Montreal, October 19, 2021 – Ivanhoé Cambridge, a global real estate leader, announced today that, for the seventh year in a row, it has improved its ranking in the annual survey of the Global ESG Benchmark for Real Estate (GRESB),1 which assessed the concrete impact of its efforts regarding environmental, social and governance best practices:
- Its Canadian portfolio ranks first in its category with a score of 91/100 and a perfect score of 30/30 in the evaluation of ESG management (leadership, policies, and reporting).
- A score of 86/100 for its global portfolio, up one point from 2020.
- A performance score of 56/70. This score is 10 points higher than the average obtained by GRESB participants. Ivanhoé Cambridge stands out in areas such as data quality control practices and building certifications.
This performance is remarkable given the size of Ivanhoé Cambridge’s global portfolio, which is four times larger than the average of the GRESB’s participating peers.
This result also highlights the initiatives implemented as part of Ivanhoé Cambridge’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach, which is a priority of its strategic plan and its medium- and long-term vision.
In April 2021, Ivanhoé Cambridge unveiled an ambitious program to ensure its international portfolio achieves carbon neutrality by 2040. In response to the climate emergency, the Company has committed to reducing the carbon intensity of its portfolio by 35% by the year 2025 versus the 2017 level. Ivanhoé Cambridge will also increase its low-carbon investments by more than C$6 billion by 2025 versus 2017. Finally, the Company is committed to ensuring that all its development projects are net-zero carbon from 2025 on.
Moreover, as recently announced, Ivanhoé Cambridge has converted C$8.5 billion in corporate financings by linking them to its ESG performance. The GRESB score is one of the key ESG performance indicators allowing Ivanhoé Cambridge to obtain more advantageous financing conditions.
As Stéphane Villemain, Vice President, Corporate Social Responsibility, of Ivanhoé Cambridge, commented: “Our participation in GRESB over the past seven years has allowed us to objectively assess our ESG initiatives and accelerate our progress. Together with our partners, we continue to work hard to remain a leader in the real estate industry. We still face many challenges, including strengthening the quality of evaluation data, which will allow us to be more agile in our decision-making.”
Founded in 2009, the GRESB survey continues to be the global benchmark for measuring environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance by assigning quantifiable results to portfolios so that businesses can compare themselves with the competitors in their industry. The results enable companies to position themselves but also to determine how they can improve their performance. For more information: gresb.com