We believe Responsible Investment is about all employees and affiliated organisations taking the initiative to help improve the environment and society. The built environment consumes around 40% of the world’s energy and accounts for up to 30% of the world’s annual GHG emissions. Additionally, the building industry is a large user of raw materials. As a global real estate investor, we feel is it part of our responsibility to help find solutions, to contribute to a CO2-neutral, sustainable, circular, resilient and healthy living environment, and to enhance stakeholder value by investing in sustainable real estate.
Long-term climate change ambition: near ‘energy neutral’ portfolio before 2045
The Fund endorses the area-focused approach proposed by the Dutch government. If one of our properties is located in a pilot district/neighbourhood for climate agreement-related initiatives, we will cooperate as much as we can. In the period 2019-2021, the Fund will draw up a 'Paris Proof' roadmap 2030/2050 to determine how we will use smart methods to make the entire portfolio near energy neutral before 2045 (average energy index of 0). The basic premise of this initiative is that any improvements are affordable, fit into our maintenance cycle and are aligned with the area-focused approach of the municipal authority in question. Whenever any gas-powered installations are replaced in the coming years, we will weigh the feasibility of replacing these with (nearly) natural gas-free installations.
In addition to this, we continue to make an active contribution to the concrete measures aimed at realising the climate agreement and regional plans via various channels (including the Dutch Association of Institutional Property Investors, IVBN, and the Dutch Green Building Council).
To make a start, we have formulated the following ‘Paris-proof’ objectives for the mid-term:
Strategy: obtain GRESB 5-star rating in 2020
Our long-term strategy to keep the Fund highly sustainable and obtain a GRESB 5-star rating is based on three main pillars:
The goal for the Retail Fund is to obtain a GRESB 5-star rating by 2020. This will keep the Fund highly sustainable and make a positive contribution to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which include Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), Affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8).
Summary of Responsible Investment
The Fund has set targets in line with its Responsible Investment objectives and long-term climate ambitions. In 2018, the Fund made significant progress on its Responsible Investment objectives and targets, as shown in the table below. The 2018 results according to INREV sustainability guidelines are explained in the following sections. For more detailed information, please see the Responsible Investment performance indicators on page 104 of this annual report.
| | Results responsible investment 2018 |
Continued improvement of the Fund's sustainability performance | We improved our GRESB score by 5 points (total 79 points) and retained our GRESB 4-star rating |
Investing in sustainable real estate | 84.0% of our shopping centres have a BREEAM-NL in-use certificate. |
In 2018, we realised a 5.7% like-for-like reduction of energy consumption. We have installed a total of 125 kWp in solar panels. This resulted in 95.6% green label portfolio with an average energy index of 0.88. |
Enhancing stakeholder value | Satisfaction survey tenants: we conduct a bi-annual tenant satisfaction survey to gather the information we need to meet our tenants' needs. As in previous years, we discussed the results with our property managers and agreed targets, all aimed at further improving tenant satisfaction. |
23.8% construction sites (one redevelopment) are registered under the Dutch Considerate Constructors Scheme (‘Bewuste Bouwer’). |
Being a responsible organisation | Zero incidents and sanctions as a result of non-compliance |