Tenant Spotlight – Creating Sustainable Impact through Healthcare Expertise, Collaboration and Innovation
24 Nov 2025
In this issue of our Tenant Spotlight, Flora Lee, Head of Corporate Affairs at Bayer, shares how the world leader in life sciences and healthcare transforms global sustainability commitments into meaningful local initiatives. From collaborating with NGOs to embedding sustainable practices across their office with Swire Properties’ Green Performance Pledge (GPP), Bayer’s focus is on driving societal impact – offering valuable insights on how collective action can lead to impactful, lasting change.
Bayer’s global mission is Health for all, Hunger for none. How does your team bring that to life to create real, local impact in the region?
Flora:
Bayer’s mission guides everything we do. We turn this vision into action by improving access to healthcare and nutritional education where it’s needed most.
We believe sharing knowledge creates stronger, longer-term impact on societal wellbeing — beyond what financial support alone can offer. That’s why we collaborate with NGOs to deliver health education, including reproductive health awareness for young women in Hong Kong. Our teams also organise health talks for patients about disease symptoms and management, particularly for conditions like visual impairment and heart failure where early intervention is vital.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many colleagues in Hong Kong stepped up to help stroke and brain injury patients, teaching them to use smartphone apps to manage medical appointments and social connections. We also run patient assistance programmes with NGOs and community pharmacies to support patients facing financial challenges. These initiatives align with our global sustainability goals—not just as targets to meet, but as steps to build healthier, more resilient communities.
We are also advancing our environmental efforts. Since about 80% of a product’s environmental impact is defined at the design stage, packaging is a key focus of our Sustainability by Design programme. In consumer health, we aim for 100% recycle-ready packaging by 2030, removing hard-to-recycle features like hot stamping and sticker labels. Redoxon’s new packaging—already on Hong Kong shelves—reflects this commitment. In our pharmaceuticals division, where regulation is more stringent, we’re aiming to reduce the carbon footprint by 38%, phasing out materials like polyvinyl chloride and embracing innovations that greatly reduce packaging volume.
Beyond products, we are closely managing day-to-day office operations, aiming to reduce our footprint. Swire Properties’ alignment to various green building initiatives amplifies these efforts — helping us embed sustainability practices from the ground up. Our whole value chain with services providers is also held to high standards through our Code of Conduct, which encourages responsible practices from end to end.
How do you engage colleagues so they truly feel part of the sustainability journey?
Flora:
To us, sustainability is integral to our mission. Surveys have shown that our colleagues value responsible practices and want to be part of the change, especially since the office is where they spend most of their time.
Our Dynamic Shared Ownership (DSO) model is one way that colleagues are empowered to act and evolve. This was demonstrated when the team was exploring the relocation of a drug sample room from our Hong Kong office to an external storage facility. The DSO model led to co-creation with a mission-focused outcome, through a creative approach involving medical, regulatory, quality assurance and administrative teams working together. The resulting decision to relocate the room saved energy and costs while also transforming the underused space into a multi-use meeting area. Importantly, colleagues who had been managing the room could focus on higher-impact, meaningful work.
Grassroots initiatives also play a role in employee engagement. Upcycle Utopia, an employee-led platform, helps colleagues swap or repurpose unused items like books, promoting sustainable practices as part of daily life. These small actions build collective momentum, reinforcing a sense of shared purpose.
Collaboration is clearly at the heart of your sustainability efforts. How has your partnership with Swire Properties and the GPP helped move the needle on your key initiatives?
Flora:
As part of our Green Lease, both Bayer and Swire Properties are committed to managing energy, water and waste responsibly while sharing environmental data through the GPP platform. The focus isn’t on mere compliance or ticking boxes but on shared accountability and transparency.
Together, we have made tangible progress. The phased replacement of fluorescent tubes with LED lights cut our annual energy use and costs by 20%, while reducing maintenance needs. Installing water meters helped us achieve another 20% of savings comparing to last year, and participating in the Smart Waste Reduction Challenge nearly doubled our waste diversion rate from 25% to 47%. In total, we have tracked over seven tonnes of waste, including plastic, paper, metals, food waste and coffee grounds from our office. These combined efforts have helped us avoid over 5.6 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, roughly the same as driving about 40,000 kilometres in a gasoline-powered vehicle.1
The GPP’s tenant portal has also been instrumental. Transparent data highlights what’s working and what needs improvement. These insights have helped us earn Certificates of Merit from the Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence and achieve an upgrade from a Silver to a Gold rating in the GPP.
Ultimately, our partnership is built on trust. Open dialogue and data sharing have allowed us to make evidence-based improvements — demonstrating how landlords and tenants can work hand in hand to make sustainability efforts measurable and meaningful.
Looking ahead, how can Bayer and Swire Properties deepen sustainability efforts and take the partnership to the next level?
Flora:
We see great potential in combining Bayer’s healthcare expertise with Swire Properties’ sustainability leadership to create wider community impact. One exciting initiative could be to join forces with other pharmaceutical tenants to launch health and sustainability education initiatives covering self-care, mental wellness and long-term wellbeing.
Apart from community outreach, we are also striving to raise the bar internally. Having achieved a Gold GPP rating in 2024-2025, our next goal is Platinum. We hope to reach this milestone through greater learning and sharing opportunities through the GPP.
There’s always room for improvement, and by early planning — such as getting ahead on discussions about our lease — we can stay aligned and keep sustainability at the centre of every decision. Our journey is ongoing, and every step forward reinforces the value of collective action in building a more sustainable future.
The GPP is our flagship programme towards achieving our SD 2030 Strategy and longstanding commitment to fighting climate change, in joint efforts with our office tenants in Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland. Learn more about the programme on the GPP Website.
1. Estimated as per OpenCO2.net’s emission factors. (Note: this source is based in Finland and states that its calculations/tools are built on DNV verification and frameworks like the GHG Protocol and ISO 14067.)
