Ari Frankel, assistant vice president of sustainability and high performance buildings at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s ESG Forum 2019 at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point in Bonita Springs, Florida.
Frankel, the 2019 chair of Nareit’s Real Estate Sustainability Council, discussed the release of Alexandria’s first corporate responsibility report, including the REIT’s sustainability goals through 2025.
“Social responsibility [is] really at the core of everything we do at Alexandria,” Frankel said. He noted that the REIT’s strategic philanthropy is focused in four areas: cancer research, STEM education, community involvement, and military support services.
Frankel said Alexandria’s corporate responsibility report discloses more than 2,700 volunteer hours in areas supporting those four disciplines, as well as more than $14 million delivered to 175 nonprofit organizations doing “mission critical” work, including cancer research. He added that on the environmental side, Alexandria is focused on minimizing and reducing the impact that its buildings have on the environment.
Frankel said that because the health and well-being of tenants can be tied to financial performance, it is not just important to Alexandria but to the broad commercial real estate market.
“Employees that are in better shape physically are going to be more productive—there’s less absenteeism [and] things of that nature,” he said. “But also…it helps companies with their talent attraction and recruitment.”
Frankel also discussed the significance of Alexandria’s first green bond, issued in June 2018, noting that “the pool of green capital continues to grow.”
