Showing what Mission 2040 looks like

Retail transformation project in Hamburg, Germany
A building in the heart of the shopping district of Hamburg will be demolished and rebuilt as an operationally NZC mixed-use landmark. A design has been created that adheres to the high standards set for our portfolio. To manage the multitude of possible approaches, three key strategies played a vital role in the ongoing planning process to arrive at the most sustainable design: Cradle-to-CradleTM (C2C), CO2 reduction and certification (for more detailed information, see last year’s report). Construction works have started in the summer of 2022. Although we were prepared to remediate a significant amount of asbestos, the amount was larger than expected, resulting in a delay in the constructions.

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On-site renewable energy generation project
An important contribution to our emissions reduction roadmap in the context of Mission 2040 is the provision of as much on-site renewable energy as possible for our tenants. Increasing the share of our tenants’ use of renewable electricity (their Scope 2 emissions) will benefit us by directly reducing our Scope 3 emissions and will also contribute to the clean energy transition Europe needs. While 2020 saw the launch of Project Solar and a fair amount of preparation, during 2021 we managed to install 23 PV installations on the roofs of various retail park assets in Belgium.

The total installed capacity at the end of 2022 was 11.58 MWp, spread over 70 PV installations, with the largest single installation on the roof of the C&A Distribution Centre in Boom, near Antwerp in Belgium, with a capacity of 1.12 MWp. Energy security and energy price volatility are becoming an ever-increasing risk that our occupiers want to manage and mitigate. We are confident that by continuing to roll out Project Solar on suitable roofs of our assets, we are offering a beneficial service to our tenants and making our assets more future-proof and resilient.

Downtown shopping centre project in Bordeaux, France
The respective investor clients for this particular asset specifically requested this multi-tenanted, city centre, open air shopping destination – now into its sixth year of operation – to operate at Net Zero Carbon level by 2030. The specialist consultancy we selected undertook a full site survey to establish key requirements and write an action plan outlining key deliverables to achieve that goal.

Given that this asset is one of our ‘signature projects’ – to help learn, experiment and demonstrate how we aim to get to operational net zero carbon – we started with smart metering this asset already a few years ago and now have fairly robust metered consumption data. In the sidebar, we present the Energy Intensity (EI), Carbon Intensity (CI) and absolute carbon emissions for this specific asset for years 2019 to 2022.

The data in the table below suggests that our estimations for energy consumption in 2019* may have been on the low side, and given that 2020 and 2021 were COVID years with store closures for parts of the year, these are not really comparable with 2019. 2022 was again a full year in operation, with robust data, from which we need to continue taking action to reduce further.

* 2019 data based on estimations; 2020 – 2022 data is based on the metered readings

The second annual smart metering review has been presented to management and highlights the fact that simple measures initiated over the past year in the common areas of the scheme are contributing to the reduction of energy in comparison to 2021. Additional actions undertaken by site management included the reduction of the brightness of the LED screen from 70% to 30%; turning off site lighting at 10:00 pm instead of 10:15 pm, turning off every other neon sign in the delivery areas. Whilst common area consumption is only a small part of overall consumption (the lion’s share is of course our tenants’ consumption), these all contribute to a conscious effort to reduce energy consumption in line with government legislation (the “décret tertiaire”) and the efficiency plan.

Tenants are informed of all of these measures and the quarterly tenant meeting in December was dedicated to ESG issues and a detailed presentation of the Smart Metering system was given by the service provider. From 1st quarter 2023, each individual tenant will receive a monthly report concerning the energy consumption of his unit highlighting any deviations and proposing corrective measures.

The closed-door policy was also addressed, as following a government order published in the summer of 2022, all commercial units must keep their doors closed when air conditioning or heating is in operation. The tenants were receptive to this policy and displayed stickers provided by site management on their shop frontage to raise customer awareness. Tenant return during the meeting was positive and they exchanged the benefits both from a financial as well as a “comfort” and environmental perspective.

22 solar panels (8.25 kWp) were installed on the roof of the Lego store. The electricity generated will be used for the common area and sold to the grid. 2022 also saw Bordeaux signing a new contract with “Eco-Mégot” for the collection and recycling of cigarette butts. 33 ashtrays strategically positioned throughout the site attract customer attention and the results show ca. 40 kilos of cigarette butts have been collected and recycled. Another new contract signed with Bicycompost has allowed the collection of 5,526 kg biodegradable waste and large part is distributed to local market gardeners or local agriculture. On its rooftop garden Promenade Saint Catherine has 3 hives and almost 120,000 bees that produce 45 kg of honey per year. In 2022, a new vegetable growing initiative was started and resulted in a harvest of 6 kgs of vegetables which were distributed to local food banks.

Residential development project in Amstelveen, the Netherlands
This residential complex consists of two towers on a shared parking garage. The project contains 301 apartments, 207 parking spaces and a 300 m2 commercial space of which 172 residential units will be built to rent. The building permit will be applied for in Q2 2023 and construction is planned in the period 2024-2027. The property will be equipped with a thermal energy storage system, solar panels and a mobility hub (car and bicycle sharing provider). It will be WELL certified and added in the database of the Madaster materials and products registry.

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