NABERS is a national ratings system that measures the environmental performance of Australian buildings. QIC Real Estate submits properties in QIC Property Fund (QPF), QIC Town Centre Fund (QTCF) and QIC Office Fund (QOF) portfolios for NABERS Energy and Water assessments annually¹.

In the NABERS results received in FY22 (covering the 2021 calendar year reporting period), the following average portfolio ratings were achieved:

Note: The above table presents self-calculated portfolio ratings based on formal individual asset ratings provided by NABERS in the years displayed. Portfolio ratings use average weighted star ratings and ownership percentage to determine a final result.

The ongoing implementation of environmental initiatives aims to deliver continuous annual improvements in these scores, in line with the ESG objectives identified under Our Approach. Recent NABERS Energy and Water performance has been affected by the impacts of COVID-19 lockdowns in Victoria and New South Wales.

This was the first year that the QIC Office Fund undertook NABERS Waste Base Building Ratings. While the initial rating result is relatively low, the rating process, along with waste management assessments, identified useful opportunities for improvements, such as the commencement of organic/food waste recycling. QIC has commenced implementing this improvement and is planning further implementation in the future.

QPF

NABERS Energy and Water ratings for Shopping Centre Base Building: 100%² of QPF’s shopping centre portfolio has been rated by NABERS Energy and Water.

• Claremont Quarter, Perth, Western Australia
• Castle Towers, Sydney, NSW
• Westpoint, Bathurst, NSW
• Canberra Centre, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
• Eastland, Melbourne, Victoria
• Watergardens, Melbourne, Victoria
• Woodgrove, Melbourne, Victoria
• Hyperdome, Logan, Queensland
• Robina Town Centre, Gold Coast, Queensland
• Grand Central, Toowoomba, Queensland
• Werribee, Melbourne, Victoria
• Epping, Melbourne, Victoria
• Coomera Town Centre, Gold Coast, Queensland

QTCF

NABERS Energy and Water Ratings for Shopping Centre Base Building: 100%³ of QTCF’s shopping centre portfolio has been rated by NABERS Energy and Water.

• Claremont Quarter, Perth, Western Australia
• Castle Towers, Sydney, NSW
• Westpoint, Bathurst, NSW
• Canberra Centre, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
• Eastland, Melbourne, Victoria
• Watergardens, Melbourne, Victoria
• Woodgrove, Melbourne, Victoria
• Hyperdome, Logan, Queensland
• Robina Town Centre, Gold Coast, Queensland
• Grand Central, Toowoomba, Queensland
• Werribee, Melbourne, Victoria
• Epping, Melbourne, Victoria

QOF

NABERS Energy, Water and Waste Ratings for Office Base Building: 100% of QOF’s office portfolio has been rated by NABERS Energy, Water and Waste.

• 111 George Street, Brisbane, Queensland
• 33 Charlotte Street, Brisbane, Queensland
• 30-54 Mary Street, Brisbane, Queensland
• 63 George Street, Brisbane, Queensland

¹ Lodgement fees are paid on behalf of QIC to NABERS for each individual rating undertaken.

²100% of rateable portfolio.  Merrifield City (VIC) is excluded from annual NABERS ratings due to its limited GFA (<7,000m²) making it unsuitable for the NABERS Shopping Centre rating system.

³100% of rateable portfolio.  Merrifield City (VIC) is excluded from annual NABERS ratings due to its limited GFA (<7,000m²) making it unsuitable for the NABERS Shopping Centre rating system.

Green Star is an internationally recognised sustainability rating system for buildings, fitouts and communities. The Green Star Performance Benchmark provides a holistic sustainability performance measure in relation to the operation of existing buildings.

In FY22, QIC Real Estate submitted all retail and commercial assets (excluding peripherals) for Green Star Performance ratings, which has provided us with a baseline against which to identify future opportunities for performance improvements⁴.

⁴QIC is a member of the Green Building Council of Australia who administer the Green Star sustainable building rating tools, and we pay an annual fee.

GRESB is one of many tools used by institutional investors to engage with their investments, with the aim of improving the sustainability performance of their investment portfolio, and the global property sector.

QIC Real Estate has participated in GRESB reporting since 2012 for the QIC Town Centre Fund (QTCF) and QIC Property Fund (QPF) and started reporting for the QIC Office Fund (QOF), QIC Australia Core Plus Fund (QACPF) and QIC Active Retail Property Fund (QARP) in 2016⁵.

We continue to work closely with the Property Council of Australia and its members to ensure the GRESB benchmark further evolves as a useful tool for investors to understand and compare performance, reward demonstrated leadership in real performance, and appropriately measure the industry's contribution to mitigating climate change impacts and the many other significant ESG challenges faced by Australian real estate managers. Our 2022 results, alongside prior year results, are detailed in the table below.

