JERICHO, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kimco Realty Corp. NYSE:KIM) has received Nareit’s prestigious 2019 Retail Leader in the Light Award, the organization’s highest sustainability honor for retail REITs. The annual award recognizes the company that has demonstrated consistent, best-in-class sustainability efforts. This is the second Leader in the Light Award Kimco has earned.
“Since Kimco launched its Corporate Responsibility Program in 2010, we have made environmental, social, and governance efforts a priority and challenged our team to expand the boundaries for what is possible in the ESG space,” said CEO Conor Flynn. “To be named Nareit’s Retail Leader in the Light for a second time is especially meaningful, as it reflects the high bar we have set for ourselves to continually develop innovative strategies and technologies that we hope will inspire others in our industry.”
Kimco’s recent ESG efforts have focused on tenant sustainability, and on differentiating its social and employee programs. In 2018, the company completed its national tenant utility submetering program, which ensures that retailers served by shared utility infrastructure have access to data and the financial incentive to proactively manage their energy and water consumption. Kimco’s $7 million investment to install over 4,600 submeters made it the first national retail landlord to transition 100 percent of its portfolio to a submetered system.
Kimco also launched several company-wide employee engagement initiatives targeting diversity and inclusion, employee development, wellness, and recognition. This led the company to achieve Great Place to Work Certification for the first time in 2018, with a measured employee satisfaction rate of 94 percent.
In the most recent 2018 reporting cycle, Kimco achieved an “A” disclosure score from the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) and made its debut on the Institutional Shareholder Services’ (ISS) Environmental and Social (E&S) QualityScore with an environmental score of one and a social score of two (on a one to 10 scale where one is the highest possible score). In July of this year, Kimco was named a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series, designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong ESG practices.
The 2019 Nareit Leader in the Light Awards were announced by Nareit’s President and CEO Steve Wechsler this afternoon at the REITworld 2019 Annual Convention in Los Angeles.
About Kimco
Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) headquartered in Jericho, N.Y., that is one of North America’s largest publicly traded owners and operators of open-air shopping centers. As of September 30, 2019, the company owned interests in 420 U.S. shopping centers and mixed-use assets comprising 74 million square feet of leasable space primarily concentrated in the top major metropolitan markets. Publicly traded on the NYSE since 1991 and included in the S&P 500 Index, the company has specialized in shopping center acquisitions, development, and management for more than 60 years. For further information, please visit www.kimcorealty.com, the company’s blog at kimcorealty.com/blog, or follow Kimco on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kimcorealty.
The company announces material information to its investors using the company’s investor relations website (investors.kimcorealty.com), SEC filings, press releases, public conference calls, and webcasts. The company also uses social media to communicate with its investors and the public, and the information the company posts on social media may be deemed material information. Therefore, the company encourages investors, the media, and others interested in the company to review the information that it posts on the company’s blog (kimcorealty.com/blog) and social media channels, including Facebook (www.facebook.com/kimcorealty), Twitter (www.twitter.com/kimcorealty), YouTube (www.youtube.com/kimcorealty) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/kimco-realty-corporation). The list of social media channels that the company uses may be updated on its investor relations website from time to time.
