Environment and Climate

Water, Effluents and Waste

Water management is becoming increasingly important in Germany. We want to encourage awareness of the need to use this resource sparingly and responsibly in our neighborhoods, and are taking steps to reduce consumption – even if we only have a limited influence on the consumption of our tenants.

Climate change is already making itself known in the form of longer periods of dry weather and more frequent heavy rain and storms. We are assuming that these will become more common in the future. Although our portfolio has been relatively unaffected so far, we are preparing for the possible consequences. To this end, we are working on measures that will help to mitigate extreme weather conditions at a microclimate level or have the capacity to cool urban heat islands, such as greening the facades of buildings or installing roof trenches. This requires active water management. There is significant potential in local rainwater seepage systems (based on retention basins and green roofs, for example) and using rainwater to water gardens. We are therefore examining various options for managing water on our estates.

In the future we intend to use our existing geoinformation system to improve the available data even further so that we can plan and implement measures with even more precision.

Examples of measures in our portfolio:

• Partnership with NABU NRW to revitalize habitats in rainwater retention basins and to create green roofs and facades with the help of tenants
• Implementation of a community development project with integrated rainwater management in the Eltingviertel in Essen
• Implementation of a pilot project to prevent water damage by identifying and communicating burst pipes early

We use water-saving sanitary systems in our offices to reduce water consumption. We provide drinking water systems for the roughly 1,000 employees who work at the corporate headquarters in Bochum to reduce their use of plastic.

Waste separation concepts for good waste management and the promotion of recycling play a particularly important role in our construction and refurbishment work because they enable us to reuse valuable resources like windows. We also ensure that materials are disposed of correctly and lawfully by means of end-to-end documentation and ensuring that the disposal process on construction sites is managed by qualified staff and health and safety officers. We provide technicians with training on how to dispose of materials correctly.

There is also potential in how we manage our green spaces. We recycle horticultural waste for energy production in biomass power plants, compost green waste and use leftover wood pieces as lumber.

Waste is also an important topic for our portfolio. The purpose of our waste management process is to reduce the volume of waste and promote waste separation. Our bin areas are organized accordingly.

In Sweden we involve our tenants in the subject of waste separation and tell them about the opportunities that exist. This is one way in which we plan to significantly reduce the amount of waste in Sweden by 30%.

We separate the waste produced in offices and common areas and do not use disposable items in the cafeteria.