BEACHWOOD, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SITE Centers Corp. (NYSE: SITC) announced today the release of its 2019 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report. This report was completed in alignment with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) metrics and frameworks. The intent of this report is to provide updates on the annual results of our corporate responsibility & sustainability programs. The full report can be found at https://www.sitecenters.com/2019CRS.
“I am pleased to publish our sixth Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report. I continue to be amazed at the dedication of our employees and the year over year progress of our corporate responsibility and sustainability programs,” said David R. Lukes, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Even during a time of intense challenges, our team continues to advance our level of transparency in reporting while keeping our commitments to our employees, communities, tenants and other key stakeholders.”
Report Highlights
Recognition
- Included in Newsweek’s inaugural list of America’s Most Responsible Companies.
- Included in the 2020 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (“GEI”) comprised of public companies committed to transparency in gender-data reporting and which have exhibited performance on certain gender-data metrics.
- Rated “Green Star” by GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark) for our sustainability benchmark results with an above average rating relative to our peer group with respect to our level of public ESG disclosures.
- Recognized as a Silver Green Lease Leader by the U.S. Department of Energy and The Institute for Market Transformation for our development and implementation of green leases.
Governance
- Maintained ISS Governance Quality Score of 1.
- Aligned Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Reporting with Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) metrics and framework.
People
- 219 of our female employees participated in our Women of Influence program.
- Awarded $25,000 in scholarships to SITE employees.
- Increased our average training hours by 5% to 30 hours per employee.
Social
- Engaged with our communities through our YOUnity program to contribute to over 199 charitable organizations and to raise over $235,000 in donations.
- Donated over 20,000 toys to Ronald McDonald Charities to support children in need.
- Facilitated over 2,000 autonomous vehicle rides through our partnership with WAYMO.
- SITE Employees donated time to act as board members for 8 non-profit organizations.
Environmental
- Converted old parking lot lighting technology to LED lighting at substantially all of our wholly-owned properties, where feasible, between 2018 and the end of 2019. These installations included over 4,600 LED parking lot fixtures and hundreds of building fixtures. The upgrades created significant energy savings and provided better aesthetics and lighting levels for our tenants and customers.
- Installed white reflective roofs as part of our ongoing replacement strategy at our owned and managed properties totaling 950,395 square feet in 2019 and 31.2 million square feet over the lifetime of our program. These reflective membranes allow for sunlight to be reflected back into the atmosphere, thereby reducing the urban heat island effect, decreasing the cooling costs of our tenants and reducing demand on local electrical grids.
- Reduced like-for-like energy consumption by 3% over 2018 on our wholly owned assets.
- Operated 176 electric car charging stations that facilitated 282,000 charging sessions across our owned and managed portfolio at the end of 2019. These units provide some of the necessary infrastructure for electric vehicles to be utilized in our surrounding communities and allow us to play an additional role in global carbon reduction.
- Utilized solar panels at 14 owned and managed sites to generate 3,800 megawatt hours of renewable power in 2019, which reduced our consumption of non-renewable energy sources.
- Employed water conservation strategies when practical, including xeriscaping, rain water collection, re-use of grey water for chiller systems, drip irrigation installations, native landscaping and smart metering.
- Worked with tenants to identify recycling and composting opportunities in order to divert approximately 32% of the waste generated at our owned and managed centers away from landfills.
- Facilitated our green lease platform for 100% of our form leases, where tenants contribute toward the Company’s environmental management plan and which provides for utility usage and data sharing.
About SITE Centers Corp.
SITE Centers is an owner and manager of open-air shopping centers that provide a highly-compelling shopping experience and merchandise mix for retail partners and consumers. The Company is a self-administered and self-managed REIT operating as a fully integrated real estate company, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SITC. Additional information about the Company is available at www.sitecenters.com. To be included in the Company’s e-mail distributions for press releases and other investor news, please click here.
