One United Properties receives ESG Rating from Morningstar Sustainalytics
One United Properties (BVB: ONE), the leading green developer of residential, mixed-use, and office real estate in Romania, publishes its Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Risk Rating issued by Morningstar Sustainalytics. Sustainalytics assessed, in September 2022, One United Properties a rating of 20.0, which was assessed medium risk. The ESG Risk Ratings by Sustainalytics are categorized across five risk levels: negligible (0-10), low (10-20), medium (20-30), high (30-40) and severe (40+).
“We are pleased with our ESG rating score, following an engagement of our investor relations and legal teams in the thorough risk rating process. Over the years, the importance of ESG criteria has increased significantly, and so did our focus on these aspects. The rating assessed by Sustainalytics to ONE is right at the border between a medium- and a low-risk score; therefore, we confidently target a low-risk score for the reassessment next year. We are particularly satisfied with the above-average rating in the corporate governance category, well above our local and international peers, which, considering our public company status, has been our key priority. In 2022, we are implementing several new policies and improving our ESG accountability, with a particular focus on whistleblowing, product governance as well as human capital, which will improve our score further. We believe ESG risk management is a continuous process, and we look forward to ameliorating it year after year, for the benefit of all our stakeholders,” said Victor Capitanu, co-CEO of One United Properties.
Sustainalytics’ ESG Risk Ratings measure a company’s exposure to industry-specific material ESG risks and how well a company is managing those risks. This multi-dimensional way of measuring ESG risk combines the concepts of management and exposure to arrive at an absolute assessment of ESG risk.
In the rating process, Sustainalytics identified the following aspects as material to One United Properties: corporate governance, ESG integration in the financial reporting, product governance, human capital, bribery and corruption, emissions, effluents and waste, as well as community relations. In its report, Sustainalytics remarked that ONE’s overall ESG-related disclosure follows best practice, signalling strong accountability to investors and the public. The company performed best in the corporate governance category, which has the highest risk exposure for the developer, receiving a strong risk management score.
The report underlined, under the corporate governance section, that the quality and integrity of the company’s board and management, its ownership structure and shareholder rights are the most important and thus the highest weighted areas of focus. The company is publicly traded, which leads to heightened scrutiny of its governance practices and increases the importance of governance structures, practices, and behaviour. This translates into high exposure to baseline corporate governance risk. In this context, Sustainalytics noted that One United Properties shows particular strength in its board structure, ownership structure and shareholder rights.
The ESG Committee to the Board of Directors, responsible for defining One United Properties’ sustainability strategy, oversaw the ESG rating process. The Risk Rating Summary report of One United Properties is available on ONE’s website, HERE, as well as on BVB’s Research Hub.
The receiving of the ESG rating is part of a larger sustainability strategy that the real estate developer began rolling out at the end of 2021, following the decision to join the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest sustainability initiative. Following the adherence to UN Global Compact, the company pledged to report on its Sustainability progress annually. To date, One United Properties has published two Sustainability Reports for the financial years 2020 (available HERE) and 2021 (available HERE).
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ONE UNITED PROPERTIES is the leading green investor and developer of residential, mixed-use and commercial real estate in Bucharest, Romania. One United Properties is an innovative company dedicated to accelerating the adoption of construction practices for energy-efficient, sustainable, and healthy buildings. All the company’s buildings have superior certifications for sustainability, energy efficiency and wellness, and the developer has been awarded at numerous galas and conferences in the field. One United Properties is the first real estate developer in Romania to be internationally awarded, being the recipient of the “Best Sustainable Residential Development” in the world at the International Property Awards 2019-2020. The company is listed on the Main Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, with the symbol ONE and its shares are included in multiple BET and STOXX indices, the FTSE Russell Global All-Cap index, which follows the most liquid shares in the world, and the FTSE EPRA Nareit EMEA Emerging index, which tracks the evolution of companies in the real estate sector in emerging markets.
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