Nareit announced the nine winners of its annual Leader in the Light Awards, which honor Nareit member companies that have demonstrated superior, portfolio-wide sustainability practices.
The awards were presented in Atlanta at REITWorld 2014: Nareit’s Annual Convention for All Things REIT to U.S. Equity REITs in seven property sectors: retail, residential, office, industrial, lodging/resorts, health care and diversified. A global award was presented for non-U.S. companies, and a special recognition award was presented to a company demonstrating significant improvement in sustainability achievement since last year’s competition.
Macerich (NYSE: MAC) was the award winner in the retail sector, while the residential sector award was presented to Campus Crest Communities (NYSE: CCG). Kilroy Realty Corp. (NYSE: KRC) was recognized as the office sector winner, and Prologis, Inc. (NYSE: PLD) won the industrial sector award.
Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: HST) won in the lodging/resorts category, and in the health care category, the award was presented to Ventas, Inc. (NYSE:VTR). Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO) was the diversified category winner, and British Land Company PLC (London: BLND) won the global award.
Boston Properties, Inc. (NYSE: BXP) received the special recognition award for its significant improvement compared to 2013.
“REITs recognize the clear business benefits of investing in sustainability, and the achievements of these nine companies exemplify the industry’s commitment to innovation in this area,” said Sheldon Groner, Nareit’s executive vice president for finance and operations, who administers the Leader in the Light Awards program.
In 2012, Nareit modified its judging criteria to include the results of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) annual survey. GRESB’s annual survey measures the environmental performance of property portfolios around the world. Incorporating the GRESB survey results into the Leader in the Light judging criteria has enabled the companies competing in Leader in the Light to measure their performance against a global benchmark.
This year’s Leader in the Light Award submissions were evaluated by a panel of four judges: David Stanford of Real Foundations, Maria Vargas of the U.S. Department of Energy, Mark Vorreuter of Cornell University and Nils Kok of GRESB.