Commitment
We remain committed to sustainable business practices in our day-to-day activities by encouraging a culture of environmental responsibility at our headquarters and within our communities. We work with our clients to promote environmental responsibility at the properties we own.
Activities
As we grow our sustainability efforts, we intend to leverage our size and expand our client engagement efforts to achieve shared sustainability objectives. We are:
- Expanding and incorporating a greater volume of “Green Lease Clauses” in our leases for access to utility and performance data through lease rollovers, sale-leaseback transactions, and initiatives which allow clients to identify and implement energy efficiency projects.
- Scaling collaborative client engagement projects to assess opportunities across the portfolio. Examples include - on-site solar installations, electric vehicle charging stations, replacement of HVAC units, and installation of LED lighting.
- Working with strategic real estate partners to survey existing site-level environmental characteristics that can lead to a more comprehensive inventory of the portfolio’s low-footprint initiatives.
- Providing our real estate operations team with additional resources to identify and evaluate client partnership opportunities on the ground.
- Surveying our clients for greater visibility into the property characteristics of our portfolio.
- Continuing to strengthen our governance structure and legal instruments to expedite opportunities across our portfolio.
Headquarters Highlight
Upgrading our headquarters with environmentally friendly features allows us to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and test innovative solutions before rolling them out to our clients’ properties. In 2020, we began work towards our goal of offsetting approximately 100% of electric usage at our San Diego headquarters by 2023, based off a 2019 baseline. By maximizing energy efficiency and piloting solar energy, cutting-edge irrigation technologies, and other programs, we are leading the way for our clients and showing them what our sustainability partners can achieve.
Client Engagement
Our Commitment
We hold the protection of our assets, communities, and the environment in high regard. Based on our business model, the properties in our portfolio are primarily net-leased to our clients, and each client is generally responsible for maintaining the buildings, including managing utilities and implementing sustainable practices, which makes aggregating and reporting on this data difficult. By analyzing the baseline characteristics of our portfolio, we can better understand our clients' needs and build strong and enduring relationships to achieve our shared long-term goal of reducing the environmental impact of our portfolio.
Activities Within our Portfolio
Many of our clients focus on positive environmental and social impacts through their comprehensive corporate responsibility programs. Since our clients retain operational control of the properties we own, we work closely with them towards achieving mutual sustainability goals. For instance, to earn LEED certification, a building must meet standards in several areas, and we are prepared to assist our clients through the process. Through our Asset Management and Real Estate Operations and Sustainability teams efforts, we engage with renewable energy development companies to identify assets that would maximize energy efficiency initiatives throughout our property portfolio. These initiatives include solar energy arrays, battery storage, and charging stations. In addition, we continue to explore regional opportunities with our clients in order to qualify for city and county renewable energy or energy efficiency programs.
Client Highlight
Sainsbury’s, the U.K.’s second-largest supermarket company, committed £1.0 billion ($1.31 billion) to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, with increased renewable energy in stores and operations, energy-efficient fridges, and an expanded fleet of low emission delivery vehicles. As part of this strategy aligned to the Paris Agreement, the company committed to setting an absolute Scope 3 target to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030 under the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi).
If you’re interested in learning more about our climate mitigation efforts at our headquarters or within our portfolio, please contact Chris Laz, AVP, Sustainability.