Special Forum Sessions on Real Estate

Panel Session 1:
Responsible business practice in Land, Construction and Real Estate

Moderator: Ursula Hartenberger

RICS Global Head of Sustainability

Organized by:

Promoted by:

With the participation of:

The challenge:
- A sector with a plethora of direct and indirect stakeholders

Designers

Investors

Planners

Professional
Organisations

Policy
Makers
Constructors
Financing
Institutions

The Built
Environment
Valuers
Occupiers/
Users

Communities
Building
Managers

Real Estate
Agents

Educators

Materials
Suppliers

A shift in emphasis

There is an increasing realisation that the tasks of developing, operating

and managing buildings and constructed assets are not carried out by
construction sector participants alone but by a complex interplay of a
variety of stakeholders, i.e. therepresentatives of the sector in its widest
sense:
1.

Through influence on the demand side based on investment decisions

and,

2.

Through determination of design briefs when acting as construction

clients.

Real estate industry representatives play an important role within

the implementation of sustainable development principles in the
construction sector.

Fragmented often one-dimensional - silo-thinking

Technical

Financial

Users

Policy

Key questions to be discussed in this panel

How to overcome the current sectoral fragmentation by engaging all

stakeholders along the value chain, including the sectors users?

Going beyond green? - What is the scope of todays land, construction

and real estate sectors engagement with sustainability issues?

How to successfully embed sustainability aspects into regular business

routines and decision-making processes within the sector?

What are the the specific skill sets needed to make this happen?

UN Global Compact & Responsible Business

- A Sectoral Approach for Land, Construction and Real Estate
Angel Pes Guixa
Brand and Corporate Responsibility Director, Caixa Bank
President, Global Compact Network Spain

Spanish Global Compact Local Network

The United Nations Global Compact

operates in Spain through the
Spanish Network.
2,600 member entities *:
o 12% companies
o72% SMEs
o16% other entities**

The Local Network with the highest number of members

Data updated at September 15, 2014

** Academic, Labor Union, Business Association, NGO

Spanish Global Compact Network Participants

393 Partners

2.600 Participants

* Data updated at September 15, 2014

About the UN Global Compact

Launched
Launched on
on 26
26 July
July 2000
2000 in
in New
New York
York with
with roughly
roughly 40
40
businesses
businesses
Worlds
Worlds largest
largest voluntary
voluntary initiative
initiative
8000
8000 companies
companies
Multi-stakeholder
Multi-stakeholder platform
platform for
for collective
collective action
action
Rooted
Rooted in
in universally
universally accepted
accepted conventions:
conventions:
Universal
Universal Declaration
Declaration of
of Human
Human Rights
Rights
ILO
ILO Declaration
Declaration
Rio
Rio Declaration
Declaration
UN
UN Convention
Convention Against
Against Corruption
Corruption

UN Global Compact Vision and Objectives

Vision
Vision
A
A more
more sustainable
sustainable and
and inclusive
inclusive global
global economy
economy
Objectives
Objectives
1.
1. Make
Make the
the ten
ten principles
principles part
part of
of business
business strategy,
strategy,
operations
and
culture
everywhere
operations and culture everywhere

Internalization
Internalization

2.
2. Take
Take action
action in
in support
support of
of UN
UN goals
goals and
and issues
issues

Contribution
Contribution to
to society/
society/
development
development

UN goals and issues include:

Peace & Security

Water Security and Sanitation
Human Rights, Childrens Rights
Gender Equality
Health
Education

Development
Food Security
Ecosystems and Biodiversity
Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation
Water Security and Sanitation
Employment and Decent Working
Conditions
Anti-Corruption

The 10 Global Compact Principles

Human Rights

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed
human rights; and

Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
Labour Standards

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of
the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;

Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and

Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Environment

Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility; and

Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies

Anti-Corruption

Principle 10: Businesses should work against all forms of corruption, including extortion and
bribery.

Global Compact Business Participants

Cumulative Growth

Note: Gross = All companies that signed the GC, whether or not they were subsequently delisted; Net = Gross Delisted
* As of 17 October 2014
** Delisted includes failure to communicate on progress and other reasons (e.g., merger, voluntary withdrawal, etc.)

Global Compact- High Impact Industry Analysis

Findings
The Real Estate Investments and Services Sector has a high impact in terms of revenue and
employment but enjoys low levels of representation within the total group of business
participants.

