At Pro-invest Group we believe that an active focus on a business’s Environmental, Social and Governance impact has direct competitive and financial benefits. As such we embed ESG across all areas of our business and take them into consideration through all stages of our investment process. We participate actively in programs such as GRESB to ensure we are focused, measuring the right areas of our business and reporting them clearly to our stakeholders. We believe that the risks and opportunities for investors from ESG considerations will only deepen as organisations come under more external and internal pressure to improve their performance and commitment in these areas.
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE (ESG)
Our One Earth, Countless Experiences Approach
Today’s investors and consumers demand sustainable offerings. We don’t believe success in business is only measured financially, and neither do our stakeholders. But financial returns and good sustainability and governance are strongly correlated. Not only is an ESG approach the right thing to do, but investors want it because it’s future-proof and has cost benefits and offers uplift. Consumers are increasingly practicing ethical consumption and hospitality is no exception – they want to enjoy experiences without compromising their own environmental responsibilities. The public, governments, and communities we operate in increasingly expect and deserve this approach.
We are introducing One Earth, Countless Experiences as a core part of our brand. Pro-invest has always been an ESG leader in the hotel sector. This initiative means ESG principles will be applied full circle to the whole platform. A true ESG approach is not just a coat of green paint, and should run through everything, big and small, seen and unseen. It has never been superficial for us, and now we are ensuring it is in all fibres of our organisation, quite literally from the ground up, from our modular, carbon-neutral, fully recyclable carpeting to giving back to communities. Stakeholders will be involved in our ESG initiatives throughout our journey, from funding to asset development and management to guest experiences. In practice this means targeting local and sustainable food, zero waste principles, land preservation and so on applied to all details.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Pro-invest Group enables investors to access best practice to manage climate related risk from sustainable design and development to building operation. All our Australian based hotels with over 12 months of trading annually participate in the NABERS scheme to verify and benchmark their energy, water and where applicable, carbon neutrality. This supports our Net Zero by 2030 strategy with ongoing external performance verification. Further, the portfolio benefit from access to a four-phase sustainability management system tailored to our growing global hotel portfolio, meanwhile our commercial real estate assets have custom-made sustainability briefs and strategies.
In our hotel operations, Pro-invest Group have been early adopters of hotel brand initiatives such as IHG’s Green Engage, as well as IHG’s A Greener Stay for which in partnership with IHG, Pro-invest Group supported the initiatives debut in the APAC region.
We believe actions both seen and unseen support a sustainable portfolio with countless benefits including lowered expenses, risks, and the ability to engage and retain quality people, and thereby have a direct linkage to improved investment performance.
SOCIAL IMPACT
Whether it is with our colleagues or with the wider community, we believe that there is a clear link between engaging our stakeholders and increasing our investor’s financial returns.
Engaged staff care more and deliver guests a better experience. Guests seek out hotels that are active in their communities and demonstrate genuine positive commitment to their broader stakeholders.
At Pro-invest Group, we believe engagement is a continuous process, from charitable giving and fundraising drives, recognising and celebrating the diversity of our team, to respectfully working with colleagues or with communities on planning and design issues. Pro-invest Group engages stakeholders based upon our values framework of Trust, Transparency, Integrity and Commitment. We use tools such as our employee survey, whistle blower line and comprehensive policies and training to set clear expectations, monitor and manage performance.
GOVERNANCE IMPACT
We believe that a successful approach to and implementation of ESG across the entire lifecycle of a business and its assets requires strong governance foundation. Pro-invest Group are committed to operating to the highest ethical and governance standards. We align, report to, and hold memberships with internationally recognised institutions which support our wholistic ESG and sustainability approach. We are experienced working with institutions and custodians of capital through both our funds and managed accounts and understand stakeholders’ expectations and actively seek to work with people who shared our values of Trust, Transparency, Integrity, and Commitment. Our Code of Business Conduct and supporting policies, frameworks and governance committees reflect these values as we continue to drive forward ESG across the entire business.