Significant improvements were seen in the 2022 scores for QOF, QPF and QTCF when compared to 2021 results. This is largely attributed to the types of sustainable building certifications achieved by the assets in the funds.

While QARP and QACPF also gained points related to sustainable building certifications in 2022, both funds missed out on points for ‘Targets’. We have since developed a series of ESG targets across these funds for FY23 for which we expect to receive greater recognition in future GRESB results. 

It should be noted that Victoria and New South Wales-based assets were again impacted by COVID-19 lockdowns during the reporting period, which resulted in reduced asset operating hours, potentially impacting our overall scores, especially for funds with assets in these states.

⁵QIC is an investor member of GRESB and pays an annual fee.

⁶2022 GRESB scores cover the 2021 calendar year performance period.

⁷Average score of all GRESB participants in 2022. 

COVID-19 continued to impact our portfolio during FY22, resulting in reduced operating hours and foot traffic due to intermittent lockdowns associated with Victorian and New South Wales government mandates on non-essential retail and stay at home orders. This in turn has impacted the environmental performance of our assets, resulting in reductions across the majority of metrics when compared with previous years prior to FY21. This should be taken into consideration when comparing against previous years' performance.

Aside from this, a number of initiatives were undertaken throughout the year to improve our performance across the retail and office portfolios against various environmental sustainability metrics:

• QIC Real Estate’s large-scale solar roll out⁸ continued during the reporting period, with the completion of a 4.9-Megawatt rooftop system at Hyperdome (QLD). In addition, the existing rooftop systems at Domain Central, Robina Town Centre, Watergardens and Grand Central have now had up to 12 months in operation, with the energy generated by and consumed from our onsite solar systems accounting for 9% of QIC Real Estate’s total direct energy use in FY22, contributing to a decline in grid-sourced electricity use and resulting carbon emissions across the portfolio during the reporting period.
• Scope 1 carbon emissions related to natural gas use increased in FY22 compared to FY21. This increase was driven by a reduction in days under COVID-19 lockdown in Victoria, where the majority of our natural gas usage occurs across the portfolio.
• The recycling rate across QIC Real Estate's asset portfolio has declined during the reporting period, from 44% in FY21 to 39% in FY22. The variations in recycling rates across FY19-FY22 are likely related to year-on-year variations in the impact of Covid-19 on waste generation at our assets resulting recycling rates, and improvements to the accuracy and completeness of data capture over this period. Physical waste assessments were undertaken at all retail and office assets during FY22. The key findings from these assessments are currently being incorporated into asset operational waste management plans, with recycling and circular economy opportunity initiatives expected to be implemented in FY23 and FY24.
• QIC Real Estate's reported Scope 3 carbon emissions have historically included emissions from landfill waste generation, energy use, and the energy used by specialty tenants. In FY21, QIC Real Estate broadened our data capture to include energy use and carbon emissions from major tenants, which resulted in an increase in overall Scope 3 carbon emissions from FY21 due to this broadening of reporting boundary⁹. Major tenants generally manage their own energy supply agreements.

This table presents aggregated data from QIC Real Estate's portfolio of retail, office and industrial assets. The FY22 data in the table has received limited assurance. The FY21 data also received limited assurance, and the assurance statement for that data is available in our FY21 ESG Report. Data from assets that QIC does not have operational control over is excluded, including our joint venture assets, Westfield Coomera and Claremont Quarter.

Intensity metrics are calculated by dividing annual usage data by gross lettable area, allowing presentation of relative annual performance while accounting for changes in portfolio structure over time.

The following downloadable spreadsheet presents asset level FY22 environmental performance data for each of QIC Real Estate's five funds: QIC Real Estate FY22 Asset Environmental Performance Data.

⁸Refer to Our Progress for details on our Modern Slavery approach, including reference to the human rights issue and risks associated with the allegations of the use of forced labour of Uyghur and other ethnic minorities. For further information, read QIC’s latest Modern Slavery Statement.

⁹To calculate the emissions related to major tenants' energy use, QIC Real Estate has:

• Used actual FY22 energy use figures provided by the tenant, or
• Used actual CY21 energy use figures provided by the tenant, or
• Estimated FY22 energy use based on actual FY22/CY21 energy intensity (kWh/m²) of an alternative tenant that most closely matches the expected operational profile of the tenancy that requires estimation. This method was applied to approximately 20% of the total gross lettable area occupied by major tenants across the portfolio of retail assets which accounts for 7% of scope 3 emissions.

¹⁰Scope 3 emissions comprise Scope 3 emissions from QIC Real Estate's use of energy and generation of landfill waste and emissions related to the use of energy by our retail and office tenants.

QIC Real Estate continued to monitor our performance against a set of short-term targets during the FY22 year. These targets can be seen in the table below, along with a status update on our performance against them.

Our current FY23 short-term targets can be viewed in Our Approach.