Sector ICB (UNGC's classification)

Support Services

Particpant
Percentage Subsector ICB

Revenue 2012 ($
million)

Revenue 2017 ($
million)

Annual Growth (712)

Businesses

Employment
(people)

Wages ($ million)

15% Business Support Services

Business Training & Employment Agencies

590129.2

667748.8

-0.001

104620

13187311

423648

557.9

668300

0.001

150213

9451367

93600

Footwear

122900

136700

0.027

113000

7281000

23500

Automobiles and Parts

3% Automobiles

3957000

4576500

0.005

347981

5376000

242600

Food Producers

4% Food Products

80027.5

61082.3

0.108

2627

515786

6058.4

Travel and Leisure

3% Restaurants & Bars

106900

Personal Goods

2% Clothing & Accessories

499500

623600

0.022

815000

12390000

1149800

1327400

0.015

1582895

4846963

243900

1% Banks

5139317.3

6178489.8

-0.012

818913

14958790

539618.5

Real Estate Investments and Services

1% Real Estate Services

5196452.5

5957092.9

-0.028

5405898

6651787

1294242.6

Financial Services

6% Asset Managers

4574000 5,328,400 (2016)

730852

363728

19500

Life Insurance

0% Life Insurance

3837700

4953600

0.01

42458

2858719

121700

Oil and Gas Producers

2% Exploration & Production

4365100

4972000

0.075

8757

1245805

64500

Industrial Metals and Mining

2% Iron & Steel

248244.8

365543.6

0.235

1120

121095

4671

Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

1% Biotechnology

228625.6

384201.8

0.104

10437

511489

39851.1

Software and Computer Services

5% Internet

330618.8

483773.5

0.101

70822

466488

20389

Travel & Tourism

Banks

Global Compact- Rationale for sectoral approaches

Sectoral elaborations of the UN Global Compact offer a
number of benefits for business, society and the UN
Global Compact:

For business:
- information on challenges, risks, opportunities and best
practices tailored to their sector offer the potential for
them to leap frog with performance improvements by not
having to reinvent the wheel.
- greater coherence between sectoral approaches and UN
Global Compact requirements and expectations would
also make meeting the UN Global Compact easier and
more simple.

For society:
-

better performance by business on corporate

sustainability means fewer adverse impacts and more
positive impacts.

For the UN Global Compact:

-

improved performance by participants in implementation

of the Global Compact, more engaged participants, and
key outreach opportunities including from greater
alignment with the Global Compact by sectoral initiatives.

Fostering Responsible Business in the Land, Construction &

Real Estate Sector
To improve responsible business practices in the land,
construction, and real estate industry, the United
Nations Global Compact and the RICS partnered in the
summer of 2013 to jointly develop a Responsible Business
Best Practice Toolkit for the Land, Construction, and
Real Estate Sector.
This collaboration is among the UN Global Compacts first
initiatives to address corporate sustainability in a specific
sector following the recent launch of its Post-2015 Business
Engagement Architecture.
The project will seek to deliver on three key objectives:

Identify opportunities, challenges, best practices, and

recommended action items for the sector relating to the
UN Global Compacts issue areas of Human Rights,
Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption, as well as
broader UN goals

Raise awareness and increase capacity for sustainable

development within the sector through establishing a
holistic approach linking land, construction and real
estate to potential operational impact areas

Engage UN Global Compact participants from the sector

as well as real estate users and other stakeholders to
capture and showcase existing best practices and scale
up sustainability initiatives

Toolkit Project Team & Steering Group

Steering Group Members

Project Partners

16 Members:
Acciona
BioRegional
Caisse des Dpts
Carroll Properties Corporation
Cemex
City Developments
Corio
Cushman & Wakefield
Dubai Real Estate Institute
FIABCI
JLL
Link Management Limited
Marshalls
Skanska
Terre Initiative
UN Global Compact Cities
Programme

Project Support

Toolkit target audiences

Target Audience 1:
Direct Sector Actors

Target Audience 2:
Sector Users

Target Audience 3:
Providers of Sector
Advisory Services

Toolkit Public Consultation Launch

The draft Toolkit document and consultation questionnaire are available at:

http://tinyurl.com/ungcricstoolkit

Tentative physical consultation

locations:
North
America:
USA

South
America:
Brazil

Europe:
UK

Africa/MENA:
UAE

Asia/
Oceania:
Australia

Thank You
We look forward to hearing from you
Contact:
tejeda@unglobalcompact.org
uhartenberger@rics.org

Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption: Mapping

sectoral engagement with the Ten Principles of the UN Global
Compact

Alexander Cosgrove
Associate, Latham & Watkins

Current Level of Engagement

Desk-based / internet research into:

the current level of engagement with the UNGC Principles by key
players in the land, real estate and construction sectors; and
typical media coverage given to perceived inappropriate behaviour

This research focused on engagement in terms of whether companies

have one or more policies published on their websites in respect of
compliance with the four areas of the UNGC principles, namely (i)
Human Rights; (ii) Labour Standards; (iii) Environment; and (iv) AntiCorruption

Aim to identify areas of high and low engagement to help focus the
Best Practice Toolkit

Key Findings: Engagement

Strong correlation between companies with substantive policies and initiatives

on their websites and membership of UNGC

From a global perspective, the policies published demonstrated a higher

emphasis on environmental issues (28%) in comparison to anti-corruption
(26%), labour (24%), and human rights (22%).

At a regional level it was clear both that implementation levels where higher in
some regions than others (overall levels of engagement being highest in Europe
and Australia) and that there were regional variations in emphasis (perhaps
reflecting applicable local issues).

Key Findings: Media & Public Attention

High-level Summary:

Issues affect all stages of land, real estate and construction life-cycle (from
award of contracts through to post-completion and beyond)

In addition to any legal repercussions arising from the relevant activities;

impact on reputation and wider public image is significant

Many cases attracted the attention of activists and/or campaigners who in turn
added to the negative publicity that the relevant activity attracted

A number of the activities identified span two or more of the four areas
addressed by the UNGC Principles

Key Issues: Media & Public Attention

Human Rights
Forced relocation of individuals/communities
Lack of safety standards and poor construction materials/practices
Labour Standards
Blacklisting of certain employees
Double-breasting
Environment
Illegal or unethical dumping of waste materials
Corruption leading to construction on sites deserving of environmental
protection
Anti-corruption
Bid-rigging scandals
Price fixing and collusion

Research regarding UN Global Compact issue area coverage

in the sector

1.

Which initiatives (globally and nationally) aim at

supporting more sustainable business practices?

1.

Which areas of the ten UNGC principles do they

cover (human rights, labour, environment, anticorruption); what is their primary focus?

Issue area focus of global initiatives

Corporate practices:
Selected results from the 2013 UNGC Implementation
Survey
The sector as a subset of the survey amongst business participants:
New dedicated survey question:
Does real estate, land and/or construction constitute the majority
(50% or more) of your revenue and / or corporate assets?
From 1486 survey participants, 97 responding organizations answered this
question with yes.

97 responding organizations size (number of employees)

Corporate Practices:
Actual policy implementation

The Toolkit developed by the UN Global Compact and RICS:

1. Is tailored to the specific needs of the Land, Construction and
Real Estate sector;
2. Takes a holistic approach (i.e. focus on all issue areas);
3. Aims to be practical and user friendly so that recommend
practices can actually filter down to corporate functions,
operations and risk assessment processes.

The 3-phase Life Cycle approach

Key issues identified by Steering Group

DEVELOPMENT PHASE:
Land governance
Transparency
Fair treatment of workers and abolition of child labour
Environmental stewardship
Quality of design of construction
REAL ESTATE USE PHASE:
Transparency
Environmental Stewardship
Communities
Health & safety of building occupants
Decent work & human rights in the value chain
RECOVERY & END OF LIFE
Strategic site-use re-habilitation
Refurbishment & retrofitting
Waste management, resource conservation and recycling during demolition
Brownfield regeneration of site
Rehabilitation of site into bio-habitat

Impact on UN Global Compact issue areas

Thank you

The Development Phase:

Embedding environmental best practice in
construction
Roy Antink
Director Green Support
Skanska AB

The Development Phase stages and their impact on the four

UN Global Compact issue areas

The Development Phase is crucial because

Any material departures from best practice
during the Development Phase can potentially
have serious implications for those involved in
later stages of the Life Cycle.
Bad planning and design are very difficult
or even impossible to correct at later stages.

The Development Phase: Five key issues

-

Land governance

Transparency

Fair treatment of workers and the abolition

of child labor

Environmental stewardship

Quality and design of construction

Skanskas Sustainability Agenda

Skanska Color Palette

Our Definition of `Greenused for:

Strategic Planning,
Measurement and reporting,
Communication, and
Continual improvement.

