CDL is the first company in Southeast Asia to apply the two-pillar Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure framework in its Integrated Sustainability Report (ISR), its sixteenth sustainability report since 2008. The two-pillar ESG disclosure harmonises nine key ESG reporting standards and 14 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Complementing its pledge towards Operational Net Zero by 2030, CDL achieved a 24% reduction in carbon emissions intensity in the year under review (January to December 2022) from base year 2016.
The Company has met its interim 2022 target and is on track to achieving its Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi)-validated target of a 63% reduction by 2030. As part of its renewed SBTi-validated greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets to align with a 1.5°C warmer scenario made in 2021, CDL stepped up on operationalising and tracking its carbon reduction performance for Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
CDL achieved a 10% reduction in total operational carbon emissions across all its business operations in Singapore compared to 2021. CDL also achieved a 22% reduction in embodied carbon emissions compared to the conventional equivalents. From 2012 to 2022, CDL reported energy savings of over S$38 million from energy-efficient retrofitting and initiatives across all its commercial buildings.
Since CDL secured its first set of SBTi-validated GHG reduction targets in 2018, aligning with a 2°C warmer scenario, managing Scope 3 emissions has increasingly become a priority in its carbon management strategy. In 2021, CDL raised the bar and renewed its SBTi-validated targets aligned with a 1.5°C emissions reduction target of 58.8% under Scope 3 (category 15) and will extend this to all major subsidiaries.1
Mr Sherman Kwek, CDL Group Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our latest Integrated Sustainability Report reaffirms our commitment to accelerate collective action in the global race to zero. Having embraced sustainability in our business for nearly three decades, we have remained steadfast in achieving a triple bottom line so as to generate positive environmental and social impact while achieving sustained growth for our investors. We will continue advancing our climate action and green building performance to tackle the climate emergency, turning ambition to action.”

