18 Jul 2024
Frasers Property conferred Champion of Good for its outstanding commitment to corporate purpose and social impact
Ms Soon Su Lin, CEO of Frasers Property Singapore, receiving the Champion of Good recognition from Deputy Prime Minister Mr Heng Swee Keat.
On 18 July 2024, Frasers Property was conferred ‘Champion of Good’ by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) in Singapore for the second time.
The accolade recognises organisations in Singapore for their outstanding commitment to corporate purpose and impact, including their influence on stakeholders to create a multiplied positive impact. Specifically, it acknowledges organisations that lead by example in corporate giving and engage in collaborative efforts with stakeholders, showcasing a holistic approach towards contributing to society.
Ms Soon Su Lin, CEO of Frasers Property Singapore, said: “Aligned with Frasers Property’s Purpose - Inspiring experiences, creating places for good, we continually work with like-minded partners to enhance the social fabric of the spaces we manage and drive wider ESG impact. We leverage our people and assets to support inclusive, resilient and thriving communities."
Affirming our Purpose-led journey
Achieving this recognition again affirms Frasers Property’s continued progress along our ESG journey, where we are strengthening strategic partnerships and bolstering capabilities across markets, asset classes and property lifecycles to drive sustainable value creation.
Our Purpose-led approach to real estate has seen encouraging progress in relation to not only the 29% decrease in Scope 1 and Scope 2 location-based carbon emissions in FY23 from base year FY19, but also impact across communities in markets where we operate. The multinational nature of our business enables the Group to apply learnings and best practices in our markets, including Singapore.
We continue to enable our employees with fair remuneration, healthcare protection, workplace safety, career advancement, workforce upskilling, diversity and inclusion, and work-life harmony. These practices are steered by considerations such as code of ethics, policies and guidelines, diversity in governance, whistle-blowing system, audits and reviews, responsible procurement, data privacy, cybersecurity, and consumer fair dealing.
Being a people-focused sector, we have also engaged in activities such as volunteering and have incorporated giving into our business functions.
Our Singapore footprint continues to create value for a broad range of stakeholders, in addition to achieving milestones that include the distinction of being Singapore’s largest suburban retail mall owner following our 50% acquisition of NEX in Serangoon, as well as our pure-play Singapore retail REIT Frasers Centrepoint Trust being added as a component to the Straits Times Index.
NEX is the largest suburban retail mall in Northeast Singapore and enjoys excellent transportation links.
Public-private partnerships for good
Concurrent with the business growth, our efforts towards creating social impact also continued to progress, largely enabled by the expanding partnerships across our ecosystem of stakeholders which include tenants, shoppers, employees and the community.
Frasers Property’s employees took part in blood donation drives, helping to boost local blood supplies and alleviate concerns over blood shortages in the community.
We have an ongoing partnership with Red Cross societies across markets, tapping on our spaces as community touch points to support life-saving causes. Notably, we ran blood donation drives across Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, receiving strong participation from employees, tenants, shoppers and members of the public, and donating over 10,000 units of blood in the last five years (as of April 2024). This is in addition to employee volunteerism as well as corporate sponsorships.
We further rely on our real estate expertise to progressively create more inclusive spaces and experiences for communities with different needs. In May 2023, we launched an industry-first Inclusion Champions Programme at our retail properties. The programme involves six hours of inclusivity training for our mall employees and participating tenants to support persons with dementia and autism. From 10 participating brands in 2023, we have since tripled the number of Inclusion Champions to 31 brands across 104 stores today.
Our retail spaces do not merely welcome people from all walks of life, but also bring people together to support meaningful causes. In our June 2024 Paint It Forward art jam experience, we invited shoppers to co-create works of art with artists on the autism spectrum from The Art Faculty – the social enterprise by Autism Resource Centre. Frasers Property donated $10 for each completed canvas, raising a total of $100,000 for Community Chest Singapore in support of art programmes for persons with disabilities.
To further support persons with disabilities, we invite the community to do good together at our commercial building via the annual Fraser Tower Vertical Challenge. In 2023, we donated a total of $6,000 to Enabling Village by SG Enable. Proceeds from this year’s vertical challenge will go to the Goh Chok Tong Enable Fund.
In the lead-up to Christmas last year, our Singapore-based employees and retail tenants joined forces across Waterway Point, Northpoint City and Causeway Point to host seniors and their caregivers from various active ageing centres to revel in the year-end festivities. The seniors got to experience skating on Singapore’s first wheelchair accessible ice-skating rink and shared a meal with our volunteers.
In support of the well-being and digital literacy of seniors, we piloted the Lions Befrienders’ IM-OK programme in partnership with the National Volunteer Philanthropy Centre. Our employee volunteers befriended and aided seniors in Queenstown and Tampines in using the IM-OK device, which tracks their health and safety at home.
Real estate for good
Beyond providing just amenities, real estate provides opportunities for communities to build connections and resilience. For example, Northpoint City is seamlessly connected to Yishun bus interchange and Yishun MRT, and home to a public library, a town plaza and Singapore’s first Community Club in a mall, providing greater convenience and connectivity to the community.
During his interview with The Straits Times, then Deputy Prime Minister and present Prime Minister of Singapore Lawrence Wong said: “It’s not so easy to do because you have to find the right landlord; not every landlord is enlightened, progressive and open-minded… Frasers Property saw it useful to have this space (carved) out as a community club from Northpoint City for the community.”