Reversing climate change is one of today’s major challenges and this has resulted in companies increasing their sustainability focus in line with external expectations and requirements. However, environmental topics are interrelated, meaning that companies must take a holistic approach when tackling sustainability issues. Proactive management of the challenges relating to climate action and the environment have become a core component of CBRE’s sustainability strategy.
Sustainability services are important for CBRE because we have an opportunity to significantly minimise the environmental impact of our clients’ real estate portfolios and help them to generate immediate results and long-term strategic financial benefits.
CBRE’s Global Energy & Sustainability Services team (including more than 250 experts) provides comprehensive energy and sustainability services to our clients, focusing on fact-based outcomes that lessen the environmental impact, generating both immediate results and long-term financial benefits through key integrated strategies.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50%
We have made a systematic global review of our opportunities for reducing emissions using existing technologies and have analysed the financial impact of each carbon action. Based on this review have we set an absolute goal to reduce Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% before 2025 and 50% before 2035, using 2015 as a baseline. We have set an absolute goal to reduce Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions by 20% before 2026, using 2016 as a baseline.
Sustainable disruption
Climate-related science and business are developing quickly, and we want to take an active role in this development by collaborating and creating a network of partner companies with whom we can develop credible products and approaches.
CBRE provided energy and sustainable services to more than 1,6 billion sq.ft. of client space and benchmarked 5.623 buildings in ENERGY STAR in 2019.
COVID19 has had a major impact on business operations across the globe and has resulted in a reduction in emission generating activities. This presents a unique opportunity to adapt and think differently about sustainability and how workplaces are designed.
The Materiality Index
Every other year, CBRE put together a materiality assessment. Our most recent assessment, completed in 2019, was conducted to determine the topics that reflect our economic, environmental and social impacts, as well as those that influence the decisions of our stakeholders.
We identified 10 material topics in the assessment: 1) Diversity & Inclusion, 2) Anti-corruption, 3) Employee Attraction & Retention, 4) Human Rights, 5) Climate Change Resilience, 6) Environmental Compliance, 7) Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 8) Energy, 9) Sustainability Services, and 10) Employee Well-being.
Diversity & Inclusion and Anti-corruption were identified as material topics in both the 2017 and 2019 assessments. We learn that sustainability criteria are considered increasingly important, with 5 out of 10 associated material topics.
The Materiality Matrix
A list of 29 topics have been identified through our assessments that could be considered material to a business such as ours, illustrated in a materiality matrix. Sustainability related topics such as greenhouse gas emissions, climate change resilience, energy, water, waste and sustainability services are considered significant with regards to both influence and impact.
We acknowledge that CBREs continued progress is being recognised by third-party authorities, such as Barron’s, which placed CBRE #13 on its Most Sustainable Companies list. We will follow and analyse mega-trends and adapt products to fit a sustainable future for our stakeholders.
Download the CBRE 2019 Corporate Responsibility Report on our global site: https://www.cbre.com/about/corporate-responsibility