CSR 2012 Engelsk 1
CSR ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY ECONOMIC SUSTAINABI
LITY T • • Many real estate companies have a strong position in society because they are involved in building and maintaining the city’s buildings and neighborhoods. They are often major employers, both directly and indirectly through subcontractors. They make substantial investments that often significantly impacts on the earth’s resources. This makes it important to manage resources in a longterm optimal way, so that they can be used for many generations. For the City of Västerås, it is important that the city is built up from a long-term perspective, which takes into account the owner’s terms of reference for Mimer. From our terms of reference Mimer shall: here is substantial capital investment in our properties. • Promote utilizing new and existing properties for renewable energy use. Provide sound, energy-efficient housing, that the materials and wastes can be ecycled and be part of the natural cycle. • Make it easier for residents to promote energy conservation and recycling, and be active in the daily management work for energy conservation, recycling, conservation of re-sources and create and develop beautiful and green housing environments. • Ensure security and to contribute to social development in our neighborhoods through community, neighborhood watch and crime prevention measures to combat violence and vandalism. Implement energy saving measures. RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT Mimer takes a great responsibility for managing its properties, both in terms of the daily operations but also to create financially sustainable value over time. This means that we are actively working on the development of our housing areas. This is to ensure we create safe living environments where people feel comfortable and want to live and thrive, now and into the future. MAINTENANCE In 2012, we mapped out the maintenance requirements of our property portfolio. This means that we can more effectively manage and prioritize our investments and our maintenance. Thanks to a number of effectiveness projects over the last few years we have been able to raise the funds for targeted maintenance. . This will help lower repair and energy costs and to raise customer satisfaction. During 2012, we have been able to increase our level of maintenance and over five years been able to increase maintenance investment by 30 million kronor to the current level of 124 million kronor. REFURBISHMENTS In Mimer we invest considerable resources to the moderni12 Bostads AB Mimer Sustainability Report 2012 zation of our properties, partly to meet the demand for higher standards, but mainly to improve energy performance and reduce the cost of operation and maintenance. In our remodeling project, we pay great attention to the choice of materials, to meet requirements for reduced energy and environmental impacts, as much as we can from a life cycle perspective. NEW CONSTRUCTION When a new building takes shape, the property owner has great responsibility and an outstanding opportunity to influence both the economic sustainability of the construction project, and how the building’s resource consumption will look like during its life cycle. In Mimer, we strive to keep updated with new ideas, we seek cooperation and development in the construction industry. We take an active responsibility by participating in various pilot projects and have completed several custom projects of our own. These include, townhouses that we have built as passive housing, a future apartment that we have built based on a vision of what an apartment would look like in 2026 and working with major energy suppliers to jointly develop new solutions. BUILDING PRODUCT EVALUATION Sweden’s largest property owners and developers have joined forces to develop a standard for environmental assessment of products. Mimer is part of this group. The ambition is that tomorrow’s housing, with common standards and a flexible support system to seek approved products, will be built and managed using only environmentally assessed and approved products. The system is called Building Products Evaluation. Environmental assessment is a method of taking responsibility for what we build into and use in our housing which considers future generations. OCCUPANCY RATE Mimer’s occupancy rate in recent years has been very good. For 2012, the occupancy rate rose to 99.6 (99.7). This means that the loss because of unused apartments is low and that we utilize our real estate optimally. In 2012, there have been vacant apartments available at each monthly shift, although it was slightly less than in 2011. Demand remains very high and the apartments are re-let quickly. The UN defines sustainable development as development that “... meets today’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”