GRESB

In GRESB’s annual sustainability assessment, British Land has been awarded a five star rating for the second consecutive year, placing us in the top 20% of over 800 participating portfolios and retaining our Green Star for the eighth consecutive year. GRESB is an investor-driven organisation that assesses the environmental, social and governance performance of real estate portfolios globally. British Land scored 80%, placing us 17 percentage points ahead of the GRESB average, and achieved maximum scores in the areas of Management and Policy & Disclosure, both for the third consecutive year. Our GRESB public disclosure level was Grade A (group average Grade B).

DJSI World Index

For the fourth consecutive year, British Land ranked in the top 10% of real estate companies included in the RobecoSAM Corporate Sustainability Assessment and has again been selected as an index component of the DJSI World and Europe Indices, which measure the performance of the world’s sustainability leaders. In the 2017 assessment, British Land ranked in the 91st percentile overall, scoring highly across the three core assessment areas, and in particular the Social Dimension categories, reflecting the success of our community engagement programme.

EPRA

British Land won a 2017 Gold Award for reporting in line with European Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations (EPRA sBPRs). This is the sixth consecutive year that we have achieved Gold in these awards which are based on a review of public disclosure of the sustainability performance of the 134 publicly listed real estate companies in the FTSE EPRA/NARIET Developed EMEA Index as of March 31 2017.

FTSE4Good

Finally, following the Index review in June 2017, British Land has continued to meet the inclusion criteria for FTSE4Good and remains a member of the index series, ranking in the 96th percentile.

Lucinda Bell, Chief Financial Officer, said: “These awards recognise British Land’s continued industry-leading approach to sustainability, which is an important part of how we deliver Places People Prefer to the communities where we operate.”

Enquiries:  
Investor Relations  
Cressida Curtis, British Land:  020 7467 2938
 
Media  
Pip Wood, British Land:  020 7467 2838

This item was originally published on the British Land website here. 

Notes to Editors

About British Land
Our portfolio of high quality UK commercial property is focused on Retail around the UK and London Offices. We own or manage a portfolio valued at £19.1 billion (British Land share: £13.9 billion) as at 31 March 2017 making us one of Europe’s largest listed real estate investment companies.

Our strategy is to provide places which meet the needs of our customers and respond to changing lifestyles - Places People Prefer. We do this by creating great environments both inside and outside our buildings and use our scale and placemaking skills to enhance and enliven them. This expands their appeal to a broader range of occupiers, creating enduring demand and driving sustainable, long term performance.

Our Retail portfolio is focused on Regional and Local multi-let centres, and accounts for 48% of our portfolio. Our Offices portfolio comprises three office-led campuses in central London as well as high quality standalone buildings and accounts for 49% of our portfolio. Increasingly our focus is on providing a mix of uses and this is most evident at Canada Water, our 46 acre redevelopment opportunity where we have plans to create a new neighbourhood for London.

Sustainability is embedded throughout our business. Our places, which are designed to meet high sustainability standards, become part of local communities, provide opportunities for skills development and employment and promote wellbeing. Our industry-leading sustainability performance led to British Land being awarded a five star rating in the 2017 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark for the second year running.

In April 2016 British Land received the Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development, the UK's highest accolade for business success for economic, social and environmental achievements over a period of five years.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

About GRESB (Global ESG Benchmark for Real Assets)
GRESB assesses the sustainability performance of public, private and direct real asset portfolios worldwide. Conducted annually, the GRESB Assessments collect social and environmental performance indicators such as energy and water consumption, GHG emissions, waste management and stakeholder engagement practices of companies, funds and assets. The GRESB Assessments are guided by what institutional investors and the wider industry consider to be material issues in the sustainability performance of real asset investments, and are aligned with international reporting frameworks such as GRI and PRI. Further details can be found on the GRESB website at www.gresb.com.

About DJSI (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices)
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) are a family of best-in-class benchmarks, created jointly by S&P Dow Jones Indices and RobecoSAM. The indices serve as benchmarks for investors who integrate sustainability considerations into their portfolios, and provide an effective engagement platform for investors who wish to encourage companies to improve their corporate sustainability practices. Further details can be found on RobecoSAM website at http://www.sustainability-indices.com/.

About EPRA sBPR (European Public Real Estate Association Sustainability Best Practice Recommendations)
The EPRA sBPRs are intended to raise the standards and consistency of sustainability reporting for listed real estate companies across Europe. As with the EPRA Financial BPR awards, those companies judged to have the best compliance with the sBPR have been given gold, silver and bronze awards. Further details can be found at http://www.epra.com/sustainability/sustainability-reporting.

About FTSE4Good 
The FTSE4Good Index Series measures the performance of companies demonstrating strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. Further details can be found at http://www.ftse.com/products/indices/FTSE4Good.