EPRA environmental standards help European listed real estate to increase global sustainability rankings, proved through their multiple award wins

The number of listed property companies achieving the highest level of compliance with the European Public Real Estate Association’s best practice recommendations (BPR) in sustainability standards has doubled over the past year, reflected in 16 “Gold Awards” being made at EPRA’s annual conference in London on Wednesday.
The impact of the introduction of this touchstone for real estate firms in reducing their environmental footprint is being seen at a worldwide level with listed companies clearly outpacing private equity real estate funds in recording an average 7% higher performance within the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) survey results, released in early September. This survey also highlighted European listed real estate (54 points) outperforming its listed counterparts in Asia and North America (51 and 49 points respectively), while also closing the gap with global leader, Australia (68 points). The European listed sector also outperformed the European non-listed sector, with respective scores of 54 points and 48 points.
Andrew Saunders, Finance Director at EPRA said: “For the first time, the majority of European listed property companies are now reporting on at least one sustainability performance measure in 2014. The positive results of EPRA raising the bar in setting environmental standards are being seen all the way up to a global level, as we’ve witnessed in the recent GRESB survey results. The 16 companies achieving the Gold Standard in EPRA’s Sustainability BPR Awards announced today come from across Europe; in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium, showing that listed firms are striving to improve their sustainability game regardless of where they are located.”
JLL’s Upstream Sustainability team assessed 86 listed European real estate companies’ compliance with the EPRA sBPR to determine the Gold Award winners. These were British Land Company, Beni Stabili, Citycon, Cofinimmo, Derwent London, Eurocommercial, Foncière des Régions, Gecina, Grainger, Great Portland Estates, Intu Properties, Klepierre, Land Securities Group, SEGRO, Unibail-Rodamco and Workspace Group. A further five companies received silver and six bronze awards.

This year’s EPRA conference also saw the launch of updated sBPR guidelines, which include seven new sustainability performance measures, three new overarching recommendations, and provides further clarity around the existing sustainability requirements. The 2015 EPRA sBPR awards will be based on compliance with the new guidelines.
Source: Bellier Financial