CapitaLand Café podcast with Lynette Leong, Chief Sustainability Officer, CapitaLand Investment

Question: What does your role as the Chief Sustainability Officer entail?

Lynette: My job is to position CapitaLand to manage risks and seize opportunities that can value-add our business. Sustainability is a very complex matter that is evolving, and there is a lot to learn. There are also mounting expectations from our stakeholders. Our investors, regulators, the government, customers and even staff are becoming more conscious of sustainability issues. So, it's really about putting everything together.

With the help of my team, we developed a CapitaLand Sustainability Master Plan with targets for 2030.?We set a ten-year target to guide everybody towards a common cause.

It is also important to embed sustainability in our best practices. For example in the past, our investments focus largely on commercial viability. Today, we also need to take into consideration the impact on the environment and the social well-being of our communities. It’s about bringing in all these different dimensions to make sure that what we do as a business is holistic.

My team and I launched the CapitaLand Sustainability X Challenge last year and we have a second edition this year. We are getting new ideas from startups with solutions that can be commercialised and then piloted at our properties. And when they are successful, we scale them up to be rolled out around the world.?

Question: How do we develop more women leaders like yourself in real estate and how do we make real estate a platform where they can grow and be nourished?

Lynette: There are many tracks within real estate today, and with that a lot of opportunities. You can be in investment, asset management, marketing, leasing, business management, finance, HR or sustainability, which right now is a very critical subject matter.

There are a lot of opportunities and we have to know what our strengths are. There are areas where we can complement a male-dominated sector. You have to find your niche and very importantly, do well in whatever opportunities you're given. When I started my career, I saw it as a launchpad for something better. There's always an opportunity to learn as much as possible. If you have the attitude of being grateful, you'll be able to learn as much as possible, and take that as a chance to do something else later on.

Question: What is your advice for the listeners?

Lynette: I want to just give a ‘triple A’ advice. Firstly, it’s Aptitude. I think you have to have good aptitude in what you do.

The second A is Attitude. And it's not just good attitude but great attitude, because you need to have the right temperament and the perseverance. Be confident. Women have got very good qualities that can be complementary in any situation.?

The third one is to be Authentic. Be authentic, be real and be honest. Then people will trust you because I think integrity is very important in everything that we do.?