Redevco: why sustainability pays off in the long term

Brigit Gerritse, head of research and strategy at Redevco, shares insights on creating and embedding a pan-European ESG strategy. Interview by Richard Betts

When did you introduce the new ESG mission statement and how did you engage with colleagues to fulfil it?

In November 2022, we held a roadshow to introduce the mission statement with the aim to put this at the heart of our business.

During the roadshow we asked all our managers, “How can you contribute to this in your role?”

The aim was to start initiatives, internally, across the business to help us fulfil our mission.

There was really great engagement and we created a list of 34 initiatives. All these initiatives were included in work plans throughout the organisation, to ensure we had a joined-up approach and joint responsibility to execute the ideas.

The management team kicked off the strategic business plan process with an intensive brainstorming session to think about where we want to be as an organisation in 2030.

As a group of 21 colleagues, we attended a tailor-made programme at the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) to immerse ourselves in the topic of ESG, focused on ‘Driving the Sustainability Transformation 2023’.

The aim was to deepen our knowledge base on ESG and discuss the most important challenges we would face in fulfilling our mission.

An important message that resonates with all of us is that the state of our planet requires urgent action. It is up to each and every one of us to make a difference.

Our organisation wants to be recognised for taking responsibility and leading change, which means that we need to put our words into action with everything we do and we need to create and drive momentum.

It is not so much the why or the what that leads to debate, but really the how.

You want to lead the transformation, but what does that actually mean?

It means that we want to be one of the leading real estate managers in terms of both making a positive contribution to the built environment’s challenge to decarbonise and making our cities better places to live.

We don’t want to be the lone pioneer. We see collaboration as key, but we do want to be one of the frontrunners in this area, creating and driving a positive impact.

What do you have to believe to commit to this mission?

Our collective ‘belief set’ is that sustainability pays off in the long term.

You need to believe that highly sustainable buildings are increasingly sought-after by both occupiers and investors. And, therefore, while construction and redevelopment costs might be higher, for example, ultimately, rents will also be higher, vacancies will be lower and investors will pay a higher price for these buildings.

How will you value social impact?

A widely adopted method to calculate social impact does not exist yet in the real estate sector. But methodologies are being developed to quantify the social value created through these kind of initiatives.

We are already working with companies like Social Value Portal in two of our redevelopment projects in the UK.

‘The state of our planet requires urgent action. It is up to each and every one of us to make a difference.’

Brigit Gerritse, Redevco

In addition, the research and strategy department is developing an ‘impact wheel’, designed to summarise the themes where Redevco wants to make a positive contribution in relation to the social environment, as well as the built and natural environment.

For each of the themes, we will map outcomes and measures of success. The aim is to use this impact wheel to communicate our ESG strategy, both internally and externally.

Does it mean Redevco will change its retail investment strategy?

Redevco has always been at the forefront of implementing sustainability into its business decisions and activities, and its investment strategies. But we are reviewing all our existing strategies to make sure they fully comply with our mission and that we become more explicit about what we are targeting.

Currently, we are deepening our retail park strategy to investigate how we can improve the built, social and natural environment for these assets and translate those into clear KPIs.

In the end, this will be done for all our strategies: for Redevco living, mixed-use, and leisure and hospitality.

We have already added an inventory of non-financial KPIs to our business plan process. And we are reviewing our asset attractiveness tool and our city attractiveness model to support the organisation and create guidance. These frameworks will help us gain a better understanding of how to successfully execute our strategies.

The guiding principle is that, over time, ESG becomes embedded in everyone’s work throughout Redevco.

Our ultimate aim is that everyone in the company feels ownership of the important ESG topic.

Richard Betts is editor-in-chief at Real Asset Media