For Shurgard, corporate Environment Social Governance (“ESG”) responsibility began as a commitment to reduce carbon emissions (as documented in previous annual reports). The scope of our programme has broadened over time and we believe that every organisation has a commitment to improvement of ESG performance. As such we commit to:
The fulfilment of relevant compliance obligations;
Working to ensure we understand climate change risks and the potential impact on our business – to ensure business resilience (or sustainability);
Continually working towards the development and implementation of an environmental management system to enhance environmental performance and integrate recognised environmental management into our business operations;
Protection of the environment, including the prevention of pollution and sustainable use of resources;
Measure and act to reduce the carbon footprint of our business activities to meet our published objectives in the annual report;
Manage waste generated from our business operations incorporating reduction, re-use, recycling in accordance with the principles of the waste hierarchy;
Give due consideration to environmental issues (such as biodiversity) and energy performance in the acquisition, design, refurbishment, location and use of buildings;
Ensure environmental, including climate change, criteria are considered in the procurement of goods (including building materials) services;
Incorporating environmental factors into business decisions as standard.
Responsibility
The Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) is responsible for ensuring that this policy is implemented. To ensure implementation, the CEO is a member of the Shurgard Sustainability Team, responsible for driving performance forward. Furthermore, all employees have a duty to ensure the commitments and aims of this policy are met.
Our objectives in more detail
Environment
Develop prioritised action plans for an optimized management of energy and water across all buildings;
Reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by 10% in 2023 (based on 2017 base year) on a same store basis;
Reduce water consumption by 5% by 2023 (against a base of 2017) on a same store basis;
Develop an environmental management system with gradual alignment to ISO 14001;
Develop a framework to assess sustainability risks at all assets – to address all key issues including energy, water, waste and flood risk;
Introduce programmes to track waste management.
Social
Keep rolling-out the Shurgard Academy programme;
Establish a community and charitable engagement policy;
Continue to empower gender equality.
Governance
Review and, where appropriate, update our existing corporate governance charter;
Report on sustainability programmes through EPRA compliant approaches.
General Sustainability
Participate in GRESB and work to improve scores year-on-year;
Develop further sustainability training programmes for our employees;
Continue to develop supply chain engagement frameworks.
