Biophilic design at the heart of developer’s biodiversity strategy
- Swire Properties’ Taikoo Square and Taikoo Garden aim to enhance urban biodiversity in key business district
Swire Properties is spearheading the use of biophilic design in the redevelopment of its Taikoo Place portfolio in Quarry Bay, aiming to create a thriving ecosystem in an urban neighbourhood, enhance its biodiversity and improve the well-being of the development’s tenants and surrounding community.
Biodiversity is essential for the processes that support all life on Earth, including humans. It is also a critical element in economic turnover: more than half of the world’s global economy, an estimated US$44 trillion, is generated by industries that rely on healthy natural ecosystems.
Yet human activities have degraded about 40 per cent of Earth’s land surface, contributing to climate change and the depletion of biodiversity and natural resources.
Scientists have long known that any attempts to reverse the damage to natural ecosystems can only be achieved by sustainable and equitable development. The Biodiversity Plan, a result of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed by G7 countries in 2022 to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, aims to mobilise at least US$30 billion each year from developed countries by 2030. These funds will be allocated to key areas including conservation efforts, ecosystem restoration and financial support for developing countries, with the aim of halting and reversing biodiversity loss and ensuring a sustainable and equitable future for all.
Biodiversity is at the forefront of Swire Properties’ SD 2030 Strategy, through which it aims to enrich natural ecosystems in urban neighbourhoods, leading to more resilient communities for residents and businesses. The strategy prescribes the conducting of biodiversity surveys across its new development projects and implementing guidelines to integrate biodiversity considerations in new developments by 2025. This follows the launch of Swire Properties’ biodiversity policy in 2019 and the completion last year of its biodiversity guidelines for Hong Kong to help the company’s project teams and management offices integrate biodiversity into its operations.
