INDEX
In order to enhance the objectivity and credibility of the status of environmental and social considerations of properties owned by United Urban, the initiatives to acquire external certification and ratings assigned by third parties are underway. The following is the coverage ratio of the properties of United Urban that acquired external certification. We promote to raise the coverage ratio of environment certification.
| Number of properties | Total floor area | Percentage of total floor area | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DBJ Green Building |  |
2 | 24,876.30m2 | |
 |
10 | 241,309.76m2 | ||
 |
3 | 115,050.49m2 | ||
| Subtotal | 15 | 381,236.55m2 | 22.9% | |
| CASBEE for Real Estate |  |
17 | 248,929.93m2 | |
|
19 | 246,689.75m2 | ||
|
1 | 10,224.31m2 | ||
| Subtotal | 37 | 505,843.99m2 | 30.4% | |
| BELS | |
9 | 82,038.12m2 | |
|
5 | 30,593.49m2 | ||
|
15 | 120,471.98m2 | ||
|
13 | 166,518.54m2 | ||
| Subtotal | 42 | 399,622.13m2 | 24.0% | |
| Environmental certifications | Total | 89 | 1,286,702.67m2 | 77.4% |
GRESB, the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark, is an annual benchmarking assessment to measure ESG integration of real estate companies and funds. It was founded in 2009 by a group of European institutional investors who played leading roles in launching Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) advocated by the United Nations as the core group and is utilized in their investment decision-making processes.
In the 2023 GRESB Real Estate Assessment, United Urban received a “4 Stars” in GRESB Rating, which is based on GRESB Overall Score and its quintile position relative to global participants.
United Urban also won a “Green Star” designation for the ninth consecutive year by achieving high performance both in “Management Component” that evaluates policies and organizational structure for ESG promotion, and “Performance Component” that assesses environmental performance and tenant engagement of properties owned.
The highest “A” level was granted to United Urban for the sixth consecutive year. Its accomplished disclosure of information regarding ESG initiatives were evaluated.
United Urban continues to implement its initiatives for the environmental, social, governance issues going forward.
DBJ Green Building Certification Program was established by Development Bank of Japan Inc. in April, 2011 for the purpose of supporting the properties which give proper care to environment and society (“Green Building”). The program evaluates, certifies and supports properties which are required by society and economy. It makes comprehensive assessment of properties, while evaluating various factors which range from properties’ environmental features to their communication with stakeholders, such as disaster prevention and proper care for surrounding communities.
“CASBEE (Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency)” is a system for assessing and rating the environmental performance of buildings and built environment, which is being developed and penetrated in Japan, under the leadership of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
CASBEE for Real Estate was developed with an intention to be widely used among property market participants, and its assessment criteria are designed to use by person engaged in real-estate development and transaction. The assessment items consist of five categories, namely “energy/GHG,” “water,” “materials/safe,” “biodiversity/sustainable site,” and “indoor environment” with 21 assessment items. Taking into account international common items advocated by UNEP SBCI (The United Nations Environment Programme - Sustainable Building and Climate Initiative), the same items as environmental performance items, which have received attention from domestic and foreign companies, are considered.
“Building-housing Energy-efficiency Labeling System (BELS)” is a third-party certification system for rating residential and non-residential buildings fulfilling the obligation to make efforts for labeling of energy efficiency under the Building Energy Efficiency Act (official name: Act on the Improvement of Energy Consumption Performance of Buildings). The assessment is on the basis of the Building Energy Index (BEI) value derived from primary energy consumption based on the building energy efficiency standards provided by the Japanese government.
The assessment and labeling based on BELS is implemented by assessment association members, which are those “registered housing quality evaluation agencies,” “designated confirmation and inspection bodies” or “registered building investigation bodies” that have submitted notification as an organization implementing BELS operations. The assessment outcome is represented by a number of stars (five-star scale from one star to five stars).
ZEB (Net Zero Energy Building) refers to a building designed to achieve a balance of zero annual primary energy consumption while maintaining a comfortable indoor environment. Depending on the achievement status of zero energy in the BELS evaluation system, the ZEB series are defined into four stages: ZEB (Zero Energy Building), Nearly ZEB, ZEB Ready, and ZEB Oriented.
The Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is an international organization that empowers companies and financial institutions to establish ambitious emission reduction targets aligned with the latest advancements in climate science.
United Urban has established GHG emission reduction targets by 2030. These targets, based on scientific evidence aiming to align with the Paris Agreement, which aims to hold the increase in the global average temperature well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and strives to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels," have received certification from SBTi.
Eco-Action 21 is a Japanese environmental management system (EMS) formulated by the Ministry of the Environment, a framework designed to enhance the effectiveness of environmental initiatives and improve corporate value. It establishes methods so called PDCA cycle for organizations and businesses to voluntarily engage in continuous improvement of environmental performance. United Urban has obtained Eco-Action 21 certification (stepwise certification) for the 31 properties in the portfolio as of November 2023.
The Index is composed of companies with high ESG performance selected from the constituent companies in the MSCI Japan IMI Index. The Index is reviewed in May and November every year based on ESG ratings by MSCI Inc. (MSCI), market capitalization and others.
The Index has been used as one of the benchmarks for investment by Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF).
Upon the recent review in May this year, United Urban has been newly selected as a constituent of the Index under the real estate sector.
We believe that the addition to the constituents of the Index will contribute to further broadening the investor base of United Urban and improving the liquidity of investment units.
The Company has been awarded "AA,", which is the selection criterion for this index.