Invesco Real Estate, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Event Hotels and Longevity have joined forces to collectively address the need to tackle climate change. This is the first time that an investor, owner and operator have come together to work collaboratively on key sustainability issues. Longevity Partners moderated a roundtable that regrouped all the stakeholders involved in a portfolio of 13 hotels in Germany and the Netherlands with a current value of over €600 million managed by Invesco Real Estate.
This 4th Sustainability Roundtable initiated and organised by Invesco Real Estate, the global real estate investment manager, also involved global hotel company IHG, whose 16 brands include the Holiday Inn Brand Family, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza and Regent, and the hotel operator, Event Hotels. Longevity provided sustainability and sector specific knowledge to the discussion and moderated the meeting, which brought all operative stakeholders together around the same table, in working towards shared environmental goals and action plans.
Longevity Partners, whilst conducting BREEAM In-Use assessments for Invesco Real Estate and liaising with all stakeholders, discovered that all the stakeholders of this portfolio had developed their individual ESG strategies but none of their sustainability targets aligned. The Sustainability Roundtable was an initial opportunity to align their strategies at portfolio and asset level. It was decided that a holistic approach was necessary and that it was important to include all data streams. Stakeholders learnt how the existing BREEAM In-Use data, which gives a broad outlook of the sustainability level of all assets, can be mapped alongside the existing data from the IHG Green Engage tool which enables all IHG-branded hotels to track carbon, water, energy and waste data.
Merging both the BREEAM In-Use data and Green Engage would help determine what action is key for which asset, how much that action would cost, and who will be responsible. This system will allow more fluidity between stakeholders in this sector and create greater impact to offset hotels’ negative footprint on the planet. This has also shown us the potential scale of the opportunity to apply this approach to more portfolios which across the industry could garner a significant global impact and reduce the emissions of the sector as a whole.
Michael Walsh, Vice President Design and Engineering, Europe at IHG, commented: “To be able to truly tackle the world’s biggest environmental issues, it takes collaborative thinking, action and resources. This roundtable was a great opportunity to bring together the different stakeholders on this development project, and dedicate time to learning from each other and discussing our common goals with the aim of delivering a more sustainable future.”
Hans-Peter Hermann, Senior Director – Asset Management Hotels at Invesco Real Estate, commented: “We are excited to have organised the 4th Sustainability Roundtable for the hotel industry under the title of “Brand, Operator, Owner – How to create a sustainable goal!”. Based on the successful certification of our entire hotel portfolio with BREEAM in use with the help of our partner Longevity, we now want to take our actions one step further and agree with our stakeholders on common short-, medium- and long-term sustainability goals. Together, we have decided on portfolio-level as well as on asset specific targets for 2020 and clear actions to be taken.”
General Manager, Steffen C. Schmid, said: “We understand the needs from near term environmental impact and agree that coordinated action is needed quickly to address today’s challenges from climate change and environmental risk. We are therefore very pleased to take our part in the sustainable roundtable meetings being ambitious to achieve climate saving actions together with all stakeholders involved.”
Lois Salem, COO Longevity Partners, added: “At Longevity, we believe that stakeholder collaboration is the key to generate positive climate impact and to reduce carbon emissions. This roundtable highlighted the common goals between the various parties, enabling us to focus our attention on specific areas of improvement, meeting common targets and ensuring change in the years to come to lead to a sustainable future. I can only promote and encourage more real estate owners, operators, tenants and investors to embark on this model of collaborative thinking.”
