THE PATH AHEAD Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations 2018 Awards
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THE PATH AHEAD Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations 2018 Awards 1 Contents Foreword 1 Scope of the Survey 2 Highlights 3 Award Winners 5 Results Snapshot... 7 Awards Methodology 10 Participants List 11 2 Foreword Dominique Moerenhout Matthew Tippett CEO National Director EPRA JLL At EPRA, we are delighted to champion sustainability JLL has proudly supported ERPA on the EPRA practices by bringing reporting on sustainability Sustainability Awards since 2012. We are delighted to have performance front and centre in the listed real estate seen some impressive achievements over these years, and sector. To this end, our industry-leading guidance on this year is no exception. Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations (sBPR) continue to reach an ever increasing number of companies The EPRA Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations and yield record-breaking results. (sBPR) are intended to raise the standards and consistency of sustainability reporting. This report 2018 marks a truly outstanding year as 65 companies highlights the changes that have taken place over the received an award, which is to be compared with 55 past year, and recognises the achievements of all award companies last year and is more than double the amount winners. of award winners at the launch of the sBPR Awards in 2012. Out of the 65 award recipients, 50 companies received We are again delighted to celebrate with EPRA the a Gold Award in comparison with 37 companies from last record number of companies who won a Gold Award, year, 7 of which have never previously received an award. and in particular Aroundtown, Entra, Hispania Activos Immobiliarios, Merlin Properties Socimi, Mobimo, The rising amount of award winners mirrors the increasing Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust and UK number of companies that report in line with sBPR, Commercial Property REIT who all went from no award in effectively demonstrating that proactive transparency 2017 straight to Gold in 2018. enables companies to achieve successful results ahead of regulators’ and investors’ demands of public disclosure on Just as encouraging is the high number of companies policies, performances and risks related to Environmental, disclosing against the new social and governance Social and Governance (ESG) factors. In this regard, I Performance Measures. Although this year’s awards are am pleased to announce that the number of companies purely based on performance against the 16 environmental reporting on at least one of EPRA’s Performance Measures Performance Measures, EPRA members are in a promising increased from 68% in 2017 to 81% in 2018, and out of 50 position as we look towards 2019 when all 28 Performance Gold Award winners 46 disclosed information on all of the Measures will count towards the Awards. environmental Performance Measures. This year’s feedback reports will include a provisional Significantly for 2018, this was the first year that social assessment against the social and governance and governance Performance Measures were included in Performance Measures to help you identify improvements. the assessment and it already shows promising results: We hope all participating companies will challenge 86% of the companies reported against at least one themselves over the coming year to improve their social Performance Measure and 74% reported against all disclosure so the success continues. governance Performance Measures. While these results Finally, I would like to thank EPRA and it Sustainability are impressive, we at EPRA will be working closely with Committee for their partnership and leadership in this European property companies to ensure that Performance initiative, helping to establish best practice in reporting for Measures on social and governance metrics are fully listed real estate companies across Europe. implemented in order to bring the sBPR to the next level. On a final note, I would like to thank our Sustainability Committee and EPRA’s sustainability team for leading this effort, and JLL for their support which makes this review possible. 1 Scope of the Survey Annual and sustainability reports for the year ending Companies added to the survey between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018 inclusive were Ascencio reviewed for all EPRA members and Index constituents Carmila of the FTSE EPRA Nareit Developed Europe Index. Catena Commentaries on the 2018 results are focused on the Civitas Social Housing 125 EPRA members and 14 Index constituents that were Daejan Holdings assessed as part of the 2018 Awards. Deutsche Konsum REIT Fonciere Atland The table on the right indicates the EPRA members and Fonciere INEA Index constituents that have been added or removed Globalworth from the survey compared to last year. Impact Healthcare REIT Montea Sirius Real Estate Companies removed from the survey Geographical