited at least
once in its project cycle and each audit should cover
all three stages, i.e., planning, procurement and
construction.
The Company is also subject to external
audits, conducted by an accredited certification body
of the initial certification and surveillance visits.
External surveillance audits are conducted each year
to verify that the EMS continues to be maintained,
implemented and to deliver continual improvements
until the next re-certification cycle.
CDL's environmental performance of
CDL includes data from Projects, Property & Facilities
Management, Corporate Management and Operation and
total summary of energy used and carbon emissions.
