Monitoring performance
Monitoring environmental performance data (energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and waste) is an important part of managing sustainability issues. The Fund tracks and aims to improve the environmental performance of its managed real estate assets: those properties where the Fund is responsible for purchasing and managing consumption. The Fund reports on energy consumption (electricity, heating and gas: the energy components) for multi-tenant assets which translates to greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2012, the Fund set a target to reduce energy consumption by at least 10% in 2015. In 2015 the Fund managed to cut energy consumption by 6.1% (2014: 4.8%) contributing to a total cut in energy consumption of 7.2% in the period 2012-2015 on a like for like basis. The increase in energy consumption in 2013 and the disposition of the 15 assets (and therefore not included in the like-for-like comparison) explains we only partly achieved our ambitious target.
In 2015, the Fund set the following targets for the period 2016-2018:
Energy: average annual reduction 2%
GHG emissions: average annual reduction 2%
Water: average annual reduction 2%
Waste: increase recycling percentage
Renewable energy: increase percentage renewable energy
The implementation of an Environmental Management System (EMS) will help us to achieve these targets. Furthermore, we aim to increase the use of renewable energy.
The Fund has been actively tracking water consumption in multi-tenant assets since 2012. Data is provided by the property manager and based on invoices and manual visual readings. The Fund tracked waste management for its entire managed real estate portfolio in 2015. The focus is on those assets which the Fund is responsible for and can influence the waste handled on site and mostly involves multi-tenant office assets. No waste is sent directly to landfill.
The Fund’s ambition to increase the coverage and therefore the transparency of its environmental impact according to INREV sustainability guidelines is reflected in the summary of key CSR data. For more detailed information please see the CSR performance indicators in the Annual Report of the management company.
Energy consumption in offices
Energy management
Although we take a broad view of sustainability, the environmental focus of our sustainability strategy has been on enhancing the energy efficiency of the properties in the portfolio and cutting service costs.
In 2015, the Fund performed energy assessments for the non-labelled assets and 2014 acquisitions in the portfolio. This now results in a 100% coverage of energy labels. Together with the divestment of 15 non-core assets, this also explains the difference in the distribution of energy labels to last year.
The distribution of energy labels will improve the coming years as a result of upcoming renovations and refitting of the 2014 acquisitions, the non-green energy label assets. By taking energy efficiency measures during the redevelopment of the Citroën Buildings, for example heat and cold storage (WKO), the installation of low energy LED lighting systems combined with presence detectors and solar panels, the energy label will improve significantly.
Since 2011, Bouwinvest has been closely monitoring the electricity use at 13 of its office properties via smart meters. An energy dashboard on a dedicated website measures and shows the electricity consumption on a fifteen-minute basis, enabling Bouwinvest, property managers and tenants to monitor energy use and costs. This has helped us to cut energy use by 10.1% at the assets included in the energy dashboard.
Practical measures: energy-efficient lighting
In 2014 the Fund replaced 1,356 fixtures in the Olympisch Stadion Parking with new energy-efficient lighting and connected the lights to motion sensors. Lighting is switched back from 100% to 30% if there is no ‘movement’. This not only saves energy, but also extends the durability. In 2015, the new lighting system helped out energy consumption by 37% (210,467 kWh).