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20          ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE REPORT 2020                                                                                                                                OUR ESG APPROACH          21









                                                                                                                                   Towngas 2020 Materiality Matrix

                        Case Study
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              In  2020 we launched  our  ESG  Enhancement  Plan  with  the  aim  of improving  our ESG performance  and                                 19     7 10  11                                           19    9 11
              awareness. We also organised the first Group-wide Sustainability Award, which encourages our staff and project                           21 20  25  26                                            13 21 20 35 25  7 10 26
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              companies to create innovative, long-term sustainable development projects. Three awards were available:                               13   36  32                                              22  24 15 36 34 32
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                          Environmental                    Social                            Sustainability                                         24 15  34                                           14   37
                          Excellence Award                 Participation Award               Award                                               37 27  33                                            17
                          to promote the use of            to recognise our joint            to acknowledge
                          advanced technologies in         ventures and departmental         project continuity                                                                              23  3  18  39
                          waste treatment, as well as      efforts to combat the             and influence                                                                              29    40
                          continuous waste reduction       COVID-19 pandemic through                                                   Importance to stakeholders
                          and recycling                    innovative measures, social
                                                           participation and employee
                                                           caring programmes
              A series of ESG trainings and publications, as well as other ESG related activities, will be rolled out in 2021.
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            Materiality Assessment                                                                                                                                28
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            To ensure our ESG Report addresses topics that reflect Towngas’ significant economic, environmental and social
            impacts, we conduct a series of stakeholder engagement activities every year.                                                        30  5  4
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            In preparing our materiality assessment, we adopted the internationally recommended three-step process of                                      Impact of Towngas' business on the economy, environment and society
            Identification, Prioritisation and Validation.                                                                                                                                   Less Important  Important  Very Important


            We mapped the materiality of 40 issues, with the most important issues listed at the top right quadrant of the
            matrix, while less important issues are found at the bottom left. Issues shown in the middle of the matrix are those        Creating Business Opportunities                   Contributing to Stakeholders
            we have identified as emerging in importance.                                                                          1    Direct economic value                        19   Employment management system
                                                                                                                                   2    Financial risks and opportunities associated with ESG issues  20  Employer-employee relations
            A total of 23 issues were prioritised as material for Towngas to address and report on.                                3    Direct economic contribution                 21   Training and development
                                                                                                                                   4    Indirect economic impacts                    22   Diversity, equal opportunity and non-discrimination
            The material issues identified remain similar to those of last year, with safety and customer privacy continuing to be   5  Economic impacts of procurement practices    23   Respect for the rights of association and collective
            the most important. Additionally, two emerging issues were identified as important: supply security and reliability,   6    Reserves and production                           bargaining
            and a future-proof workforce. This indicated that our stakeholders are concerned with how we guarantee the                                                               24   Responsible marketing communications
            supply of goods and services, as well as how we upskill employees and attract new talent with the skills needed                                                          25   Quality management and after-sales service
            to capture opportunities arising from emerging technologies, automation and digitalisation.                                 Ensuring Health and Safety                   26   Customer privacy and cybersecurity
                                                                                                                                   7    A safe and healthy work environment
                                                                                                                                   8    Asset integrity and process safety           27   Supplier environmental and social assessment
                                                                                                                                   9    Customer health and safety                   28   Community engagement, impact assessment and
               Identification                           Prioritisation                 Validation                                  10   Project/engineering quality assurance        29   investment
                                                                                                                                                                                          Respect for indigenous rights
               •  Reviewed and adopted ESG              •  Results of the survey       •  The prioritised list                     11   Emergency preparedness                       30   Involuntary resettlement
                 issues from previous stakeholder         were consolidated,             of material issues                                                                          31   Participation in public policy
                 engagement exercises                     analysed and assessed          was presented to                               Protecting the Environment                   32   Future-proof workforce*
                                                          to identify a prioritised      the Towngas ESG                           12   Greenhouse gases and other air emissions     33   Supply security and reliability*
               •  Emerging ESG issues were also           list of potentially material   Committee members                         13   Water and effluents                          34   Accelerated digitalisation*
                 included                                 issues                         for discussion and                        14   Waste
                                                                                         validation                                                                                  35   Provision of community crisis support*
               •  Over 450 external and internal        •  A materiality matrix                                                    15   Energy
                 Towngas stakeholders in Hong             was then formulated to                                                   16   Materials                                         Strengthening Corporate Governance
                 Kong and mainland China                  plot the ratings based                                                   17   Protection of ecosystem services             36   Anti-corruption
                 completed an online survey to            on their importance                                                      18   Fossil fuel substitutes                      37   Prevention of anti-competitive practices
                 confirm or rate the importance of        to Towngas and to
                 ESG topics in relation to Towngas’       stakeholders                                                                                                               38   Prevention of child labour or forced labour
                 businesses and operations                                                                                                                                           39   Respect for human rights
                                                                                                                                                                                     40   Protection of intellectual property rights

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         * Emerging issues
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