ESG

Economic and sustainable corporate goals go hand in hand at HIRA. This is how we wish to play our part in solving challenges in society as a whole. Twenty per cent of our real estate volume is already certified.

Sustainable with a strategy

Because we take responsibility – for a sustainable future and subsequent generations.

At HIRA, sustainable business practices mean taking responsibility. This especially applies within the environmental, social and governance context – or ESG for short.

We involve our tenants, investors and other business partners in this process along with our employees. After all, together we face the important task of preserving a world worth living in for all of us. In doing so, we not only want to avoid negative consequences, but also create added value. Through our active approach as investors and portfolio holders.

Capital investments based on ESG guidelines

Full speed ahead – because our capital is the future.

Real estate is responsible for around one third of global carbon emissions – and the potential to reduce consumption is correspondingly high.

As a leading real asset and investment manager, we therefore see it as our duty to consistently factor environmental and social criteria into investment decisions. We are making our real estate fit for a sustainable future with an ambitious energy-efficient refurbishment roadmap.

As an infrastructure investor and operator, we are committed to converting Europe’s energy generation to renewable sources. Our growing portfolio includes Europe-wide onshore wind farms and photovoltaic power plants.

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Everyday sustainability

A company sees green – and everyone joins in.

We not only evaluate our projects and properties in line with ESG criteria. Our company is also continuously working to meet these requirements.

For instance, our employees themselves are helping to maintain HIRA’s focus on ESG activities by setting up internal project groups and organising idea competitions. By issuing sustainable guidelines on how to save energy, separate waste and switch to the paperless office, we are encouraging our employees to embrace environmental awareness within the company. Every single day. In ClimatePartner, we have a competent partner on hand to support us with everyday sustainability matters and offset any potential carbon surpluses through selected projects.

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Gaining partners

Remaining engaged in dialogue for a good cause: Sustainability that connects people.

We want to ensure that cooperation with all of our partners is sustainable. This is why our supply and service contracts along the entire value chain are also based on our ESG criteria.

In concrete terms, this means that our general electricity mainly comes from renewable sources and some of our properties are supplied with green gas, which is compensated by means of certificates.

By switching consumption management to ‘smart metering’ from 2021, consumption will become more transparent and controllable. In addition, we offer our tenants ‘green leases’, which ensure that an environmentally and socially responsible approach is taken to the use of our properties and make sustainability criteria visible to tenants.

„Measures aimed at limiting global warming can only succeed with the real estate industry. We have to significantly reduce our carbon emissions, there is no alternative.“

- Martina Averbeck, Managing Director

Our ESG commitment

The excitement continues: An industry is reinventing itself.

HIRA is involved in a number of sustainability initiatives and associations, contributing our many years of experience to continue advancing the ESG idea within the real estate and capital investment industry.

As a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), we are also committed to integrating ESG principles into our investment and management practices. We are a member of the ECORE – ESG Circle of Real Estate initiative, a working group set up to develop an ESG scoring standard to make sustainability in real estate portfolios transparent, measurable and comparable. We also support the ESG initiatives as members of the BVI Bundesverband Investment und Asset Management and the German Property Federation (ZIA).