The publication of Redevco’s 8th responsible real estate investment report “Towards Sustainable Cities” highlights the company’s ongoing focus on managing real estate responsibly, and the central role BREEAM, and specifically BREEAM In-Use, is playing in creating a framework for continuous improvement.
Redevco is an independent, pan-European real estate investment management company specialised in retail property. It part of the COFRA Group of companies and in 2015, managed 390 assets with a total value of €6.7 billion.
In the recently published “Towards Sustainable Cities” Redevco illustrate their dedication to the cities where they manage property, describing how the city and key stakeholders view sustainability, and their relationship with Redevco.
In the introduction to the report, CEO Andrew Vaughan also outlines some of the company’s major achievements, including their commitment to BREEAM certification as a central pillar of responsible property management.
“We ensured that 88% of our properties are now BREEAM certified” says Vaughan “This is in no way simply a ‘means to an end’, as once we have achieved 100% certification, we can track the performance of each property and ensure that we do what is needed to future-proof them. We put future-proofing into practice in our investment decisions, improving the quality of our portfolio while, at the same time, minimising our impact on the planet. In 2014, 68% of our properties were BREEAM certified, so we have made considerable progress this year, and look forward to completing this specific target in 2016.”
View a short interview with Andrew Vaughan on the use of BREEAM
BREEAM certification is a starting point for improving the quality of Redevco’s real estate. The company is committed to improving the actual performance of properties in their portfolio, based on reduced energy use and carbon emissions, as well as improvements in the health and safety within the portfolio. In 2015, ten Redevco properties improved their BREEAM In-Use performance year-on-year, and local country teams have set 2016 targets for improvement for a total of thirty five properties.
Sustainable cities – with retail as a driver
Redevco place a heavy emphasis on the value of retail development as a driver for sustainable cities. A good example is the Promenade Sainte-Catherine development in Bordeaux which was awarded the BREEAM In-Use Very Good label in December 2015, and is working to achieve a BREEAM Very Good certification by May 2016. Redevco has played a central role in redeveloping the heart of Bordeaux’s historic city centre and from design to construction, and in the Promenade Sainte-Catherine project, they integrated the concept of sustainability into all of the processes to ensure a clean construction site.
Waste, noise and dust pollution was reduced on-site to benefit local residents, and the project’s environmental impact as a whole was reduced through careful choice of materials and lower CO2 emissions. Energy and water consumption were also kept to a minimum.
Other examples of Redevco’s BREEAM certified buildings in recent years include Rue Neuve, a prominent retail building in Brussels (below right), which contains energy efficiency measures designed with the building’s tenants, Inno Galeria, in mind, and the redeveloped 2,600m2 C&A store in the centre of Zaandam (below left), which represents a remarkable transformation of a 1960s building into a modern, sustainable property that integrates traditional features of the town’s historical wooden architecture.
For more information, download “Towards Sustainable Cities” here from the Redevco website