Attention: All Associates
 
In 2016, Essex participated in the annual Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark for the first time. The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark is an annual assessment that measures sustainability performance of real estate assets around the world. That year, we earned a “Green Star” for our sustainability performance, which is the highest designation possible from GRESB (pronounced “grezz-bee”). We’re pleased to announce that in 2017, we maintain our Green Star status and continue to outperform our peer group in U.S.-residential-listed multi-family real estate companies.
 
Leadership in sustainability is important for the environment and the company, and GRESB measurement is a remarkably tough benchmark. This is quite an achievement, and every Essex associate should be proud of the work we have all done to achieve this level of performance.
 
Below, we highlight the key actions we took to reduce our environmental impact and continue as a leader in sustainability.
 
Corporate Social Responsibility at Essex

In 2016, Essex updated our Corporate Social Responsibility strategy to reflect these three main pillars:

• Develop and operate great communities for our residents
• Provide a positive place to work for our employees
• Have high environmental standards in place for our new developments and operations

 
Why is this important? A positive CSR performance reflects our organizational commitment to the environment, our customers, our employees, and provides sustainable returns to our shareholders. This strategy also drove the actions we took in 2017 to reduce our environmental impact, outlined in the next section. Learn more about our CSR strategy on our corporate webpage here.
 
Actions taken in 2017 to reduce our environmental impact

Our goal is to improve our energy efficiency, which directly impacts the conservation of natural resources. Here are just some of the actions we took in 2017 to reduce our environmental impact:

• Water Conservation.
  • Upgraded irrigation technology
  • Installed high efficiency water fixtures such as toilets, aerators, and showerheads. 
• Energy Conservation.
  • Reduced our electricity and gas usage through complete system upgrades:
    • Pool Thermal Solar Systems
    • Pool Thermal Heat Pumps
    • Photovoltaic Solar Systems
  •  Lighting technology has improved, such as LED fixtures and bi-level systems
• Waste Management.
  • At 110 properties across all regions, we’ve implemented a third-party waste management service, resulting in:
    • A decrease in our waste stream to landfills
    • An increase in our recycling by 24%, which saves even more energy by reusing materials that would otherwise go into the trash

 
Questions, Ideas or Feedback? 
If you have any innovative ideas to improve our environmental performance, please let us know! Reach out to our Director of Facilities, John Broos, at jbroos@essex.com.
 
Where can I learn more? 
Check out the GRESB home page, and view the publicly available results of the 2017 survey here.