Sustainability
in Kereby

As a company, Kereby wants to take a greater environmental and social responsibility.

We want to do this for our employees, our tenants, the environment, and the surrounding community at our properties in Copenhagen.

In 2022, we published our first ESG report with a strategic focus towards 2025.

Read Kereby’s 2022 ESG report here:

Link to report:

Reporting

In addition to the annual ESG report, Kereby reports to GRESB. We work for our buildings to become EU taxonomy aligned under the category ’Adaptation to climate change’. We submit carbon accounting in accordance with the GHG protocol and have set reduction targets for our operational CO2 emissions in accordance with the IPCC’s 1.5°.

 

See the links below:

Auditor’s statement
Accounting principles
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions Scope 1+2 – 2021

 

For further information:
Jean Ahlefeldt-Laurvig
Head of ESG & Public Affairs
Mobile: 51 88 89 65
Mail: jah@kereby.dk

Our strategy and
focus areas now and
towards 2025

In the first phase of our ESG strategy work, we focused on our internal and external stakeholders. Furthermore, we did our materiality matrix and mapped out nine strategy focus areas for our ESG work.

In the second phase from the summer of 2022 to year-end, we worked with the sub-focus areas within the nine focus areas that we have identified in our materiality matrix.

In the third phase in 2023, we work with both short-, medium and long-term ESG objectives. In addition, we implement processes and systems to measure, monitor and report on all our efforts.

Customer satisfaction

Diversity & Inclusion

Regulativ compliance

Climate Action

Employee Health & Wellbeing

Data management and reporting

Ethical Standards

Community support

Sustainable buildings/ sustainable operations

How Kereby
works with ESG

Supporting our customers, people and communities

Protecting our Environment

Embedding ESG in our business

Social – Supporting our Customers, People and Communities
We are aware of the responsibility we have as a modern company.
This applies to our tenants, employees, and the local community in Copenhagen.

Local community:
We support and collaborate with several Copenhagen aid organizations that work every day to help and support different citizens – young and old. Among other things, we collaborate with the organization Welcome Home (Velkommen Hjem), which through mentorships is helping veterans returning to civilian society. Several of our employees are mentors at Welcome Home.
 
Bydelsmødre is another organization that we have supported. The purpose of this organization is to improve the integration of immigrant women through guidance and learnings from other immigrant women in the Danish society.
 
Kereby has also worked with the Copenhagen Municipality to help Ukrainians who come to Denmark because of the war in Ukraine. In the spring and summer of 2022, we made five furnished apartments available free of charge to Ukrainians in collaboration with the municipality.
 
In addition, we are members of the Danish industry networks Byens Netværk and the Green Building Council (Rådet for Bæredygtigt Byggeri), which respectively focuses on urban development and sustainable construction. Furthermore, we are an active member of the Danish ESG network, Prop9.

Tenants:
When it comes to our tenants – both residential and commercial – we first and foremost want to let modern and up-to-date leases. Next, we want to constantly, through our Kereby service concept, deliver good service, which is why, among other things, we carry out both annual and action-based satisfaction surveys. We do this so that we always know where we can improve and optimize our service. In addition, we have established a Service Center for servicing and handling tenant enquiries and introduced a new task and ticket system in the Service Center.
 
However, we do not only want to provide good service to all our tenants. We also want to create value for them. Therefore, among other things, we organize annual social media workshops for our commercial tenants with one of Denmark’s leading experts, to support their businesses.
 
In addition, in all welcome packages for new tenants, there are several different products and vouchers from our commercial tenants.
 
Employees:
Kereby’s employees are the foundation of our company. That is why employee well-being, inclusion and diversity are important to us. We want to create a spacious and inclusive work culture where everyone feels welcome, seen and heard. We carry out inclusion surveys, have set up a staff association that organizes various social events to strengthen internal cohesion and generally have a strong focus on work-life balance. In addition, we offer continuous education and coaching to our employees.

Environmental – Protecting our Environment

Kereby is aware of the global climate we as a global society are in. We will therefore do our part to fulfill the goals that Copenhagen must be a C02-neutral city in 2025, and that by 2030 Denmark must have reduced our total CO2 emissions by 70 %.
 
Kereby’s largest carbon footprint comes from our properties. To reduce our emissions, we will:
 
• Increase energy efficiency in the areas where we as a company have a direct influence through our operations
 
• In addition to our own operations, influence reductions in CO2 emissions throughout our value chain, including inspiring our tenants to reduce their own energy consumption
 
• Inform and encourage our tenants to use resources more effeciently, especially in relation to waste disposal and water consumption

Governance – Embedding ESG in our Business

Effective governance is about responsible management, ethical behaviour and a safe environment.
 
Our day-to-day ethical values are known throughout Kereby as RAP – Respect, Accountability and Professionalism. These words frames the values that ensure respectful relations with all our stakeholders, accountable to do what we say we will do, and professional in all our relationships. We have established a whistle-blower scheme to support RAP.
 
We are accountable to an independent body. We protect data in line with GDPR guidelines and regularly keep up to date with legislative requirements.

ESG highlights

Supporting our Customers, People and Communities

Protecting our environment

Embedding ESG in our business

120

EMPLOYEES

May 2021 established Kereby staff association to support all 120 employees and strengthen social cohesion after effects of COVID-19.

900

MILLION DKK

Since inception invested more than 900 million DKK in the maintenance and improvements of the historic Copenhagen residential buildings.

GRESB

June 2022 submitted our first reporting to GRESB (Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark).

TENANT SURVEY

Since 2020 we have conducted yearly tenant surveys and communicated survey results and Kereby’s service commitments to all residential tenants.

24

UKRAINIAN REFUGEES SUPPORTED

June 2022 supported 24 Ukrainian refugees with 5 fully furnished apartments as humanitarian relief, in collaboration with the Copenhagen municipality.

CO2 OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

May 2022 officially reported our first carbon accounting for our operational emissions and ensured limited assurance from Deloitte.

IN-HOUSE SERVICE CENTRE

February 2020 established in-house Service Centre to improve service and responsiveness for our tenants and offer 24- hour service. Response time 32-seconds, on average.

C+

IMPROVED ENERGY LABELS

Since inception improved 104 of our buildings to EPC rating in band C or above, meaning we now have 142 buildings at this level or three-quarters of our portfolio by floor area.

WHISTLEBLOWER SCHEME

August 2020 established a whistle-blower scheme to create safe and equitable environment for employees and collaborated with external administrators to enforce this.