Leading Home-Grown Built and Construction Companies Embark on Sustainability Reporting with ESGpedia
Leading home-grown built and construction companies, Expand Construction, Hi-Tek Construction, Kimly Construction, Ngai Chin Construction, Soilbuild Construction Group, Teambuild Construction Group, and Wee Hur Construction have leveraged ESGpedia in their Environmental, Social, and Governance (‘ESG’) journey to achieve increased competitiveness in securing project tenders with sustainability criteria, amidst growing demand for a green built environment. ESGpedia is Asia’s leading ESG data and technology solutions company.
In Singapore where buildings account for 20 percent of national carbon emissions, the industry faces a lack of awareness due to complex ecosystems and carbon emissions involved at every step of a building’s life cycle. However, demand for greener buildings in both public and private tenders has grown significantly over the years, with the Singapore government including environmental criteria for government projects starting in 2024. Developers and construction companies face pressure to track and demonstrate their sustainability commitment, to maintain competitiveness in the industry and secure project tenders.
Benjamin Soh, Founder and Managing Director at ESGpedia, said: “With project tenders increasingly incorporating sustainability criteria, we are delighted to have empowered these major home-grown built and construction companies in their sustainability reporting journey, boosting their competitiveness and driving their sustainability efforts with real-time data insights into their greenhouse gas emissions at a project level. Greening the built environment requires collaboration amongst all developers and contractors. ESGpedia remains committed to supporting businesses in the sector towards ESG compliance and excellence.”
Generating Reports In Accordance with International and Local Standards
Construction sustainability reports transparently communicate an organisation’s ESG efforts and impacts to stakeholders such as customers, investors, financiers, and employees. To effectively navigate the complexities of sustainability reporting in alignment with international and local standards, Expand Construction and Hi-Tek Construction leveraged ESGpedia to generate their first company-level Sustainability Report, ensuring compliance with local and international standards such as GRI, ISSB, ISO, and SASB.
Having started their sustainability journey in compliance with ISO14001, Expand Construction – whose extensive portfolio includes Housing Development Board’s (‘HDB’) Public Housing projects, and infrastructure projects like the ongoing NS Square at Marina Bay – was able to complete their 2024 Sustainability Report 3 in approximately two weeks with ESGpedia.
Hi-Tek Construction, a private company specialising in HDB Build-to-Order (‘BTO’) and Home Improvement Programme (‘HIP’) projects, also successfully completed their first inaugural Sustainability Report 4, which revealed opportunities for cost savings through technological implementation.
Toh Chee Boon, Deputy Managing Director of Hi-Tek Construction, explained: “We have enhanced our attractiveness and competitiveness in project tenders with ESGpedia as our sustainability reporting partner. This has led to higher success rates in securing projects, especially those with ESG requirements. Informed investment decisions are key to convincing stakeholders to invest in technologies and further sustainability initiatives, creating a roadmap for future improvement for Hi-Tek Construction.”
Both construction companies were able to successfully publish their sustainability reports, gain better insights into their carbon emissions, work towards green certifications, and set active pathways towards their decarbonisation targets.
Kenneth Siew, Executive Director of Expand Construction, said: “ESGpedia provided us with an automated, guided, and simple way to calculate our carbon emissions across Scope 1 to 3, converting operational data into emission figures, and allowing us to have better insights into our carbon emissions.”
The Housing Development Board (‘HDB’) in Singapore has announced plans to track and disclose Scope 3 emissions, with a focus on emissions from their contractors’ activities on the various HDB projects. This signals an industry move towards Scope 3 disclosures in the near future. Scope 3 emissions tracking can be a tedious process, involving companies’ subcontractors
Han Ren, Executive Director and Group CEO, Soilbuild Construction, said: “Although we are tracking Scope 3 emissions for the first time for projects such as Tuas Port, the ESGpedia platform has made it easy to categorise carbon emissions, even breaking them down into the 15 sub-categories, which allows us to easily identify areas of improvement.”
Kimly Construction has begun including its sustainability initiatives and reports when bidding for tenders, including their Scope 3 emissions tracking.
Justin Chew, Senior Manager of Enterprise Sustainability & Corporate QA/QC at Kimly Construction Group, and Head of Kimly Academy, said: “There are many other considerations such as price and engineering proposals that can influence the tender outcome. Nevertheless, I believe our collective sustainable strategies offer intangible advantages in recent tenders.”
SGX-listed company Wee Hur Construction has begun tracking Scope 3 emissions in compliance with reporting requirements for listed companies. Access to subcontractors’ sustainability data was a key challenge the team faced.
Tay Hock Joo, Chairperson of ESG Committee, Wee Hur Construction, said: “ESGpedia has helped us to determine what type of data to collect for Scope 3, resolving the mostchallenging aspect for us. ESGpedia is a reliable platform for carbon accounting, allowing us to embark on Scope 3 reporting to fulfil tender sustainability criteria and comply with SGX-listed company reporting criteria.”
Moving forward, Scope 3 calculation and reporting will become an essential part of climate disclosures across all industries. Along with digital tools, collaboration across every stage of a business’s supply chain remains crucial for transparent and accurate disclosures.
Growing Demand for a Green-Built Environment
In 2025, investors are expected to place a higher green premium on ESG-certified assets inAsia Pacific – especially when it comes to the acquisition and development of green buildings. As sustainability criteria continue to grow in government tenders, these requirements inevitably will in due course spill over into the private sector, with the demand for green buildings and construction increasing over time.
Victoria Tan, Deputy Director of Corporate Development at Teambuild Construction Group, said, “ESGpedia has been instrumental in transforming our approach to sustainability, by supporting our business in ensuring compliance with global sustainability standards. The enhanced accuracy in carbon footprint calculation has provided us with a deeper understanding of our company’s environmental impact, enabling more efficient practices and fostering a culture of transparency and accountability in our operations.”
Both developers and contractors must take their first steps towards sustainability early to ensure compliance, and advantage in winning tenders and procuring business deals.
