Vasakronan once again recognised as one of the world’s most sustainable property companies

The results of the 2022 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) were published today. The index is used by investors to assess opportunities, risks and improvements that need to be made to meet the transition requirements of the built environment sector and to raise sustainability requirements.

A large number of property and infrastructure companies from all over the world participated in this year’s survey, with a total value of a staggering USD 8,600 billion ($8.6 trillion US). All of the companies were assessed in several areas such as governance, sustainability reporting, risk analysis and their share of environmentally certified properties, areas in which Vasakronan has long worked in a conscientious and structured manner.

Vasakronan was assessed in two categories – investment properties and project development – and the company earned very high ratings in both. In the investment properties category, Vasakronan was awarded a score of 95 out of a possible 100. In the project development category, the company achieved a score of 100 out of 100. The high percentage of environmentally certified properties (94 percent) together with systemic energy saving efforts are two of the areas where Vasakronan scored very highly. As a result, Vasakronan came in at number one in both surveys.

“The GRESB outcome is fantastic proof of the quality of our work. We have worked systematically with sustainability topics for a long time and our employees are incredibly committed to the issue. This drives development and means that we are always raising our ambitions. Digitalisation has facilitated following up on and reporting quality-assured sustainability data at property level across the entire portfolio,” says Johanna Skogestig, CEO of Vasakronan. “We can also see that our efforts to achieve an even higher level of circularity and reduced climate impact in our projects contributed to our top ranking in project development.”

Johanna Skogestig notes that interest in sustainability topics is constantly growing and that many of the company’s stakeholders have them high on the agenda. She also notes that the focus is on more than just the environment and climate.

“There is a rising interest in social issues such as safety, security and the working environment as well as conditions in the supplier chain, issues easily overlooked in the built environment sector. There is substantial work to be done here, so it is gratifying to see that these issues are also being pushed.

Anna Denell is Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) at Vasakronan and she has noticed increasing competition at the top.

“Many property companies are working to improve in sustainability and ambition levels are constantly rising. I see this as a reason for why it is now evident to everyone that it is profitable to properly integrate sustainability topics into business models.”

About GRESB

GRESB is a mission-driven and industry-led organization providing standardized and validated Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data to financial markets. Established in 2009, GRESB has become the leading ESG benchmark for real estate and infrastructure investments across the world, used by more than 170 institutional and financial investors to inform decision-making. For more information please visit GRESB.com

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