Asian real estate fails to impress

Asian real estate companies have poor environmental, social and governance practices, a new study has found. The shortcomings include use of non-renewable raw materials and excessive water consumption.

The study, by Responsible Research, a Singapore-based research company, concludes that there is great potential for improving standards in the building industry – but for now its researchers are pessimistic. They say that in the present economic climate, compliance with the highest standards is likely to take second place to short-term gain.

The sector has attracted great environmental interest as buildings are thought to be responsible for about 33 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, and Asian buildings are estimated to account for more than seven per cent of the world’s total energy use. Four companies were named as leaders – City Developments of Singapore, Siam Cement of Thailand, and Swire Pacific and MTR of Hong Kong. They have all developed sophisticated management and reporting systems to monitor sectoral environmental, social and governance performance.