Sustainability

Furthermore, the real estate sector has strong impact on what the cities of the future will look like and what social issues will be of importance to its population. We, along with our industry, have a great responsibility. In all our sustainability efforts, we are guided by the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. We also align our business with UN Global Compacts Ten Principles on Human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

Sustainability facts 2021

GRESB Areim Fund IV

Gained a 3-star status for standing investments first year participating

We define sustainability as leaving something better behind for future generations. We have set ambitious objectives for our sustainability strategy to create value for our investors, tenants, and our employees. Fundamentally, we are a business that delivers sustainable development, and this is reflected in the day-to-day actions of our employees. With the right resources, reporting structures and robust monitoring systems in place, we believe that we are on the right path to becoming a sustainability leader in our industry.

We deliver sustainable development by balancing two complementary perspectives: responsible business and impact strategy. This means we need to ensure good governance, transparency and risk management, and at the same time contribute to a better society. These perspectives are the foundation of our work.

We have aligned our business with the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Ten Principles is an initiative to coordinate matters of human rights, labour conditions, the precautionary principle and responsibility concerning the environment, anti-corruption, and relevant legislation in the geographies where Areim operates. By mapping our business to the global identified challenges, represented by the SDGs, we can ensure our efforts are within areas that provide the most impact. We have selected four goals that are of most importance to Areim:

We have structured our ESG work into three well defined areas:

We turn brown to green Defines our approach to develop environmentally smart properties, reducing their climate impact through a “reduce and reuse” approach, and careful selection of materials and services.

We care for people Defines our commitment to caring for all stakeholders as well as creating social value beyond our properties. During the course of 2021, we have further refined our strategy to add additional focus to this area by intoducing two perspectives; – the external perspective with the aim to create social benefit within and around our investments and; – the internal perspective with the aim to continuously develop the best possible work place for our employees.

We deliver sustainable results Defines our commitment to creating long-term financial results with transparent governance.

In addition, we typically increase the building density in the built environment. This means not only a reduced environmental footprint per capita, higher efficiency and lower costs for everything from fire-fighting services, to energy and water consumption but also a more living, dynamic and safer environment.

Our target is to having 100 per cent of our investments green building certified by time of divestment. It is always our aim to develop and improve our properties to meet the standards for well-known environmental certifications as specified by for example LEED, BREEAM and Nordic Swan Ecolabel (Svanen)

We acknowledge the importance of memberships in industry associations, national and international organizations, and bodies. Areim is a member of Sweden Green Building Council, The Stockholm Climate Pact and Green Building Council Finland as well as a signatory to UN Global Compact and UN PRI.

What gets measured gets managed. Therefore, our plan towards net zero emissions starts with measuring and understanding the carbon footprint of our business. Since 2019, Areim has reported greenhouse gas emissions using the GHG Protocol, and its method helps us understand Areim’s responsibility for direct and indirect emissions. We are making steady progress and see reduced emissions as well as increased data coverage of our Scope 3 emissions. In 2021, more data regarding our properties was available, especially for the new properties within the light industry platform.

Still, we see major challenges to becoming climate neutral when it comes to assessing value chain impact. We continuously investigate innovative solutions and refine our analysis of Scope 3 emissions to ensure a bold carbon reduction. Renovation and tenant improvement projects are main drivers to our Scope 3 emissions. We have therefore, since 2020, measured these emissions using a lifecycle approach. With the lifecycle approach we not only measure emissions, but can also analyse in what phase of the project we have the most impact and where we have the biggest potential to decarbonize in upcoming projects.

Areim is participating in the following sustainability initiatives

As a signatory to UN Global Compact, Areim is committed to align strategies and operations with the Ten Principles on human Rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Read more at globalcompact.org

Contact

MARIKA HILLDOFF
E-mail: marika.hilldoff[@]areim.se
Phone: +46 8 525 216 93