GRAINGER PLC 9 September 2015
Grainger plc
GRAINGER ' S SUSTAINABILITY PERFORMANCE RECOGNISED BY PAIR OF INDUSTRY AWARDS
- Gold Award for the second year running in EPRA Sustainability Awards 2015
- Achieved Green Star in 2015 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark
Grainger plc ( " Grainger " , the " Company "or the " Group " ), the UK ' s largest listed residential property owner and manager, has been awarded two industry awards recognising its commitment to sustainability.
The awards include an EPRA Gold Award for the second year running, which it received today at the EPRA Sustainability Awards 2015. This accolade follows the receipt of two Green Stars in the 2015 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark for both Grainger and its GRIP, market rented fund, which were awarded last week. A Green Star is the highest performance category and the benchmark also saw Grainger ranked third best performer of the listed residential participants globally. Also this year, Grainger retained its status in the FTSE4Good Index, the ethical investment stock market index based on corporate social responsibility criteria, a position Grainger has held since 2010.
These latest awards follow the continued alignment of sustainability with Grainger ' s business strategy and across its day to day management of its residential portfolio as well as assets it manages on behalf of GRIP. The past year has seen continued efforts to improve the quality of Grainger ' s environmental performance data disclosure as well as commitments to increasing coverage of Energy Performance Certificates and smart utility meters in advance of UK legislation.
Commenting, Andrew Cunningham, Chief Executive of Grainger, said:
" Sustainability is no longer a standalone feature and in recent years has become fully embedded into Grainger ' s business activities, from supply chain and energy consumption at a corporate level to insulation and smart meters in the homes we build and manage. This double victory is therefore welcome recognition of all the effort by our people across the Company. Looking ahead, as we continue to grow our PRS business we are keen to lead the way as a responsible, ethical and professional landlord. "
Further details on the awards:
Gold Award: EPRA Sustainability Awards
Today (9 September), Grainger was awarded the Gold Award at the EPRA Sustainability Awards 2015, recognising the Company ' s commitment to best practice in its environmental reporting, specifically the quality of its disclosure of energy, water and waste consumption data. The awards were announced at the EPRA Annual Conference 2015, a gathering of Europe's listed property sector in Berlin which is taking place this week.
The EPRA awards are based on a review of public disclosure of sustainability performance of the 91 publicly listed real estate companies in the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed EMEA Index as of March 31, 2015. Less than 25% of the Index achieved the Gold Award. Grainger was one of the first organisations to report in line with the updated EPRA Best Practices Recommendations on Sustainability Reporting 2nd Edition, published in September 2014.
Green Star status: 2015 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark
Last week (2 September) Grainger was awarded the ' Green Star 'status in the 2015 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark, the highest possible category for performance. GRESB is widely recognised as the global standard for portfolio-level sustainability reporting in the real estate sector. In total, 707 listed property companies and private equity funds participated in the benchmark in 2015. GRESB is used by 150 institutional investors, listed property companies and fund managers to monitor sustainability performance.
This was the first time Grainger has achieved a Green Star in the benchmark, having performed higher than the average performance for all participants globally as well as the average for all participants in the European residential asset class. Grainger was eighth out of 59 global residential participants, and third out of 14 listed residential participants. Grainger demonstrated continued improvement against the benchmark, with the score increasing by 12 points (21%) compared with the 2014 index.
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