CCT engages tenant community holistically with focus on active, healthy and sustainable living
About S$27,000 raised through CCT Eco Race 2016 for The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund
Singapore, 29 August 2016 – CapitaLand Commercial Trust, one of Singapore’s largest office landlords is committed to engaging its office tenant community through a holistic approach that focuses on active, healthy and sustainable living. New and exciting offerings will reinforce existing tenant engagement programmes which aim to encourage environmentally sustainable practices at work and at home, a healthy lifestyle as well as giving back to the community in practical and meaningful ways.
CCT Eco Race 2016 – ‘Go Green, Be Fit’
The CCT Eco Race aims to promote greater awareness of environmental issues among its office tenants in a fun contest of speed, strategy and teamwork. On 27 August, the fourth edition of the CCT Eco Race themed ‘Go Green, Be Fit’ attracted over 370 participants. This is about 30% more than the number of participants who took part in the 3rd Eco Race held in 2014.
Participants were required to complete eight checkpoints located at CapitaLand office buildings and landmarks across Singapore’s central business district. Each checkpoint was designed to test participants’ knowledge of environmental issues such as green buildings, air quality, food and electronic waste, as well as to challenge their physical limits. Fitness First, the event’s fitness partner managed two of the stations and its fitness instructors led the participants in a mass warm-up before the race began. BMW Asia sponsored six of their cruiser bicycles for one of the challenges to encourage tenants to consider cycling as a preferred mode of transport. This is in line with CapitaLand’s support of the national movement towards a car-lite Singapore. A strong supporter of the CCT Eco Race since its inception in 2012, the Building Construction Authority (BCA) sent four teams to participate in the race as well as sponsored prizes for the race and pre-race online contests. Two teams from the National Environment Agency also participated. The top teams from the Economic Development Board, joint second place winners, JP Morgan and Fitness First - were rewarded with prizes worth around S$8,000.
Sustainable giving
To enhance the sustainability and impact of its corporate giving efforts, CCT has partnered The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (SPMF) for its Eco Race and annual year-end Gifts of Joy 1 initiative this year. CapitaLand Hope Foundation (CHF), CapitaLand’s philanthropic arm, matched dollar-for-dollar the total registration fees collected from the race participants. In addition, CHF will donate S$10 per kilometer per participant, for every team that pledged to complete the race of approximately 6km. Based on the total distance pledged and the matching of registration fees, the CCT Eco Race raised S$27,120 for the SPMF’s beneficiaries – children from underprivileged families. In another first, CCT has reached out to its tenant community to adopt the SPMF coin banks, or ‘blue boys’ as they are affectionately known. Tenants can place these coin banks in their offices to encourage contributions by staff. The contributions will be tallied prior to Gifts of Joy and CHF will make a matching donation capped at S$10,000.
E-waste collection for recycling at CapitaLand office buildings
As part of CapitaLand’s expanded e-waste collection and recycling programme, an e-waste collection drive will take place from 15 August to 31 December 2016 in eight of its office buildings, namely Capital Tower, CapitaGreen, One George Street, Six Battery Road, Raffles City Tower, HSBC Building, Wilkie Edge and Twenty Anson. This allows office tenants to conveniently and safely dispose of personal e-waste, which could include music players and personal communication devices, as well as corporate e-waste, such as computers, monitors and servers. CHF will donate S$10 for every kilogram of e-waste collected up till 30 November 2016, subject to a cap of S$2,000.
The e-waste recycling initiative complements existing efforts to support tenants in their sustainability journeys. In addition to advising tenants on how to achieve the best sustainability outcomes in their office fit-out and daily operations, CapitaLand also participates in the BCA Green Mark Portfolio Programme. This programme facilitates the process of tenants obtaining the BCA Green Mark Office Interior certification which recognises their efforts in greening their office premises. Through sharing sessions organised by CCT, tenants also learn more about incorporating sustainable features and practices in their office environments. These efforts bore fruit when tenants – South32, CBRE, Lloyds Bank and Schroders Investment Management – were awarded the BCA Green Mark Office Interior Award in 2016.
