Cooperation essential to Bouwinvest’s CSR approach

In Bouwinvest’s view, corporate social responsibility is not an objective in itself, but an integral part of operational management. “Investing with care for the environment, society and good governance (ESG criteria) is a precondition for long-term success for our stakeholders and therefore Bouwinvest itself,” says Dick van Hal, CEO of Bouwinvest.

A recent survey among specialists in the field of pensions, investment and real estate also showed that respondents expect the integration of ESG criteria to have a positive impact on the financial performances of real estate investments. A total of 88% of respondents even believe that corporate social responsibility is a guarantee for returns on real estate in the long term.

Cooperation in the sector and with tenants enables us to measure and improve sustainable performance. Sustainability means anticipating and responding to the changing needs of society, demographic developments and the increasingly high demands that will be placed on the urban environment in the future. Bouwinvest is therefore also working together closely with regional and municipal governments on various redevelopment initiatives. “We want to invest in buildings where businesses and people will want to live, work, shop and stay, long into the future. That is the key to our sustainability approach, both for our operational management and for the retention of value in our portfolios,” says Dick van Hal.

A selection of activities and performances in 2013:

• The Retail Fund is improving tenants’ sustainability awareness with the Duo label. The redevelopment of 196 Nieuwendijk and 70 Damrak is being carried out in line with BREEAM-NL-certification
• Together with Search, the Office Fund has developed the DUO label offices to reduce energy
• The Residential Fund is improving its tenants’ sustainability awareness in terms of energy consumption with the help of Ezie, and has achieved an energy reduction of 2.3%.
• According to the employee satisfaction survey held among 140 knowledge workers at Bouwinvest REIM, employee involvement has further improved.
• Bouwinvest’s international investments are subjected to an annual ESG assessment. In 2013, transparency was further improved with an increase in the number of participating funds and the ESG performances improved in relation to 2012.

 

All Bouwinvest’s measures, ambitions and performances can be found in the 2013 ESG annual report.