Some examples of our recent ESG activities:
Having already utilised the roofs of all seven of our Swedish shopping centres for solar panels, we are progressing with installations in our other markets.
In Italy, two solar panels installations at I Gigli and Carosello will be connected to the grid during the autumn. At I Gigli it will cover 450 car parking spaces and provide around 40% of the common areas of the shopping centre’s electrical requirements, while the Carosello installation, on an adjoining site, will cover 56% of the common areas’ electrical needs. Elsewhere in Italy, Il Castello will be switching to geothermal heating during Q3, while major insulation works are being carried out in four centres, improving efficiency, reducing consumption, improving EPC labels and mitigating the climate change risks. Additional smart metering to monitor common parts as well as tenant consumption is improving baseline data across the portfolio. The works realised so far brought a reduction in energy consumption of 27% during H1 2023 in comparison to H1 2022.
In Belgium, recent investments at Woluwe have included the replacement of the Building Management System (BMS), the relamping of the parking and technical areas and the introduction of motion detection sensors. These investments resulted in a reduction in electrical consumption of 18% during H1 2023. Construction has also started on an additional 568 solar panels on the southern building, taking the total at Woluwe to 2,300 panels.
The French team are converting all common areas and parking to LED lighting as they work together with our tenants in active Green Committees to put in place the provisions of the National Sobriety Plan, and have already achieved the initial goal of a 10% energy saving after only one year. Solar panels will be installed on the roof of Shopping Etrembières by the end of 2023, with the electricity generated to be used for the common parts.
Having initiated the Eurocommercial Retail Academy® across all our Swedish centres with over 1,200 participants last year, we are rolling out the programme across our other markets during 2023 starting with eight shopping centres, five in Italy and three in France, in order to strengthen our relationship with our retailer communities while improving sales techniques and customer service.