September 22, 2021
Written by Jessica Pilz, Associate Director of ESG at Fiera Real Estate UK (“FRE UK”).
Over the past year, we have made tremendous strides with our ESG strategy, across both our corporate operations and the funds we manage on behalf of our investors. This progress demonstrates our intention to be a market leader with regards to ESG integration and the strength of our commitment to driving change and playing our part in decarbonising the real estate sector.
At FRE UK, we believe in a holistic approach to ESG integration and that the strategies we adopt across our managed funds should also be evident in the way we run our business. We have spent the last year measuring and reporting our carbon footprint[1] and social value, which has allowed us to identify how we can further improve our impact.
In line with one of our three ESG pillars, engagement, we have spent time with key stakeholders understanding where changes can be made. We have met with the building managers of our office space to better understand how our targets around decarbonisation align with that of our landlord. Not only did this provide us with valuable insight into the way we foster relationships with our own tenants, but it gave us the information we needed to make strategic decisions around solutions for removing our current carbon footprint for 2020.
We believe that a credible journey to net zero carbon is centred first around reducing energy demand, followed by meeting that reduced demand using renewable energy and lastly by offsetting any remaining emissions. Following this approach has allowed us to comfortably choose a nature-based solution to remove our carbon footprint in 2020. We have removed 17.38 tCO2e (110% of our 2020 business carbon footprint) through the Kasigau Corridor project in Rukinga, Kenya. This project protects an expanse of over 200,000 hectares of dryland Acacia-Commiphora forest, home to over 2,000 elephants, and also provides social programmes whose impact reaches over 116,000 people. The project is VCS verified and supports and aligns to our commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals; namely 3, 8, 12 and 13.
We will continue to drive our strategies to reduce our impact further, but we are fully committed to being on the right side of this change and encourage others in the industry to do the same.
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[1] 2020 carbon footprint include scope 1,2 and 3 emissions from business travel, electricity, freight, natural gas, procurement, waste & recycling and water. Working from home emissions were calculated, but not included in our overall carbon footprint for 2020 due to the uncertainties surrounding Home Office emissions.