| Our CR strategy continues to focus on improving our performance with respect to our 9 key impact areas; Climate Change; Water; Waste; Land Use; Suppliers; Tenants; Communities and Visitors; Employees and Safety and Health. In 2008 we continued to pursue our long-term CR objectives, fully accomplishing 63% of our CR targets and achieving some notable successes which are highlighted in 'Our Progress'. Regrettably there were some targets that we did not achieve in 2008, however, in 2009 we will seek to address the challenges that we encountered.
In terms of meeting our environmental objectives, this year we were successful in increasing the ecological efficiency of our shopping centres. We defined some new long-term objectives with respect to social impact areas, building on our current activities to increase engagement with local communities at sites of operation and to enhance our contribution through staff volunteering initiatives, and aiming to become a better employer to our staff. We continued to strengthen our relationships with our tenants and suppliers and to encourage these stakeholders to adopt more responsible business practices. Furthermore, we improved the Safety and Health (S&H) performance of our shopping centres, and became the first company of our kind in Europe to achieve OHSAS 18001 certification for our S&H Corporate Management System.
With respect to economic performance, our objective continues to be to increase our growth and strengthen our position in each of the markets where we operate and, in the medium term, to achieve €10 billion of assets under management. Nonetheless, 2008 was a difficult year for us, yields and discounts increased whilst rents and Open Market Values (OMVs) of many of our properties decreased. Despite such challenging market conditions, we are proud that we inaugurated 4 new centres in Spain, Italy and Greece and 3 expansion/refurbishment projects in Portugal and Italy.
Looking forwards to 2009, we are aware that tough times lie ahead as the current economic downturn deepens. However, we believe that CR and sustainability issues will continue to be increasingly important, with both individuals and organisations realising that their activities must contribute to a better future for our planet. As we brace ourselves to weather the storm ahead, we will remain committed to our mission to create value for our shareholders, through the shopping centre business, whilst taking account of our social and environmental responsibilities. Hence we will continue as always to invest in the CR performance of our assets, our new projects and our company. To ensure that we meet this challenge, in 2009 we appointed a Head of Sustainability and a new Corporate Responsibility Reporting Coordinator. A constant and strengthened commitment from all our employees will also be fundamental in helping us continue to achieve good results through these difficult times. To demonstrate our continued commitment to CR, we have set 24 targets to be achieved by the end of 2009 and we look forward to reporting our progress towards achieving these targets in our next report.
Álvaro Portela
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