breakdown of the companies Axiare Patrimonio included in the survey: Conwert Immobilien Invest EUROSIC Kennedy Wilson Europe LAMDA Development Norway 2 Sponda Greece 2 WCM Finland 2 Ireland 3 Gold Award Italy 4 Silver Award Austria 4 Bronze Award Switzerland 6 The No Award Netherlands 6 Non-Reporter Spain 7 Belgium 12 France 14 Sweden 14 Germany 17 United Kingdom 46 2 2018 Highlights 50 companies won Gold, up from 37 in 2017 of EPRA 52% members report of EPRA at least one EPRA members won % sustainability an award Performance 81 Measure 4 companies 7 companies won Gold for went from the 7th year No Award 7 running straight to Gold 15% of EPRA 78% of EPRA members members companies reported reported on moved on all social all governance up award Performance Performance categories Measures 6 Measures 5 2018 Highlights “As Chairman of EPRA’s Sustainability “As an Investor member of the EPRA Committee, I am proud to report on the Sustainability Committee, I believe that ESG continuing success of the sBPR and the public disclosure is crucial for companies to beneficial impact it has on our sector in terms actively communicate their strategies and of advancing sustainability practices. While I performance with veracity, clearness, and am very pleased with the increasing number of accountability. To this end, the EPRA sBPR are companies that publicly disclose information on contributing to an increase in the comparability their sustainability performance, I particularly and transparency of real estate companies look forward to viewing the results next year across Europe. The new social and governance as we have expanded the sBPR assessment Performance Measures, recently introduced to include 12 new social and governance in third version of the guidelines, will help Performance Measures. By using the new companies further strengthen their ESG indicators, in combination with a planned open credibility.” data base that hosts all of the companies’ sBPR data, EPRA will be providing real estate Jorrit Arrisen stakeholders with a unique and unbiased insight into the sector performance. In the Senior Portfolio Manager Real Estate meantime, I would like to extend my sincerest Kempen Capital Management gratitude to EPRA’s sustainability team, all of the companies and the investors who have contributed to making this year’s revision of the sBPR such an successful endeavour.” Olivier Elamine CEO alstria office REIT 6 2018 Award Winners Companies retaining their Gold Award New companies winning a Gold Award 57 Silver Award Bronze Award Most Improved Award 86 Results Snapshot... In 2018 we saw a substantial increase in the number of performance is clearly having an impact as the number award winners, from 55 in 2017 to 65 in 2018. Of these, of Non-reporters has reduced significantly from 53% in 50 received a Gold Award, 6 received a Silver Award and 2016 to 17% in 2018. 9 received a Bronze Award. With the increasing diversity of companies included in Overall, 47% of companies received an award, meaning the assessment in terms of portfolio size and market awards cover 73% of the total value of all companies capitalisation, it is encouraging to see that this has included in this year’s assessment when weighted by not influenced the awards received. In fact, a total of market capitalisation. 6 companies moved up an award category, with five companies moving from a Silver to Gold, and one In a clear signal that companies are increasing the company moving from Bronze to Gold. quality of their reporting and providing investors with more reliable data, it is particularly encouraging to see This increase in award winners is mostly attributable to that the number of Gold Award winners has significantly the number of Gold Awards which rose from 8% in 2012 increased from 37 in 2017 to 50 in 2018. to 35% in 2018. The surest route to Gold is methodically And while the overall number of award winners following the guidelines and getting the basics right; increased, it is also noteworthy that the sBPR continue from including Performance Measure codes to ensuring to gain traction, with the number of companies reporting the Overarching Recommendations are consistently on at least one of the EPRA Performance Measures applied. increasing from 68% in 2017 to 81% in 2018. We would like to make a special mention to four Figure 2. Total number of award winners per category companies who have achieved a Gold Award for all seven 2012-2018 years of the EPRA sBPR Awards: these consistently outstanding performers are British Land, Citycon, 70 Klépierre and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. 60 50 Figure 1. Total number of award winners, non-award winners, and non-reporters 2012-2018 40 Gold Silver 160 30 Bronze 140 20 120 1 10 100 0.9 0.8 0 80 0.7 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 0.6 60 0.5 40 0.4 0.3 Reporting against all (or nearly all) of the Performance 20 0.2 Measures is essential for companies wanting to achieve The0 0.1 award winners an award, as they account for half of the total score.