EcoWorld’s Tian Xiong (left) and Tian Wei are leading the property developer’s ESG future. – MUHAMAD SHAHRIL ROSLI/The Star.
EcoWorld’s young leaders keep a firm eye on creating a viable ecosystem within its developments
THE next generation of leaders are leading the environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda in Malaysia.
This shines true for Eco World Development Group Bhd
(EcoWorld).
Despite its relative youth – the property developer celebrates its ninth anniversary in 2022, since the September 2013 launch of its first township, Eco Botanic, in Iskandar Malaysia – sustainability is not only ingrained as a core value within the organisation, but also makes up the foundation of its townships.
EcoWorld executive director and deputy chief executive officer Liew Tian Xiong, as well as EcoWorld Green Council chair and digital transformation senior manager Liew Tian Wei speak with StarESG on the property developer’s commitment to driving sustainable developments in its operations and the communities in which it operates.
With its vision of ‘Creating tomorrow and beyond’, EcoWorld wants to create enduring value by embedding elements of ESG within its projects from conceptualisation to engagement with stakeholders for a sustainable future – something that is already reflected in its name, Tian Xiong pointed out.
EcoWorld improved its integrated policy for quality, environment, health and safety by incorporating a standalone and overarching sustainability policy in 2021.
How do ESG and sustainability principles manifest within the company?
Tian Xiong: When we started EcoWorld, we wanted to play an important societal role. And that’s just what we did, in a less structured way within our company charter, in terms of planning our townships around the natural environment and actively transplanting existing or mature trees to preserve them within our developments, as well as developing on old palm oil estates.
However, what that means to us and how we go about it now is very different compared to when we started.
Over the past four to five years, as our company matured and grew, we employed dedicated people to help us go about it better, which has helped us improve a lot along the way by structuring it in a recognisable way. As a result, EcoWorld was included in the FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia (F4GBM) Index in December 2020.
Tian Wei: Our DNA has always been reflected in the greenery and landscaping in our developments, which was initially how we started our ESG journey.
Over the years, awareness and structure has also developed, with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) enabling us to shape our goals, so that we can expand and actually make an impact.
We tackled six SDGs when we started and now we’re pursuing around 12, so it’s a guiding tool for us. We are still trying to add Goal 14 of ‘Life below water’.
Be it Ecoworld’s charter, how we think or our design concepts, we evolve it to be more unique and genuine and targeted.
What are the key considerations when deciding on ESG initiatives?
Tian Xiong: Continuously, we focus on using less energy within every department in the company. Through energy tracking, we’re collecting more data and quantifying our footprint so we can measure progress.
Tian Wei: For fuel and energy consumption, on the other hand, we are slowly working on what we have, then improving on the process.
The artworks on display at Ardence Labs are headed by EcoWorld’s younger teams
Although technology is growing year-on-year, there is still a green premium in terms of a lot of products, so in a way, we need to balance dollar to value. It’s very much related to understanding the costs involved and reducing our impact on the environment.
Thus, we emphasise on focused initiatives that enable the biggest positive changes, which help or minimise our impact on the environment as much as we can.
As a second generation leader, what were the challenges in implementing ESG policies and initiatives in the company?
Tian Xiong: It’s not very difficult and doing something new is not something we have faced an issue with. As a whole, our team is very open with doing things, as there is a good balance between higher-ups giving opportunities to younger ones, coupled with good mentorship.
In fact, a lot of our initiatives are driven by younger teams, such as Ardence Labs in Eco Ardence. There are pet projects like purposeful installations that cost nothing. For instance, artwork made of recycled bottles that was done by one of our colleagues.
We benefit from our agile company culture. Take digitalisation as an example. When we decided to make that switch to doing more digital a few years back, it was something that the company took up quickly. That meant that when the pandemic hit, we were already ready for it. Although, of course there were improvements, it was almost business-as-usual for us.
Tian Wei: Digitalisation also helps with collecting data for ESG and financial initiatives. Our team is open to embracing it and that teamwork sets the foundation for success.
It starts with intention as well. We’re not doing it (ESG) for the sake of doing something, but because we’re passionate about it and want to do it wholeheartedly.
It’s about being genuine and explaining why we’re doing these initiatives across all levels in the company. That’s how the conversation grows and how we can keep growing until we achieve net zero.
What is the future ESG direction for EcoWorld in the coming years?
Tian Xiong: In the near to mid-term, the first thing is to benchmark everything we do and at the same time, make sure that our partners along our supply chain are also on the same page. We’re currently in the process of adopting the recommendations set by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
As a developer, the most impactful thing that we can do is to make sure we design homes that help residents reduce energy. It’s a constant learning process that we continue to improve on. This means that it’s not just about material usage, it also goes into passive design.
In the short term, we want to improve the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) we are able to sequester per acre of landscaping, which will contribute positively to reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
We conducted a pilot carbon assessment at Eco Ardence in 2021, where preliminary results indicated that since the planting of its greenery in 2017, approximately 1,008 tonnes of CO2 was absorbed by our urban landscaping efforts up to 2021 across the development.
This initial assessment is the first step towards providing us with a measurable understanding of the carbon-sink potential within our existing and future developments.
We will be extending the pilot study further in the upcoming years to our other projects. By understanding more about the types of trees and shrubs species that are able to sequester more carbon, we will be able to be even more effective in our efforts to contribute towards the removal of harmful CO2 in the atmosphere.
What we also started quite a while ago is how to increase the growth rate of the plants in our landscaping to facilitate a biodiverse ecosystem, which can help us better strategise our approach.
Apart from that, we also need to build awareness on the importance of ESG through community events to promote a sustainable future.
Tian Wei: In focusing on implementing initiatives to reduce our impact on the environment, we’re looking into changing the status quo when it comes to landscape and home designs, which are typically based on theory.
What we’re currently working on is a study on passive design, which we’ve been conducting for more than half a year in Eco Majestic, to enable data-driven design decisions. The main thing we’re looking to understand is heat within the home and air circulation.
ESG as a whole is an interesting space; it is the future in terms of making sure we thrive together with the environment. We also focus on urban biodiversity and conduct studies on enhancing the habitat for life below water and life on land.
There are many aspects that we’re trying to work on, so we have to spend our time and resources wisely to see what we can impact the most.
