Better together: collaborating with tenants towards sustainability outcomes

Ensuring our assets contribute to a more sustainable New Zealand plays a key role in growing our position as a landlord of choice and unlocking further value for our investors.

We checked in with Fabio Pagano, General Manager – Property, to get an update on how sustainability initiatives are delivering results across the Oyster portfolio.

“A core part of our strategy is ensuring our assets are well positioned to support tenants in meeting their own sustainability goals, today and into the future,” Fabio says.

“Great examples of this strategy in action are the long-term lease agreements we hold with government-based tenants, who require building performance ratings as part of their procurement processes, and our close working relationships with high-profile tenants like Mitre 10 who are looking to achieve excellence against their own sustainability strategies.”

Over the past 12-months, we’re proud to have progressed against a number of sustainability initiatives across the Oyster portfolio, including:

Tenant-funded, Oyster-supported projects

“Value-add opportunities come seamlessly when landlord and tenant goals are aligned. When it comes to sustainability, we work in partnership with our tenants – you can’t do this work in isolation.”

In the past year, this has included supporting several tenant funded projects including the management of installation of EV chargers at Home Straight Park and the Millennium Centre business parks. Planning and preparation is also underway for the rollout of tenant funded EV chargers and solar panels at Henderson Mega and Pukekohe Mega which both house Mitre 10 stores.

Our Properties Team continues to work with providers to install high speed EV charging stations at more Oyster assets.

Ongoing NABERSNZ ratings progress

National Australian Built Environment Rating System in New Zealand (NABERSNZ) is the industry benchmark for assessing the energy efficiency and performance of office buildings.

Oyster has progressed it’s first year of re-ratings under the NABERSNZ at 26 of our office buildings in total, with 19 achieving 4-stars or higher, which means excellent performance.

The framework helps us set baselines for energy consumption and develop a roadmap to improve these for respective assets over the coming years.

‘Smart’ electricity and water meters to measure optimal property performance

The installation of ‘smart’ electricity and water meters across the Oyster portfolio has progressed, and we’re streamlining and automating the way energy and water consumption data is captured across the majority of our assets.

“That real-time data enables us to have conversations and work with our tenants to understand what’s going on at their asset,” Fabio says.

For example, we picked up an issue with water consumption at one of our business parks, where we were able to identify and resolve a leak in a matter of days, which otherwise may not have been picked up until after a water bill had been received, let alone resolved.

Similarly, had a smart electricity meter been in use at the time, a large jump in power consumption noted after people returned to an office asset following lockdown would’ve been picked up in real time rather than at the end of the billing timeframe.

“With smart metering installed we can see changes like this start to emerge and work together with our
tenants to manage any effects,” Fabio says.

Leading by example

Oyster has also to put in place a strategy to measure, manage and reduce our own carbon emissions as a corporate entity.

Oyster has enrolled in the CarbonReduce certification programme from independent environmental experts Toitū Envirocare, which supports New Zealand businesses with environmental frameworks to drive real progress.

“We now have a starting position for our own carbon footprint and are able to establish some targets to reduce these emissions. We’ve undergone our first audit which we understand to be successful, and are now awaiting confirmation of our Toitū CarbonReduce certification,” Fabio says.

The Roadmap Forward

In addition to developing and pursuing initiatives that will reduce Oyster’s own carbon footprint to achieve our targeted reductions, over the next 12 months, key areas of focus will also include seeking a Green Star Performance rating across a few select assets to better understand this framework, and opportunities to make related improvements. Green Star Performance assesses the operational performance of existing buildings.

Oyster is also currently pursuing it’s first Green Star Design & As Built rating on a current development at one of our Business Parks. The Design & As Built framework helps guide the sustainable design and construction of new commercial builds.

We’re also commencing planning for the Oyster portfolio’s first carbon neutral asset.

“We’re energised by the results we’re seeing so far and look forward to continuing to collaborate with our investors and tenants to drive sustainability success stories into the future”.