On 1 September Wihlborgs became the only Swedish property company to be awarded the highest status, Green Star, by the GRESB Foundation in Amsterdam.
The GRESB Foundation is a global association of international investors, in which 340 of the world’s biggest property funds and property companies submitted details information about the environmental performance of their property portfolios.
More and more investors want to see greater openness in how companies are dealing with their environmental impact. The term “responsible investor” is becoming increasingly widespread, and according to one of the founders of GRESB it is becoming ever more important to be able to compare companies on a global scale.
Environmental issues are important to Wihlborgs, including a transparency that means not only reporting successes, but also risks and actions plans to deal with them. For some years now, Wihlborgs has been working actively on its environmental and social impact, including signing up to the UN’s Global Compact.
“Investigations such as this by GRESB represent added value for us as a company. We’re now involved in a process that in spring 2012 will lead to our first sustainability report in accordance with the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). This report is very much about listening to what external interested parties actually want to know about us, and in particular what they expect,” comments Hanna Claesson, Environment Manager at Wihlborgs.
All companies have been checked and assessed with reference to a model that results in four different assessments:
- Green Starters - companies that have started work on policies for sustainability, but where environmental initiatives are not fully implemented in the property portfolio and there are no key ratios on which to follow up.
- Green Talk - there are well-developed strategies and action plans, but they have not been developed in practice.
- Green Walk - companies that have effective measurement of key ratios, but with limited openness.
- Green Stars - companies that have well-developed strategies to measure and process environmental key ratios. These companies focus on reducing their resource consumption, and energy efficiency improvements are being carried out in a future-oriented way.
The GRESB website (www.gresb.com) contains more information about how companies are assessed, and also displays the Green Stars list in full.
“It’s particularly pleasing that Wihlborgs’ environmental work has achieved international recognition,” observes Wihlborgs’ CEO Anders Jarl, “not least bearing in mind the fact that foreign investors take a major interest in the Swedish market.”
Wihlborgs Fastigheter AB
For further information, please contact
Anders Jarl, CEO, +46 (0)40-690 57 10, +46 (0)733-71 17 10
Hanna Claesson, Environment Manager, +46 (0)40-690 57 92,
+46 (0)733-71 17 92
Iréne Johansson, Information Manager, +46(0)40-690 57 21,
+46 (0)733-71 17 21
Wihlborgs Fastigheter AB (publ) is a property company specialising in commercial property in the Öresund region. Its property portfolio is in Malmö, Helsingborg, Lund and Copenhagen. Wihlborgs is the leading property company in Malmö, Helsingborg and Lund. The book value of its properties is SEK 17 billion, with an annual rental value of SEK 1.5 billion. The share is listed on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm, Mid Cap segment.