32 Environmental, Social and Governance Report 2023 PILLAR 1: HUMAN CENTRIC Nourishing disadvantaged school children through food ESR Australia has signed up as a national partner of Eat Up Australia, which is a homegrown not-for-profit organisation working to help feed disadvantaged school children. With more than one in five Australian school children experiencing food insecurity, ESR shared the same mission as Eat Up Australia to help deliver social change and improve the well-being of the local communities. In 2023, on top of the financial support, our employees made over 7,000 sandwiches across six volunteering sessions to support the various schools. Cleaning up gardens to provide nurturing spaces for vulnerable children For the third consecutive year, ARA Venn participated in the garden clean-up project organised by Coram, which is a specialist group of children’s charities committed to improving the lives of UK’s vulnerable children and young adults. Established in 1739, Coram is the oldest children’s charity and remains at the forefront of children’s social care. Coram’s gardens are used by several charities to conduct therapy sessions, provide nursery services, and host adoption and fostering picnics. Our employees participated in the clean-up of Coram’s Collingham Gardens and surrounding grounds at the site’s headquarters at Brunswick Square. The work involved pruning, weeding, clearing debris, removal of rubbish and the application of topsoil, and is a meaningful cause to provide a better environment for the children. Distributing festive care package with our tenants During the year, the LOGOS teams from different offices gave back to the local communities through various initiatives. LOGOS’ Melbourne team collaborated with Northpoint Centre, which is a not-for-profit establishment to pack and distribute food to disadvantaged families and individuals. In celebration of Eid al-Fitr in April, the LOGOS’ Indonesia team joined a group of tenant customers to distribute 750 hampers containing food and other necessities to local communities and sub-district officers. In Singapore, the LOGOS team joined Lions Befrienders, which is a voluntary welfare organisation that provides care for seniors and distributed 100 care packages to the elderly. These initiatives are coordinated with our tenants in helping the underprivileged among the communities. Increasing access to homes — Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme ARA Venn (ARAV) was appointed by the UK Government to manage a GBP 3 billion Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme (AHGS). The purpose of the scheme is to finance social rent, affordable rent, and shared ownership housing to support the delivery of 17,000 new affordable homes in England. ARAV helps to carry out the origination, underwriting and management of the loans and bonds programme. By 2023, the AHGS made approximately GBP400 million of 30-year loans to eligible borrowers, with an extensive pipeline of future loans. The bonds issued to fund the loans, which are also guaranteed by the UK Government, were competitively priced. This enabled cheaper finance to be directly passed onto the borrowers, thus supporting the supply of new affordable homes to local communities. ARAV won the “Most innovative Finance Model” at the 2023 Housing Digital Innovation Awards for its efforts in helping organisations secure much needed and subsidised funding for affordable housing during difficult economic times. PROMOTING EDUCATION AND UPSKILLING ESR continues to fund scholarships and provides students from disadvantaged backgrounds with access to education. The ESR Group Scholarship Programme encourages undergraduates who need financial support to pursue higher education in Singapore. To date, there are a total of 49 scholarships awarded, with 13 active scholars from the Singapore Management University. To build our talent pipeline and strengthen our relationship with local universities, we offer internship positions across various departments within the Group to these students. The internship provides the students with an opportunity to understand our business and develop essential skills for their professional growth. Engagement sessions were also held for the scholars to network with our senior colleagues from various departments. In Australia, an ESR internship programme with the Western Sydney University (WSU) is also being offered to the students. During 2023, various business units within the Group supported wide-ranging educational initiatives to help local communities. Suntec REIT organised a donation drive at Suntec City in support of the Lee Kuan Yew Centennial Fund to develop young leaders in Singapore. In partnership with Kembangan-Chai Chee (“KCC”) Youth Network, ESR-LOGOS REIT provided the venue for the KCC Tuition Centre in three air-conditioned units at ESR BizPark @ Chai Chee, as part of the ongoing efforts to support disadvantaged youth. The REIT also sponsored the SportCares Community Futsal Programme, which is a structured programme to keep youths at-risk off the streets and bring about holistic behavioural changes through sports. Community Investment
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