Bouwinvest aims to provide a solid return on real estate investments for institutional investors and their beneficiaries and to do this in a responsible manner. What this means is that we take a long-term view and environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria play a significant role in our investment strategy. We have integrated social, environmental, and/or ethical considerations in our core business strategy and operations to create more value for our stakeholders and generate better risk-adjusted financial returns for our investors. Sustainable and socially responsible investments and business operations play a key role in booking growth in a controlled manner, future-proofing our organisation and real estate investments and are a key factor in the role we want to play in tackling the challenges we all face today and in the future. In other words, we see sustainability as an inherent part of our corporate mission and our license to operate.
The Fund addresses a wide range of environmental and social issues, risks and opportunities during the various investment stages (from acquisition to management through to disposal). By identifying and managing those issues that are expected to impact investment performance and generate long-term business value, we seek to protect returns over the long term and future-proof our portfolio.
We believe that green buildings can help combat climate change, as well as generate numerous other wider social, economic, environmental and health benefits. Acting responsibly is therefore an integral part of the Fund’s investment strategy and we are certain it lowers risks, increases returns and increases lettability.
Sustainability ambition and strategy
Our ambition is to be in the leading group of sustainable real estate funds. We want to set the standard in our sector and create and sustain stakeholder value through effective integration of material ESG issues that lower risks and future-proof our real estate investments. The Fund has a responsible investment focus on environmental impact, stakeholder value and community engagement.
We aim for above-average sustainability performance at Fund and asset level.
Our long-term strategy to achieve this goal is based on three main pillars:
Increased Fund and building sustainability performance
Increased community and stakeholder engagement
Reduced environmental impact
Summary of responsible Fund and asset management
ESG Strategy | Category | ESG targets 2017 | Results 2017 |
Increased fund and building sustainability performance | Fund | • GRESB 4 star rating | Achieved: GRESB 4 star rating |
• Improvement of overall GRESB score | Not achieved: total GRESB score remained at 74 points |
Asset | • 100% of all shopping centres BREEAM certificate in 2018 | On track: six assets received a BREEAM label |
• 100% green (A, B, C) portfolio in 2018 | On track: Green portfolio up with 14 bps to 99% in total |
Increased community and stakeholder engagement | People | • Improvement of bi-annual tenant satisfaction rate (5.8 in 2015) | Achieved: Average tenant satisfaction rating 6.5 |
Reduced environmental impact | Environment | • Yearly reduction of energy consumption (like-for-like) with 2% | Achieved: Like-for-like energy reduction of 7.2%. |
• Increase percentage renewable energy through the installation of solar panels | On track |
The 2017 results will be explained in more in detail in the following sections.