Sustainability

Our Sustainable Business Strategy aims to deliver strong portfolio returns by improving the environmental and social performance of our assets and communities, while ensuring we operate to the highest standards of responsible business.

We have identified our material issues, risks and opportunities within the context of our business model, and have developed long-term objectives to deliver tangible benefits to our investors, tenants, communities and employees.

We report on our performance in line with our investors’ and wider stakeholders’ expectations. Our annual sustainability reporting outlines in detail how we integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into our activities, and aligns with the main investor indices and benchmarks that we prioritise.

Message from our Chairman

Christian Windfuhr
Chairman of the Board of Directors

Grand City Properties’ Sustainable Business strategy affirms the positive contribution we can make to tackling global challenges such as climate emergency, while safeguarding the wellbeing of our tenants and supporting our wider communities.

Our approach to property investment prioritises the acquisition of assets in need of modernisation. By upgrading existing buildings to ensure high standards of energy efficiency and low or zero-carbon status, we contribute to efforts limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Through the asset repositioning process, we identify and pursue interventions that directly contribute to improving quality of life for building residents.

Beyond this, we also create new facilities and services for wider social benefit that support better relations, better education, health and wellbeing, cohesiveness and social opportunity in the communities where we are present.

This approach is good for business. Our sustainability commitment aligns to our strategic aim of retaining residents by actively fostering tenant loyalty; it helps us attract and retain investors who want to invest in long-term resilient and low carbon assets and support a positive contribution to society; it supports our ambition to attract and retain talented staff who share our enthusiasm for customer care; it enables us to reduce risks relating to safety, environmental and social factors; and it reduces costs associated with resource consumption.

Across all stages of our Sustainable Business strategy, we recognise the importance of our employees in determining company performance. We support staff to develop specialist skills and aim to provide a work environment that reinforces diversity, high levels of motivation and promotes their health and wellbeing.

Focus Areas

Sustainability reporting

Our sustainability reporting is intended to demonstrate our ongoing commitment to managing our business in a responsible manner, and provide information to our stakeholders on the progress we have made implementing our Sustainable Business Strategy over the course of the calendar year (our reporting cycle).

We recognise that our business partners, investors, tenants, employees and communities have varied interests and priorities. In 2022, we changed our approach to sustainability reporting to more accurately reflect the information needs of our stakeholders and the ESG indexes and benchmarks that we prioritise.

Subsequently, our sustainability reporting is split between the following main publications: our Non-Financial Report, EPRA sBPR Report, our Sustainability Insights and our summary Sustainability In Focus report.

The Non-Financial Report is intended primarily for legislators and investors to provide a description of how we manage the material environmental, social and governance matters that are necessary for an understanding of our development, performance and position; and secondly, to describe our impact on these matters. It has been prepared in accordance with the Law of 23 July 2016 on the Publication of Non-financial Information and Information on Diversity, which transposes into Luxembourg legislation EU Directive 2014/95/EU.

This report is designed to complement our Consolidated Annual Report for the year ending December 31 2022 as well as our detailed Sustainability Insights, which provide a more comprehensive account of our management approach and performance in relation to the topics identified in in our Sustainable Business Strategy.

The Sustainability Insights are intended for investors and ESG analysts and follow the guidelines developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the EPRA Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations (EPRA sBPR), and the disclosure requirements of the main investor-orientated ESG benchmarks that we participate in.

Given the growing volume of ESG rankings and indices, it is not practical for us to engage with every framework that we are invited to participate in. Instead, we choose to align our reporting and actively engage with the annual RobecoSAM assessment as this supports our long term target to achieve a listing in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).

Our summary Sustainability In Focus report provides an overview of our sustainability activities and is intended for use by our wider stakeholders, including our tenants, employees and the communities in which our assets are located.

 

Starting FY 2023, GCP's Non-Financial report is integrated in the Consolidated Annual Report.

Sustainability Insights

Reporting frameworks and indices

We published a separate GRI index demonstrating our alignment with the ‘Core’ in accordance requirements of the GRI Standards.

We also publish in alignment with the EPRA Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations, which can be consulted throughout the Non-Financial Report (p. 34-103) of the 2023 Consolidated Annual Report.

Finally, we have aligned our long-term goals with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), Our SDG index summarises how we contribute to Goals 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16 and 17.

Grand City Properties’ SASB Mapping 2023

Bloomberg GEI Report

Awards and recognition

We have received external awards and recognition for our sustainability approach and performance. Some of the most recent awards we have received can be seen under the Our Awards section.

Bremen
Bremen
Halle
Halle
Berlin
Berlin
Cologne
Cologne
Leipzig
Leipzig