Where we stand on Lendlease
We’ve sold our Lendlease shares over its planned development that impacts one of the last healthy koala colonies in NSW.*
Why we divested
We’ve sold our Lendlease shares because our four years of advocacy on the Mt Gilead project with them has stalled. We don’t take divestment lightly. It is our last resort, and it is a valuable and necessary part of our advocacy process.
If the Mt Gilead development goes ahead as currently proposed, we believe we won’t know if the koalas will be adequately protected.
Our advocacy since 2018
We’ve been engaging with Lendlease on this issue since 2018. Our aim has always been to secure greater protections for koalas and to ensure the company takes biodiversity security seriously.
We have a housing shortage in Australia and we were hopeful this development could have been a blueprint for how sustainable urban development can be compatible with nature. However, we were not convinced that the koalas will be sufficiently protected.
2018
Our Ethics Research team began proactively monitoring Lendlease’s development of the Mount Gilead estate near Campbelltown, NSW – holding them to account, in line with our Ethical Charter and our commitment to investing for a better world.
2021
We secured a site visit with Lendlease and two NGOs, where we challenged Lendlease on the impacts of the land clearing required for the development. As a result, Lendlease redesigned the timeline for the project, bringing forward conservation activities and pushing out some of the impacts.
2022
In December, we made a public statement calling on the NSW Government and Lendlease to be transparent about their calculations of the width of the koala corridors, to give Australian Ethical and others the ability to take part in a genuine consultation on this important issue.
2023
In our opinion, Lendlease has failed to produce critical information needed to independently assess the impact of its housing development on koalas. This means we believe we won’t know if the koalas will be adequately protected. And that’s why we’ve sold our shares.
Past updates
*We will also sell our investment in an unlisted property trust, the Australian Prime Property Fund – Retail, which is managed by Lendlease, at the first available opportunity.