Skanska Case Study: Brogrden Alingss, Sweden in

relation to the four UN Global Compact issue areas
Project Description
16 residential buildings with 299 appartments
Constructed early 70s Million Homes Program
Procured by Alingsshem as a partnership

Environment

Achieved a 75% reduction of energy consumption

Skanska Green Workplace

Labour
Local workers and subcontractors
Regional construction materials
Vocational training
Human Rights and Transparency
Stakeholder engagement
Functional and flexible buildings
Neighbourhood amenities
http://www.skanska-sustainability-case-studies.com/

Business Benefits & Opportunities

Legal compliance

Cost reduction

Demonstration of industry leadership

Level playing field through improved transparency

Reputation and brand

Thank You

Contact:
roy.antink@skanska.fi

Capacity building for sustainability

Mahmoud El Hesham Burai

Managing Director
Dubai Real Estate Insitute

About the Dubai Real Estate Institute

Launched in January 2007 as the Middle East's first

specialize academic institute in Real Estate education

UN Global Compact participant since 2011

The Dubai Real Estate Institute - Objectives

- Develop the next generation of real estate leaders and
entrepreneurs capable of pursuing challenging global opportunities
- Certify Real Estate Professionals to work ethically & professionally
in line with international standards.
- Provide a broad spectrum of high quality educational programs to
support career advancements.
- Create a dynamic learning environment for educational excellence.
- Engage in a high standard of research, scholarship and intellectual
endeavors.
- Foster the exchange of knowledge about real estate issues and
innovations, as well as facilitate the sharing of best practices.

Capacity building
Building abilities, relationships and values that will
enable organizations, groups and individual to
improve their performance and achieve their
development objectives
Source: UNEP

Sustainability competencies
Competencies in sustainability, these are complexes of
knowledge, skills, and attitudes that enable successful task
performance and problem solving with respect to real-world
sustainability problems, challenges, and
opportunities.
Source: cf. Dale & Newman, 2005; Rowe, 2007; Barth et al., 2007

Emphasis

- Capacity building as a catalyst for change

- Building institutional capacity
- Involvement of all stakeholders
- Building awareness and analytical capacity
- Building decision making capacity

Sustainability competency requirements

Technical competency elements

Knowledge and awareness about the:

-

the life cycle

natural resource management, including energy, fresh water and waste

sustainable buildings (new, existing, domestic and non-domestic) including the

principles of sustainable design, performance, material selection

building rating tools, including their aims, limitations, key components

benchmarking schemes, e.g. indices for property performance comparison

assessment tools, e.g. whole life cost value, life cycle assessment analysis

sustainable cities, neighbourhoods, communities, sustainable infrastructure and

transport

Building a holistic sustainability competency approach

Ways to improve capacity building

Identify needs and building on existing capacities
 Assessment of already exiting capacity in a country/organization
 Existing structure and institutional settings
 Coordination with international agencies
 Let local institutions and professionals take the lead in delivery of the capacity building
activities
Being clear about objectives





Contribution to achieving sustainable development

What capacities should be built, for whom, what topics and to what end
Building awareness/building analytical capacity and building decision making capacity
Workshops/seminars/conferences remain at awareness/analytical and decision making
capacities need to be developed to sustain the process of change

Targeting the right people

 Government
 Other stakeholders (researchers/civil society/companies/associations
Train the trainer
 Institutionalize capacity building programs at regional and national level by building
structures within the country ( university, government

Responsible business and the Land, Construction and Real

Esate Real Estate sector conclusions

There is:

Encouraging momentum within the real estate industry towards understanding

and acting upon the risks and opportunities that arise from climate change,
resource scarcity and the increased public awareness regarding sustainable
development issues;

Increasing concern regarding the challenge of embedding sustainability aspects

into regular business routines and decision-making processes;

Increasing shift from a technical task to a managerial responsibility with regard

to implementation;

Concern that existing self-declarations, guidelines and voluntary initiatives tend

to be too broad and generic and not tailored to the particularities of the real
estate industry.
A need for a clear agenda and tools for organisations on how to realize
economic success while simultaneously taking responsibility towards
society and the environment.

Therefore: help us shape the UNGC / RICS Best Practice

Sectoral Toolkit by joining the public consultation!
The draft Toolkit document and consultation questionnaire are
available at:

http://tinyurl.com/ungcricstoolkit
Tentative physical consultation
locations:
North
America:
USA

South
America:
Brazil

Europe:
UK

Africa/MENA:
UAE

Asia/
Oceania:
Australia

Thank you