The Hines Sustainability Framework is built on Hines’ core principals – excellence, integrity, and trust. In addition to sound corporate governance, we maintain and continue to develop foundational policies, processes and standards to ensure our efforts are consistent, scalable, measurable, and value driven.
Our Groundwork for Leadership and Growth
Data Management
Data drives our leadership efforts. We are continually working to improve data collection and management to quantify the impact of our investments and accurately track progress toward resource efficiency and decarbonization goals. Robust, accurate data also helps us provide transparency, secure green building certifications, and improve our GRESB1 scores.
Plans and Policies
We maintain and continue to develop consistent standards for prioritizing sustainability across our business.
- The Hines Sustainability Policy guides our firm and employees.
- Our investment teams use the Hines Sustainability, Resilience, and Responsible Investment Framework to evaluate potential acquisitions, and all Hines investments are guided by the Responsible Investment Statement.
- Our Global Code of Business Conduct and Ethics complements our Guiding Principles and affirms a company-wide commitment to our core values and priorities. The code provides an overview of the regulations and policies that guide our firm and employees, and helps us make decisions as individuals and as a business.
Ethics Point
Our reputation was built on conducting business in accordance with the highest ethical standards and following the letter and spirit of the laws and regulations applicable to our business. We expect employees, shareholders and business partners to report conduct they believe to be unethical or in violation of the law, the Global Code of Business Conduct, or other Hines policies. EthicsPoint, provides an anonymous and confidential source if someone is uncomfortable reporting ethical or legal concerns.
- We have specific regulations and disclosures for Hines investments in the EU.
Processes and Procedures
Firm-wide processes and procedures help us embed sustainability into our business. We integrate sustainability into investment decisions by pricing it into deals, include aligned objectives in employee performance reviews, and assess tenant preferences.
Disclosures and Sustainability Reporting
Transparent reporting holds us accountable to our goals and helps us communicate success.
We have produced a global sustainability report annually since 2011 and our reports have been always been GRI-aligned.
Most Hines’ flagship funds also produce annual sustainability reviews and annual investor reports, some of which include INREV-aligned sections.
Footnotes:
1Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) is a mission driven, investor-led organization that provides actionable and transparent environmental, social, and governance data to financial markets. GRESB collects, validates, scores, and benchmarks this data to provide business intelligence, engagement tools, and regulatory reporting solutions. Hines pays to participate in GRESB.