Real estate investor and fund manager Cromwell Property Group has become the latest company to join the few Australian commercial property organisations that publish their full scope 3 emissions footprint.
The company’s new Scope 3 inventory report, included in its latest ESG report released last week covers 100 per cent of its global network and supply chain across upstream and downstream activities.
This includes tenant activities, funds under management, joint ventures, and embodied carbon sources.
Group head of environmental, social, and corporate governance, Lara Young, said that developing a full scope 3 inventory will allow the organisation and its partners to make more informed investment decisions on decarbonisation activities.
“Specifically, we have now shifted our focus to asset level decarbonisation,” Young said.
“In the last year, we have started to undertake assessments at specific sites to identify emissions sources and create bespoke plans to reduce these emissions, which we will do working in partnership with our service providers. We’ll continue this process going forward.”
The company explained that general sector reporting practices are often limited to only disclosing the scope 3 emission where a company possess operational control.
Alongside disclosure of its scope 3 emissions inventory, the ESG report also includes new short and long term emission reduction targets.
These include:
- net zero on new development by 2030
- net zero on operational control by 2035
- net zero on the entire portfolio for scopes 1, 2, and 3, including tenant emissions and embodied carbon by 2045
- short term SBTi (science based targets initiative) of 42 per cent reduction in scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030
- 100 per cent renewable electricity for operationally controlled assets and spaces by 2030
- 100 per cent waste diverted from landfill by 2040
- reduction in water intensity
The company also reported steady progress towards its decarbonisation agenda in the last year, including reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions by 44 per cent since the financial year of 2022.
It also started a multi-million-dollar electrification upgrade project of the facilities at its McKell Building in Sydney last year, despite the upgrade costing more than replacing gas. It claimed that the decision was in line with the company’s longer term sustainability strategy.
Plans are currently in place for the company to expand its solar program, including five solar projects in Australia and three in Europe in FY24 to further reduce emissions.