The recently released NABERS Sustainable Portfolios Index 2020 (NABERS SPI) showcases the top 40 property portfolios across Australia that are making sustainability improvements.
The NABERS SPI provides comparative business intelligence on where property portfolios stand against their peers and provides a complement to popular environmental, social, and governance (ESG) indicators for investors.
Carlos Flores, Director of NABERS said this year saw a 48 per cent increase in participation, with a record 40 portfolios disclosing their energy and water performance. New categories were also launched, to recognise 11 pioneer portfolios who are leading the way on indoor environment quality and waste.
“Each portfolio participating in this year’s Index is leading the world in disclosing their environmental performance openly and transparently,” he said.
“They embody the leadership needed to get to net-zero emissions: they disclose their environmental footprint, set ambitious improvement targets and work hard to achieve them.”
The highest ranked portfolios
In order to calculate ‘Office Energy’ or ‘Office Water’ results for portfolios, NABERS considered the portfolio’s ownership share of each building, along with the star rating and size (NLA) of individual buildings by the cut-off date of 31 December 2019.
To calculate ‘Shopping Centre Energy’ or ‘Shopping Centre Water’ results for portfolios, NABERS considered the portfolio’s ownership share of each centre, along with the star rating and size (GLAR) of individual centres prior to the official cut-off date.
These factors were then used in the ‘weighted average’ calculation to ensure that individual centres have an appropriate contribution to the final Portfolio Rating.
The portfolio ranking is based on their portfolio result (or star rating) multiplied by the percentage of their portfolio rated, and this is called the portfolio score.
- This year, CBUS Property’s portfolio ranked first in the ‘Office Energy’ category.
- Lendlease’s portfolio – Lendlease Barangaroo International Towers – ranked first for ‘Office Water’.
- Brookfield’s portfolio – Brookfield Premier Real Estate Partners Australia – ranked first for ‘Office Indoor’.
- Frasers Property’s portfolio ranked first for ‘Office Waste’.
- Local Government Super’s portfolio ranked first for both ‘Shopping Centre Energy’ and ‘Shopping Centre Water’.
Additionally, this year Charter Hall had the largest Australian office portfolio to participate in the NABERS SPI, with a total of 62 commercial properties.
Charter Hall’s Office CEO, Adrian Taylor said it was the first year all Charter Hall Office portfolios were included in the Index.
“Charter Hall continues to raise its commitment to sustainability across our office portfolio,” Mr Taylor said. “This year’s NABERS SPI demonstrates we are on the right course, with all of our portfolios now included in the Index and the office assets in the Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (CLW) placing in the top three portfolios.”
“We know sustainability is important to our investors and tenant customers who we actively partner with, so it will continue to be a focus area which we strive to improve year-on-year,” he added.
CLW’s office portfolio achieved a top three ranking for both Energy and Water, with overall ratings of 5.1 star and 4.5 star respectively for these categories.
The Charter Hall Office Trust Fund and Charter Hall Prime Office Fund both reported a 4.7-star NABERS Energy portfolio rating with 100% of their assets rated.
Looking ahead, the team at NABERS aims to continue to publish its annual index, and potentially expand in the coming years to include other sectors such as apartments, hotels, office tenancies and more. They commend the transparency of this year’s entrants and hope that the industry can continue to pursue sustainable methods of operating assets.
The NABERS Sustainable Portfolios Index 2020, can be viewed here.
