Sustainability

The Vision

At Cedar Woods, our vision is to be Australia's leading property company, recognised for performance and quality. Achieving this requires more than delivering successful developments — it means creating lasting value for our shareholders while making a positive contribution to the communities, environment and markets in which we operate.

Cedar Woods does more than create vibrant communities. We are proud of our reputation for being environmentally and socially responsible. We continually look for ways to:

• Reduce our ecological footprint
• Promote affordable housing
• Respect Indigenous and cultural heritage
• Stimulate economic investment and jobs
• Foster cooperative stakeholder relationships
• Activate the communities we create
• Foster diversity, equal opportunity and career development in the workplace
• Provide a safe work environment for all who work on Cedar Woods projects
• Instil our values and promote an ethical business culture through strong governance

Protecting the Environment

Environmental responsibility is an important part of how Cedar Woods plans, delivers and manages its projects.

Our development activities can have environmental impacts, and we work to understand, manage and reduce those impacts across the project lifecycle. Our approach is outlined in the ESG Report and summarised below.

Our Objectives

The company formulated its Environmental Management Policy, which incorporates mitigation and adaptation measures for climate change throughout the business lifecycle.

• Our focus on urban infill seeks to mitigate climate change by redeveloping existing brownfield sites to avoid further impact on the natural environment and to lower travel emissions by reducing travel distances and encouraging the use of public transport. 
• When evaluating the business case for new projects, we investigate potential climate change impacts and the adoption of mitigation strategies. These factors affect urban design, development outcomes and project feasibility.
• During detailed design, we plan for climate-responsive solutions, such as the conservation and protection of natural bushland, the rehabilitation of degraded land, design guidelines (with energy- and water-efficiency measures), and bushfire risk mitigation.
• During construction, we implement strategies and initiatives relating to conservation, revegetation, offsets, environmental management, wildlife protection, water management and, in some cases, infrastructure for renewable energy. We also work to reduce and recycle demolition and construction waste.
• Post construction, we engage in activities to monitor and manage ongoing environmental impacts, such as fauna surveys, groundwater monitoring, and conservation reserve management.

Key Areas

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

Cedar Woods has a strategic focus on creating sustainable communities, with a growing involvement in transit-oriented-development and urban renewal. This enables us to better respond to climate change by reducing urban sprawl, maximising use of existing infrastructure, including public transport, and by developing more compact cities.

BIODIVERSITY

Land development on greenfield estates can impact local bushland habitat, ecological communities and significant species. We aim to minimise and mitigate these impacts to protect biodiversity in surrounding environments. In most cases, only that part of a project site already degraded or denuded is suitable for urban development and environmental rehabilitation.

WATER

Australia’s climate is characterised by variability, either severe flooding or long-term drought / water scarcity (often resulting in water restrictions).  In response, Cedar Woods is constantly considering where its water is sourced, how efficiently it is used and how water quality is managed.

ENERGY

Implementing strategies to reduce energy use from fossil fuels and increase the uptake of renewable energy is an important part of our carbon emissions mitigation strategy. Most energy initiatives are realised at the building stage.

WASTE

Investigating land for potential contamination, identifying hazardous waste and undertaking remediation and removal of waste to enable urban development, are important considerations when considering new acquisitions and project delivery. We manage demolition and construction impacts by containing or removing contaminants and minimising waste to landfill with subsequent environment and financial benefits.