Conscious decisions with a social vision.
Our ESG policy – Environmental, Social and Governance – constitutes a significant part of our strategy. Together with our stakeholders – our own employees, tenants, suppliers, real estate managers and others – we aim to improve both the environment and society.
Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance focuses on sustainable real estate that remains attractive in the long term, both for users and investors. Sustainability also plays a major part in mortgage investments.
This means we not only take the environment into account, but also include an attractive living environment in the investments. We’re convinced that in the long term, sustainable real estate helps achieve a higher return for our clients, and minimise risks.
We strive to improve the CO2 footprint of all the real estate we invest in, and that of our own business.
Pleasant communities and socially involved organisation.
Safeguarding the health and welfare of our employees, our tenants and our environment.
We aim to burden our living environment as little as possible, and ensure that natural resources are dealt with sensibly in our real estate.
We following strict guidelines in the field of governance, behave ethically and strive for exemplary conduct.
Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance is the first major homes letter in Utrecht to offer the option of driving an electric car. A strategic collaboration with We Drive Solar was started for this purpose.
In the next few years, 150 to 300 electric shared cars will be made available in the Utrecht region for tenants of Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance. The cars' batteries are charged with solar energy generated with PV panels in Utrecht. A full battery can manage a range of 300 kilometres.
“Besides sustainable and affordable housing, we also want to offer our tenants the mobility of the future”, says chairman George Dröge of Syntrus Achmea RE&F. “That makes the homes more attractive to tenants and investors. Moreover, electric cars enhance city liveability and contribute toward reducing CO2 emissions.”
For Syntrus Achmea, sustainability is an essential part of the strategy. One of the biggest sustainability challenges is 'tenant engagement'. Good cooperation and dialogue with tenants is important to realize ambitions in the area of sustainability.
Together with hello energy, Syntrus Achmea is fully committed to the involvement of all stakeholders and the realization of behavioral change of tenants. This is already happening in 16 buildings, from homes and apartments to offices. And that number is only increasing with a planned further rollout for this year.
With hello energy, Syntrus Achmea and its stakeholders (eg tenants, building managers) gain insight into the energy data of the building by visualizing that data on information screens (narrowcasting) in the buildings. Residents and tenants are informed about, for example, the yield of solar panels, tips for energy saving, messages from the homeowner Association and the external real estate manager, news, weather and public transport.
We use a wide range of instruments in order to implement these key points.
Since we focus on broad aspects of sustainability such as health, quality of use, future value, energy and environment, we use GRP Building and BREEAM.
Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark
We are also an active participant in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), in which we show excellent results. We furthermore use, among other things, the Duolabel for retail property, green leases, sustainability brochures, tenant satisfaction surveys, and we monitor energy, water and waste.
In addition, we focus on enhancing the sustainability of existing and new real estate, transforming and improving deprived areas. We actively participate in various organisations and initiatives with the aim of accelerating improved sustainability. For instance, as of April 2011, we are one of the first Dutch real estate and mortgage asset managers to sign the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Investment (UNPRI). We are also a member of a large network and steering groups such as the IVBN, NEPROM, NRW, NEVAP, DGBC, Lente Akkoord en GRESB.
Lastly, we have an extensive integrity policy.
