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Annual Report 2017

Environment

We are committed to protecting the environment for the well-being of our colleagues, our customers and the wider community. Our approach is to manage our environmental footprint by focusing on energy efficiency, waste management and resource conservation in our operations across the Group. We are also committed to responsible financing to support sustainable development and to ensuring environmental, social and governance considerations are incorporated in our financing activities.

UOB’s Climate Action Pledge

2017 Highlights

Received renewed Green Mark Goldᴾˡᵘˢ certification for UOB Plaza 1 and UOB Tower Block from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Singapore;
Expanded the monitoring of our paper consumption and recycling efforts to our regional markets for better resource management across the Group; and
Installed energy-efficient LED lighting in our new office building in Bangkok, Thailand and began retrofitting the lights at UOB Tampines Centre in Singapore.

Managing Our Environmental Footprint

With the operations at our office buildings and branches accounting for the majority of our direct environmental impact, we have implemented a range of programmes to improve energy efficiency, to conserve resources and to manage waste effectively.

We maintained the Green Mark Goldᴾˡᵘˢ certification for our UOB Plaza 1, UOB Plaza 2 and UOB Tower Block buildings in Singapore. In 2017, the certification for UOB Plaza 1 and UOB Tower Block, which we first received in 2013 and 2014 respectively, was renewed by the BCA. We received the certification for UOB Plaza 2 in 2016. Such certifications are awarded by the BCA for the Existing Non-residential Building category after thorough assessment of the buildings’ features on energy and water efficiency, environment protection, indoor environmental quality and other green features such as those on infrastructure and building interiors. With the certification, our buildings are assessed to be energy-effective, resource-efficient and have healthier indoor environments for our colleagues, customers, tenants and visitors.

Our certified energy-effective and resource-efficient buildings, UOB Plazas 1 and 2.

Our offices and the common areas at UOB Plaza 1, UOB Plaza 2 and UOB Tower Block are equipped with energy-saving LED lighting. To help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our electricity consumption further, we carried on with our initiative to replace conventional lighting in all our offices with
energy-efficient LED lighting. During the year, we installed LED lighting in our new office building in Bangkok, Thailand and began retrofitting the lights for UOB Tampines Centre in Singapore.

We measure and report the carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas emissions from our purchased electricity (Scope 2 emissions) in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol guidelines and we apply the grid emission factors to calculate our carbon footprint. In 2017, we adjusted our CO₂ emission figures for Singapore for 2015 and 2016 to reflect the slight revision in the grid emission factors. Overall, we lowered the intensity of our CO₂ emissions across our six key markets for the year.

In 2017, we also started measuring and reporting the CO₂ emissions (Scope 3 emissions) from our business air travel.

Managing Our Resources Responsibly

Paper

We encourage our people to minimise paper consumption. In 2017, we started implementing resource efficiency systems in our regional markets to track paper consumption and recycling efforts for better resource management across the Group. In 2017, we used 1,082 tonnes of office paper and recycled 530 tonnes of paper across our key markets.

We also print our annual red packets, which are distributed to our colleagues and customers across our network in celebration of Lunar New Year, and our annual report on environmentally-friendly paper.

Water

In addition to promoting the awareness of water conservation among our colleagues, we also conserve water through the use of water-efficient fittings at our buildings. Our three office buildings – UOB Plaza 1, UOB Plaza 2 and UOB Tower Block – in Singapore have received the Water Efficiency Building Award from the Singapore Public Utilities Board in recognition of our efforts to save water. In 2017, we reduced water consumption by 14.2 per cent year on year.

Waste Management

The waste we generate comes mainly from paper and decommissioned office equipment. We dispose or recycle this waste through licensed waste management contractors. In 2017, we reduced the waste we generated by 17.4 per cent year on year and recycled 9,693 kg of decommissioned office equipment in Singapore.

Promoting Environmental Awareness

To increase environmental awareness among our stakeholders including our building tenants, we organise a range of programmes and initiatives that aim to promote efforts in protecting the environment. For example, we continue to participate in the annual global Earth Hour campaign by turning off the lights in our buildings to raise awareness about climate change.

We have also stopped providing the UOB Annual Report on CD-ROMs and only provide a printed copy if one is requested. We encourage our shareholders and investors to share in our environmental efforts by reading the electronic version of the UOB Annual Report 2017.

More information on our efforts to support sustainable development can be found in the Sustainability Approach and Customer sections of this report.

Our Environmental Performance

Electricity Use (kWh)

Energy Intensity from Electricity Use (kWh/m²)

Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Electricity Use (tCO₂)

Carbon Dioxide Emission Intensity from Electricity Use (tCO₂/m²)

We adjusted our CO₂ emission figures for Singapore for 2015 and 2016 to reflect the slight revision in the grid emission factors.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Business Air Travel (tCO₂)

Water Consumption (m³)

Office Paper Consumption and Paper Recycled (Singapore) (Tonne)

General Waste Generated (Singapore Office Buildings) (Tonne)

We started to collate the data on office paper consumption and paper recycled across our regional markets in 2017.

Other Key Sections

Corporate Governance
Five-Year Group Performance Summary
Our Awards and Accolades in 2017
Investor Reference

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Past Years’ Annual Report

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As part of our efforts to reduce our environmental footprint, we will no longer distribute our Annual report by way of a CD-rom. We would like to invite you to join us in our sustainability efforts and refer to the electronic Annual Report.