Environmental sustainability: how committed are we?

Explore Communications is currently editing an environmental sustainability report for one of our clients, so our attention was caught by a news item on ABC Radio this morning – about delays to the construction of a koala underpass in south-west Sydney due to a stand-off between two developers. According to the ABC, there has been no progress on the construction for almost three months.

We know this area very well and have followed the history of the Mount Gilead Estate and Figtree Hill Estate development closely – we’ve driven past it regularly for the last ten years. We had concerns from the outset about the impact the housing estate would have on the local koala population, which at the time was prime koala habitat, supporting the only disease-free and growing colony of koalas in Greater Sydney.

The development threatened not only destroy a significant portion of that habitat and an important East-West koala corridor through land clearing; the increase in traffic volumes along that route would lead to more koala deaths and injuries. The ABC reported that more than 50 koalas have been killed by vehicles since 2022.

Lendlease, the original developer of the site, made a series of commitments about koala conservation at Gilead; which were necessary for the development to be given the green light by the NSW Government. That included building koala underpasses.

Those commitments are now shared by Stockland, who purchased Figtree Hill Estate from Lendlease in November 2024.

We thought we’d dig deeper into both Lendlease’s and Stockland’s commitment to environmental sustainability, to see how it aligned with the current situation as reported by the ABC.

There was a professional interest as well as a personal one. In the work we are doing right now on our client’s environmental sustainability report, a critical aspect of this is to be sure that what we are writing about isn’t just window-dressing. It needs to accurately represent the organisation’s actual environmental commitment and sustainable behaviour.

Here is Lendlease’s leading statement about biodiversity for its Gilead project:

“Our commitment to conservation is fundamental to our vision to create the best places for people today and for generations to come. The Figtree Hill and Gilead precincts will be defined by the conservation areas and green open spaces that are integral to the project.”

In its overall position on nature and biodiversity, Lendlease acknowledges the damage being caused …

“The world is experiencing an accelerating loss of biodiversity due to human activity, with nearly one million plant and animal species at the point of extinction.”

… and also that, as an organisation, it still has work to do:

“In response to the scale of the nature crisis and the need for global action, we are undertaking a Nature & Biodiversity strategic review. The purpose of the review is to better understand the ways in which our business activities impact and depend on nature, along with the opportunities we have to enhance nature and slow down biodiversity loss.”

In its FY25 Environmental Management Approach, Stockland includes a section on biodiversity, with this introduction …

“We recognise the important role biodiversity plays in sustaining healthy ecosystems and supporting human health and wellbeing. We also understand the intrinsic value of biodiversity and the global significance of Australia’s unique flora and fauna, as well as its importance to the culture of First Nations people. Our Liveability Index survey results tell us that our customers value green space and access to nature, so integrating developable land with conservation and the enjoyment of biodiversity is critical to the overall success of our communities.”

… and its management approach to biodiversity:

“To minimise our direct impact on biodiversity we apply the mitigation hierarchy through our assessment and consideration of design and management options. The mitigation hierarchy includes 1) avoiding impacts, 2) minimising impacts, 3) restoring cleared or degraded areas and finally 4) offsetting impacts to significant biodiversity.”

In Lendlease’s press release back in November 2024 announcing that the construction of the first koala underpass was officially underway, Brendan O’Brien, Head of NSW Residential Communities, Lendlease was quoted as saying:

“We’ve wasted no time in starting construction of important koala safety measures following approval from Transport for NSW. This first fauna underpass at Noorumba Reserve will be the first safe east-west connection for koalas between the Nepean and Georges Rivers.”

At Explore, we tend to let the words do the talking, so we will just leave all this with you to come to your own conclusions as to where Lendlease and Stockland stand on biodiversity and sustainability.