At the recent Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability Awards (ACES) 2021, Frasers Property Retail received the Community Initiative Award - Sustainability. As one of four recipients out of 400 entries, we are honoured to receive this esteemed accolade, which serves as a testament to our commitment towards uplifting communities we operate within, as part of our pursuit for sustainable growth. 

The annual ACES Awards recognises successful companies and individuals in Asia across two domains: leadership and corporate social responsibility. This year, Frasers Property Retail has received the Community Initiative Award, an accolade conferred upon organisations that lead programmes and initiatives that contribute significantly to the development of the communities. To receive this award, organisations need to have a community programme that is driven by strong engagement at the Board or senior leadership level, run meaningful and ongoing engagement programmes with the community, while ensuring they are aligned with core business activities – amongst other criteria. 

At the same time, organisations that demonstrate a culture of care and greater societal and environmental awareness, especially amidst these challenging times, are deeply regarded and favourably scored in this year’s ACES Awards. 

Rallying together to help those in need

To help ease the business impacts of the pandemic on tenants, Frasers Property Retail introduced a Tenant Support Package in March 2020. This included rolling out rental support to assist tenants that were significantly impacted by the pandemic, helping to shoulder the immediate financial constraints faced by our tenant community. These measures also offered needed flexibility during these unprecedented challenges, and marked our commitment to the sustainable long-term wellbeing of our tenants. 

Recognising the importance of community efforts in riding out this pandemic, we also joined hands with others who were distributing essential resources. In June 2020, we supported Razer’s #ForSingaporeansBySingaporeans initiative by committing $70,000 to purchase its first batch of made-in-Singapore masks from Razer’s mask manufacturing line. These masks were distributed to over 1,300 tenants and frontline staff across our malls, as part of our continuous commitment to prioritising the health and well-being of the community. Spaces were provided across our malls for the placement of Razer’s mask vending machines, so that shoppers can conveniently claim free masks from the vending machines or purchase more masks when patronising the malls.

90 staff volunteers packed 1,000 food bundles which were distributed to families across Singapore.

Not forgetting the ever-growing importance of food waste reduction, Frasers Property Retail has been partnering with The Food Bank Singapore since 2019 to collect non-perishable food items, which are distributed to those in need. In 2020 alone, we collected 7,000kg of food donations as part of our ‘Don’t Let Good Food Go To Waste’ campaign, which is aimed at reducing food waste while tackling food insecurity. With the rise in food aid requests amid the pandemic, we decided to extend our reach and celebrate the spirit of giving to more families during the Christmas period last year. Over the festive season, staff volunteers helped to pack and distribute 1,000 food bundles to households in need, five times more than the amount distributed over the same period in the year before. 

Adopting innovative solutions to protect our community

Over the past year and a half, Frasers Property Retail has rolled out several initiatives and solutions to protect the health and well-being of our shoppers, tenants, and staff, while enhancing our malls’ overall operational efficiency. These include the deployment of UV-disinfecting autonomous mobile robots, known as Sunburst UV Bots, in April 2020, using Photoplasma technology to provide continuous disinfection of surfaces inside toilets, lift cars, nursing rooms and common areas. We have also embarked on a tech-enabled cleaning approach which incorporates Internet-of-Things (IoT). 

Leveraging cutting-edge technologies have played a vital role in supplementing manpower resources in upkeeping hygiene and sanitisation standards across our malls, while protecting our cleaners who are often most vulnerable to potential exposure to the virus. At the same time, these solutions have enabled us to maintain safe spaces for our shoppers, tenants, and staff, and protect the communities we operate in. 

Expanding digital offerings to unlock new growth opportunities 

To support our tenants in their digitalisation journey and extend their outreach to customers, we introduced various new digital initiatives via our Frasers Experience (FRx) App. In 2020, a meal delivery option and mix-and-match service were added to Frasers Property Retail’s digital F&B concierge, Makan Master, on top of existing contactless pre-order, pay and collect options. These enhancements provide our shoppers with greater convenience and variety of dining choices, while supporting tenants through the various COVID-19 restrictions. With these initiatives, F&B tenants could tap on Makan Master to broaden their customer base and revenue streams, despite dine-in restrictions.

The Frasers eStore was also launched in early 2021 to support tenants in unlocking new growth opportunities with a truly omnichannel retail experience. Through the Frasers eStore, shoppers can browse and purchase products from tenants across all 13 malls with greater convenience and flexibility, creating a frictionless retail experience for both shoppers and tenants.

Affirming our commitment to sustainability

In January 2021, Frasers Property announced its commitment to achieve net-zero carbon by 2050. As part of this roadmap, Frasers Property Retail is aiming to achieve its science-based targets by 2035. 

Together with the Group, Frasers Property Retail has also started carrying out scenario analysis of possible climate-related outcomes, such as the impact from temperature increase, to determine how the businesses might perform in the future. Such insights inform decisions on risk adaptation and identify current opportunities and business strategies. Climate risk assessments and asset-level adaptation and mitigation plans will be implemented by 2024, while reporting will be aligned with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.  

At 2021 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) rankings, both Frasers Property Singapore and Frasers Centrepoint Trust received 5 star rankings in their respective categories, with Frasers Property Singapore being commended as Regional Sector Leader for the Diversified – Office/Retail category. 

Despite the challenging year, we have successfully managed change in these unprecedented times. We have continued to support our people and community through various initiatives, and it is heartening to see that our efforts have been recognised.