Letter from our
head of real estate sustainability
Our vision is to drive leadership in sustainable real estate across our global organization.
Our portfolio consists of real estate assets across 11 geographies and 28 cities.1 Being a good steward means focusing on the long term, integrating sustainability into our investments and operations, and collaborating with our tenants, industry leaders, and community partners. COVID-19 has only helped reaffirm our practices, accelerate our goals, and reinforce our five sustainability commitments as detailed in our Real Estate Sustainability Framework. Our ongoing response to climate change and the pandemic involves promoting positive, collaborative, science-based decisions in order to realize the sustainable future that we all envisage.
Over the past year, we’ve seen the tremendous impact buildings can have on our health and well-being. In 2020, we aligned with global health authorities and local government regulations to develop a comprehensive Return to Office program. We also provided guidance on the best health and safety practices for the pandemic through our Healthy Building webinars, and ultimately achieved Fitwel Viral Response Module (VRM) certification with distinction at the entity-level.
As a global real estate owner, we recognize we are in a unique position to lead the transition to a low-carbon economy. It’s well known that buildings consume substantial amounts of energy and water, generating approximately 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally.2 With this in mind, we developed a GHG model to identify multiple abatement opportunities and model reduction scenarios, setting a reduction target of 80% by 2050 for our real estate portfolio
We also undertook a program to learn more about our portfolio’s physical climate change risks and our resilience in the face of these risks. After submitting our global real estate portfolio for the GRESB Resilience module to assess our capacity to identify, manage, and adapt to physical climate shocks and stressors, we received a Resilience Score of 86 out of 100, placing us third among our peers, and well above the peer group average of 62. In 2021, we were recognized as a sector leader, ranking first across the Americas for our peer group.
Finally, to date, over 80% of our global portfolio carries a green building certification. We look forward to increasing these certifications in the future.
With sustainability a never-ending pursuit, we are aware of the impact and importance of working collaboratively toward a common goal. Together as a team, we are committed to finding and promoting solutions that support not only our own health but the planet’s as well.
For a greener planet,
Regan
1As of October 31, 2021