Active, healthy living
To encourage active and healthy living in its tenant community, CCT is participating in the Health Promotion Board’s (HPB) ‘Healthy Workplace Ecosystem’ programme. From September to November 2016, tenants at Capital Tower and Twenty Anson can take part in free weekly workout sessions by Fitness First at Capital Tower’s urban plaza.
Ms Lynette Leong, Chief Executive Officer of CCT Management Limited, said, “While we provide quality conducive environments for our tenants in our environmentally-sustainable office buildings, CCT is equally committed to promoting the benefits of active, healthy and sustainable living among our tenant community. We also provide opportunities for our busy tenants to engage with and give back to the community in practical, meaningful ways. Partnering The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund (SPMF) for the CCT Eco Race in August through to Gifts of Joy in December enables us to synergise our corporate giving efforts to create a bigger impact for children from underprivileged families. We are very happy to have raised S$27,120 for the SPMF through the CCT Eco Race 2016 with the strong support of our tenants, partners and CapitaLand Hope Foundation. We hope more tenants will adopt the SPMF ‘blue boys’ to help us bring joy and cheer to more underprivileged children this Christmas. ”
Ms Tan Bee Heong, General Manager of The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund said, "Our grateful thanks to CapitaLand Commercial Trust for organising several exciting initiatives in helping our needy students. This is the first time the ST School Pocket Money Fund has received support from a fund-raising project involving so many tenants. Not only will funds be raised to help our children with their school pocket money, CCT's kind gesture of fulfilling 650 wishes of beneficiaries this year-end during Gifts of Joy will bring much cheer to them during the festive season."
CCTML wishes to thank the following companies and organisations for their enthusiastic support of the CCT Eco Race 2016 and alignment with its commitment to sustainability and protecting the environment: event partner, BCA; fitness partner, Fitness First; charity sponsor, CHF; other sponsors – BMW Asia, The Ascott Limited; Emirates Airline, Aqua Pacific, Compressport, Amazin’ Graze, Treasure Unity and LINS Smoodees as well as supporting organisations – National Environment Agency, Singapore Green Building Council, Singapore Environment Council and the National Climate Change Secretariat.
ANNEX - Quotes Event Partner
Building & Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA)
Dr John Keung, Chief Executive Officer of Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority said, “Tenants and users of commercial buildings play a crucial role in energy savings as they account for up to 50% of the total electricity consumption in a building. We are glad that CCT is actively engaging its tenants to promote awareness on energy savings and environmental sustainability. The CCT Eco Race, which is in its fourth year, is a useful platform to engage office occupants on green buildings and green living in an interactive and informative way. This initiative is also in line with BCA’s efforts under the 3rd Green Building Masterplan to reach out to building tenants and occupants and get them to come on board the green building movement.”
Fitness Partner – Fitness First
“Fitness First is committed to making a difference for individuals and the communities we work with, and this is exemplified through our support for CapitaLand Commercial Trust’s Eco Race 2016,” said Mr Andrew Phillips, MD for Fitness First Singapore. “We are honoured to join CapitaLand in this event and offer participants a unique fitness experience that educates them on the importance of sustainability, and motivates them to shape a fitter and more environmentally responsible lifestyle.”
Tenant - Emirates Group (five participating teams)
Mr Andrew Bunn, Country Manager for Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia of Emirates Group, said: “The CCT Eco Race is a very worthy cause. Not only does it help highlight environmental issues, it also contributes to team building, leadership development and encourages our staff to keep a healthy lifestyle whilst having some fun at the same time. Emirates is committed to environmentally-responsible operations through our Environmental Policy, and we take our responsibilities as a global corporate citizen very seriously. We feel it is important to support CapitaLand, a key business partner and leading Singapore company, in its efforts to protect the environment and give back to the community, and hopefully encourage others to do the same.”