It is my pleasure to provide you with an update on Vicinity Centres’ (Vicinity) progress on our Sustainability journey through Vicinity Unwrapped – Our Sustainability Story.

At Vicinity, our focus is on creating destinations that excite and engage customers, enhance communities and offer much more than an exceptional retail experience.

Bringing our purpose of Enriching Community Experiences to life, we leverage our centres as a positive force for creating sustainable destinations and shaping better communities. This helps us create shared value – to generate positive outcomes for our stakeholders and Vicinity – the guiding principle behind our Sustainability strategy.

This year we made some significant steps forward in progressing our Sustainability strategy and focus areas of low carbon smart assets, climate resilience and strengthening our local communities.

During the year we announced our commitment to Net Zero carbon emissions by 2030*, which brings us in line with the Paris Agreement and assists Vicinity in preparing for a low-carbon future. We are also proud to have achieved a 4 Star Green Star Performance rating across our managed portfolio, making Vicinity the largest entire retail portfolio to have achieved such a rating in Australia.

Vicinity was a lead participant in driving an industry-wide approach to prepare for the Modern Slavery Act introduced in January 2019. We are well placed to respond to this legislation in

*For Vicinity’s wholly owned retail assets

FY20 having already taken significant steps towards ensuring a sustainable and ethical supply chain over recent years.

Our Sustainability approach is a collaborative effort as we work with our partners – retailers, suppliers and local community organisations – to deliver on our sustainability objectives.  On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank everyone personally for their passion and commitment to making Vicinity, and our broader community, stronger and more sustainable each year.

Peter Hay                                                                            Chairman

As the CEO and Managing Director, and Chair of Vicinity’s Sustainability Committee, I’m delighted to report to you Vicinity’s Sustainability approach and performance to the end of FY19.

I believe that having a strategic approach to sustainability is an important driver of our overall performance and is essential to delivering strong and sustainable growth for all stakeholders.

This year, our $73 million solar investment program has completed 12 centre solar projects and a further eight underway. Our solar investment program is already delivering results for Vicinity by insulating the business from energy pricing volatility, reducing grid energy consumption in peak demand periods and helping to reduce carbon emissions.   

We continued to address the issue of disengaged and unemployed youth through our community investment program and have further progressed our support of social enterprises, spending $2.9 million over the past two years and helping provide training and create jobs for disadvantaged people in our communities.  I am especially proud of our commitment to reconciliation, this year completing our Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and launching our Innovate RAP which aims to increase respect, equality and opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, businesses and communities.

We’ve made some significant achievements this year, and we have further plans. I look forward to sharing our progress as we continue to lead in Sustainability.

Grant Kelley                                                                        CEO and Managing Director

Vicinity Unwrapped is Vicinity Centres’ (Vicinity or the Group) key platform for disclosing our environmental, social, governance and long-term economic information and performance.

The information within this site should be read in conjunction with our 2019 Annual (Integrated) Report and 2019 Corporate Governance Statement, available through our Investor Centre.

The content on this site has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standard at a core level.  The report discloses our performance and management of issues that are material to our business and our key stakeholders. The GRI Content Index can be downloaded here.  

Information on this site covers all retail assets under our operational control (direct and managed portfolio) as well as the corporate offices we occupy to run our business. Refer to our 2019 Sustainability Reporting Criteria for further information on our reporting scopes and boundaries. All performance data contained within this site is based on the financial year, the 12 months ending 30 June 2019 (FY19), or as at 30 June 2019, unless otherwise stated. Our performance is updated annually. The FY19 Sustainability Performance Pack can be downloaded here. 

A number of our environmental and social disclosures are externally assured by KPMG. The External Assurance Statement can be viewed here.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are warned photographs in this website may contain images of deceased persons which may cause sadness or distress. 

Your feedback is important to us. You can contact us or provide any comments you have via sustainability@vicinity.com.au.

*For Vicinity’s wholly owned retail assets

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