Environmental performance
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 and reflects 91% of the portfolio.
In 2012, the Fund set a target to reduce energy consumption by at least 10% in 2015 for those assets it has ‘operational control’, mostly multi-tenant assets. The Fund is on track to meet this target. It managed to cut energy consumption on a like-for-like basis by 4.8% in the period 2012-2014.
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 2014. 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 see Bouwinvest's key performance indicators in the annual report of the management company.
Energy consumption in offices
Expanding the energy dashboard
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. 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 minutes base, enabling Bouwinvest, property managers and tenants to monitor energy use and costs. This has helped us to cut energy use by 10.2% at the assets included in the energy dashboard.
Practical measures
The energy dashboard is a clear example of how Bouwinvest works systematically to increase awareness and reduce operating costs. In 2014, we improved and expanded smart metering at our assets, and they now cover electricity, gas and water consumption. These smart meters are designed to monitor consumption in both common areas and leased spaces, as well as track the performance of individual technical installations.