AXA Real Estate Investment Managers is pleased to announce the publication of its 2010-2011 Sustainable Development Report, which highlights three key drivers to action (Engage, Measure and Explore), that form the basis of its ongoing active commitment to sustainable development and delivery of future value for its clients.
Engage
The overarching goal of the Company's sustainability strategy is to ensure that its clients' property portfolios are future-proofed against obsolescence. This is underpinned by engaging an intense dialog with all key stakeholders and entrenching this sustainability agenda into AXA Real Estate's day-to-day practices.
- Internal AXA Real Estate ensures that its governance and business processes embed the internal dialog and pragmatic guidelines necessary to deliver the sustainability performance of its clients' assets.
- Clients and tenants Given that the primary consideration as an asset manager is to deliver long term value to investors, the sustainability strategy for each AXA Real Estate asset or portfolio is tailored to clients' individual expectations and interests, and focused on a limited set of impactful actions. By agreeing on the appropriate indicators and performance benchmarks, these can be shared and demonstrated clearly.
- AXA Real Estate takes responsibility to work with tenants, as well as property and facility managers, in reducing occupational costs by decreasing the environmental impact of properties, which contributes to securing future cash flows, therefore enhancing value.
- Community AXA Real Estate is closely linked to the global social context and plays a significant role helping the communities in which it operates. As well as local initiatives, AXA Real Estate is actively involved in long term projects, both as a Company and through the personal involvement of its staff.
Measure
Measurement is essential to identifying areas of improvements, setting targets, and evaluating the actual impact of programs undertaken. Measurement also provides a sound factual basis upon which dialogue with stakeholders can be initiated to improve performance.
- Sustainable developments AXA Real Estate seeks appropriate local certification when investing in new buildings. Where this is not possible, it undertakes a Green RatingTM audit after delivery of the building. AXA Real Estate's expertise and track record of sustainable developments or redevelopments offers investors the possibility to benefit from investments in cost-effective, highly efficient assets whose 'Green' credentials appeal greatly to potential tenants. As an illustration, First Tower became the largest 'HQE' certified building in France in 2010. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and located in La Défense near Paris, this cost-efficient high-rise office building is the first of its kind in the new generation of high performance buildings. It has been designed not only to reduce energy consumption but also to make its consumption in use as efficient as possible.
- Sustainable asset management toolbox AXA Real Estate has developed an operational toolbox in order for its asset managers to have a focused and complementary set of efficient sustainability 'tools' such as Automated Meter Reading, Green Leases and Green RatingsTM, and be able to apply them systematically. To date, 192 properties from the portfolio managed or advised on behalf of its clients are equipped with smart meters. 44 Green RatingsTM have also been carried out across Europe.
Explore
AXA Real Estate strives to be at the forefront of the industry's drive towards sustainability, working in close cooperation with its peers, business partners and various governmental or non-governmental working groups and associations.
- UNEP FI Property Working Group AXA Real Estate is a contributing member to the Property Working Group (PWG) of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI). In 2010, the UNEP-FI PWG published a new toolkit entitled Disclosing Res
