Our Mission and Vision
Sustainability Promotion Structure
The Public Relations & Communications Department, which is supervised directly by the President & CEO, is responsible solely for sustainability activities. This department has a full-time manager as the head of the department and performs the centralized oversight of all types of sustainability programs at the Kenedix Group.
As to sustainability related activities for REITs, the initiatives for sustainability are promoted under the leadership of the Sustainability Committee established in KFM. The Sustainability Committee is composed of the president & CEO (Chief Sustainability Officer), who is the chairperson of the Sustainability Committee, and department managers of each REIT Division and others.
The Sustainability Committee gathers, analyzes, and examines the policies and targets, activity plans and various initiatives, matters related to risk management, and other important matters related to sustainability or ESG for REITs and KFM, and shares them with related parties, with the aim of promoting initiatives for sustainability and ESG-related matters. The committee meets in principle, every 3 months, and the content reviewed is also reported to KFM’s Board of Directors with an independent external member, and to REIT’s Board of Directors with independent supervisory directors.
Material Issues
The Kenedix Group has established material issues in order to identify subjects that are critical for achieving sustained growth of the Kenedix Group along with stakeholders and society. We are committed to find solutions to these issues both in business and society by making initiatives that reflect the opportunities and risks associated with each issue. Furthermore, we intend to contribute to achieving the SDGs by carrying measures for our materiality.
Process of defining material issues
Material issues of the Kenedix Group
| Key areas | Applicable SDGs | Material issues |
|---|---|---|
Contribution to a Sustainable Environment |
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Commitment to a Diverse Society |
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Stakeholder Engagement |
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Attractive Working Environment |
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Responsible Organization |
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Sustainability Policies
As material issues are defined, we have set Sustainability Policies to cover ESG issues comprehensively. The Kenedix Group adheres to the Sustainability Policies as the basis for unified initiatives towards the material issues.
| Key areas | Sustainability policies |
|---|---|
Contribution to a Sustainable Environment |
Improving the environmental performance of the properties we manage is one of our social missions. We will lower the environmental impact and make contribution to environmental sustainability by constantly reducing the negative environmental impact of these properties, such as energy consumption, CO2 emissions, water consumption and the generation of waste materials. We also have activities for the proper management of hazardous substances and reduction in their use. |
Commitment to a Diverse Society |
We contribute to the diversity of society while taking into account the social impact of our properties. We are committed to maintaining safety, confidence, good health, comfort and diversity regarding our tenants and the communities where we operate. |
Stakeholder Engagement |
We manage our properties as a responsible real estate asset management company by stressing the importance of engagement with our stakeholders such as investors, tenants, business partners, communities and property management companies. |
Attractive Working environment |
We aim to maintain an attractive working environment by implementing measures for employees' health and wellbeing and for diversity and equal opportunities. To enable employees to realize their full potential, we will provide a variety of training programs and other educational opportunities. |
Responsible Organization |
We have sound compliance and risk management activities in all of our business activities. We are committed to the principle of responsible property investments by a responsible organization by aligning our operations with global ESG initiatives and actively disclosing ESG information. |
Stakeholder Engagement
Investments in properties that we make as part of our real estate asset management operations create relationships and obligations concerning a broad spectrum of stakeholders. This is why stakeholder engagement is one of our key areas. Constant interaction with stakeholders is essential for establishing sound relationships. We are dedicated to using these relationships for even better asset management activities that can in turn help make society better.
| Stakeholders | Our policy for engagement | Major engagement channels |
|---|---|---|
| Customers of properties we manage (tenants of office buildings and retail facilities, residents of residential properties and healthcare facilities and others) |
Our priority is to provide a comfortable environment with safety and confidence so that we can ascertain the various needs of stakeholders and heighten customer satisfaction. We do this by building strong lines for frequent communications, performing customer satisfaction surveys, improving convenience for stakeholders and using other measures. | Frequent exchanges of ideas by using property management companies, customer satisfaction surveys, use of digital signage to supply information, collaboration with tenants for environmental initiatives and other activities. |
| Client investors of funds we manage (REIT investors, private fund investors and others) |
<Listed REITs> There are frequent institutional investor meetings as well as earnings announcement information meetings for securities analysts and information meetings for individual investors. We also use questionnaires and other methods for direct communications with investors. |
Frequent meetings, earnings announcement information meetings for securities analysts, information meetings for individual investors, general unitholder meetings and meetings to report fund performance, various investor surveys, strict measures to prevent conflicts of interest and other activities. |
| <Private REIT and private funds> We use frequent meetings with institutional investors to give them a thorough understanding of our funds. For direct conversations, we ask these investors to tell us about requests, suggestions and any other matters. |
Frequent meetings, asset management with strict measures to prevent conflicts of interest and other activities. | |
| Business partners (property managers of portfolio properties and others) |
Periodic meetings and other activities are used to give investors information about portfolio properties, a fund's current performance and any important issues. Furthermore, we assess the performance of property management companies periodically and announce the results along with items that require improvements. | Periodic meetings, feedback on assessments of property management companies and other activities. |
| Communities (communities where portfolio properties are located and their residents) |
We use portfolio properties in many ways to contribute to the vitality and convenience of their surrounding areas. For example, we offer a property's common and open space for a variety of activities on a temporary basis. At some locations, our properties are used to increase greenery in a neighborhood in order to create a better environment. | Cooperation with communities by allowing the temporary use of properties (bicycle sharing site, disaster evacuation site, early voting location or other use), improvement of real estate environment to contribute to development of communities where our properties are located (planting vegetation, Satoyama project or other uses), and other forms of cooperation. |
| Employees | We hold personnel performance and goal discussions with employees regularly to learn their individual needs and other information about requests, goals and other subjects. Our people receive support for education, and we improve the working environment which provide programs for childcare, elderly parent care and other family requirements. | Semiannual personnel performance and goal discussions with feedback, more education assistance to support recruiting, retention and skill development, working style reforms, support for health management, and the upgrade of the Rules of Employment to include support for child or elderly parent care, and other types of benefits and support. |