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Sustainability matters

Our vision is to be a leader in real estate sustainability. Our third-party managers are expected to maintain the standards set by our proprietary Sustainable Building standards. The standards define requirements and best practices to encourage improvement while addressing the need for advancement, guidance, tools, and consistency. Property teams are required to report on their progress against minimum requirements and advancement initiatives on an annual basis.

Download our latest sustainability report

Letter from our global head of real estate investments

Marc Feliciano

 

As a global real estate asset manager, we’re committed to confronting sustainability challenges to make a positive impact on our environment and society. I’m pleased to present our 2022 Real Estate Sustainability Report as part of our commitment to transparency on our sustainable investing efforts.

In 2021, our global real estate portfolio was recognized as a GRESB Sector Leader1 ranking first among its peer group for sustainability leadership. This is a significant achievement in a year where participation in the survey globally increased by 24%.

 

Our approach to sustainability

We incorporate ESG considerations into each stage of the real estate value chain, from the development or acquisition of a building through to property management and leasing. Our sustainable real estate policy outlines our five sustainability commitments and details our key areas of focus. We then validate practices and performance through public reporting and industry benchmarking.

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    Our five sustainability commitments

    The following highlight our achievements within each of our five sustainability commitments. 

     

  • Minimize our environmental footprint 

    • Modeled our global portfolio emissions and reduction opportunities to support an 80% GHG intensity-based reduction target by 2050
    • Achieved 80% global green building certification rate
    • Buildings achieved 6 new LEED and 11 new BOMA BEST certifications in 2020

  • Promote responsible business practices 

    • Achieved PRI Score of "A" in the Direct Reporting module
    • Conducted a climate risk and resilience assessment across our global portfolio 
    • Updated investment tools to better integrate sustainability into our acquisitions process, including social impacts, and physical climate risk assessments

  • Support health and wellness

    • Achieved Fitwel certification at Manulife Place in Edmonton and The Michelson in Irvine
    • Launched our return to office program, which defined policies and procedures for the operation of our buildings during and after COVID-19

  • Be accountable for our performance

    • Earned a "Green Star" ranking in all six of our GRESB submissions, including three 5 Star ratings for the third straight year 
    • Received a GRESB resilience score of 86 out of 100, placing us 3rd out of 14 among our peers and well above the Global/Diversified– Office/Industrial peer group average of 62
    • Achieved our proprietary 2020 Sustainable Building Standards targets across all asset classes

  • Engage our stakeholders

    • Hosted virtual events for tenants in partnership with BOMA Canada and Alvéole
    • Introduced the community engagement award, a new real estate sustainability award recognizing the property team that exceeds expectations, going above and beyond to support our tenants and our communities

For more information, please refer to our 2021 Real Estate Sustainability Report. 

The way forward

Our executive Sustainability Steering Committee sets annual sustainability objectives that focus our efforts and outline key milestones in our strategy. The following are our objectives for 2022.

  • 1

    Address Climate Risk through:

    GHG management: Build on our progress in 2021 to advance our greenhouse gas management strategy through:

    • Completing property-level GHG workbooks and GHG reduction asset plans 
    •  Conducting a Scope 3 assessment 
    •  Preparing renewable energy credit guidance 

    Increase the number of properties with climate resilience plans

  • 2

    Initiate a nature-positive strategy by:

    Integrating nature into our investment due diligence and new developments 

    Revising our proprietary Sustainable Building Standards to include guidance on protecting nature

  • 3

    Develop Social Impact Framework that will include:

    Integrating social impact factors into our investment due diligence, new development guidances, and asset management standards 

  • 4

    Advance reporting and ESG disclosures including launching a new ESG data management software platform 

  • 5

    Develop sustainability training platform with educational modules for all employees

Reports and important documents

Case studies 

Expanding our Sustainable Building Standards

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face today. For our buildings and our communities, it poses both physical and transitional risks. To help guard against these risks, in 2021, we developed two new Sustainable Building Standards: Climate Change Resilience and GHG Management and Planning.

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From the ground up

As a long-term owner, we know it’s critical to manage ESG throughout the lifecycle of our assets. In 2021, we formalized our approach to ESG integration into new developments in recognition that our development pipeline presents one the of the earliest opportunities to manage risk and capitalize on opportunity.

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Sector leadership: GRESB ranks global real estate portfolio first in peer group

In 2021, we achieved a new milestone: We were recognized by GRESB as a Sector Leader, ranking first in our peer group for our global real estate portfolio.

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Requirements for our third-party real estate managers

In 2021, we made the strategic decision to migrate our US real estate platform to third-party property managers to oversee the operation of our buildings.

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