Sustainability

Impact Strategy

COMMIT
Impact management begins with our deep commitment to enhancing social well-being and improving our ecological footprint, which we define through a goal-setting process. We set portfolio-wide targets for our company and investments that establish guidelines for housing affordability and social program implementation along with quantifiable emissions, energy, water, and waste goals. We commit to both what we will do and how we do it by underpinning all our impact delivery strategies in established third-party frameworks. Our affordability mix is governed by regulatory covenants, our Communities of Opportunity work utilizes Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) in program design, and our environmental retrofits are designed to meet Enterprise Green Communities certification criteria.

PLAN
We tailor impact scopes for each new investment, utilizing a data-driven, co-creation model. Our interdisciplinary team includes acquisitions and construction teams, and asset and property management staff, as well as impact professionals who leverage third-party technical consultants, tools, and site visits to evaluate properties and development opportunities. Social impact diligence utilizes Enterprise 360 evaluations and ABCD assessments to understand local assets, health, education, and economic conditions, and potential partners. Environmental diligence includes energy audits, Enterprise Green Communities feasibility studies, and climate risk research to gather data about improvement opportunities covering emissions, energy and water savings, health improvements, and resilience. Rooted in such data and co-creation, we determine each impact plan.

IMPLEMENT
We bring the impact plan to life through physical and operational changes. Working with the construction and facilities teams, we renovate projects to deliver the spaces that facilitate our social programming, and the green retrofits that will achieve the environmental goals of the project. We also train and empower the site staff to deliver the social and environmental mission in day-to-day operations, by hiring impact-dedicated staff like Resident Services Coordinators, and utilizing tools like the Communities of Opportunity Toolkit and our Green Operations and Maintenance Manual to establish protocols and spur ideas.

MONITOR
Impact is continuously tracked, measured, reported, and improved upon. We utilize a survey platform to gather data about implementation of Communities of Opportunity programming at sites and a utility monitoring platform to track environmental performance. We also use an internal social media platform to facilitate peer- to-peer sharing of best practices, successes, and challenges. The data is evaluated by the impact teams and communicated internally and externally through quarterly reporting and our yearly Impact Report. Annually we respond to the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) platform to measure our performance against peers. To achieve continuous improvement, we constantly assess performance against goals to deepen impact and deliver results more efficiently.