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

FY21 has been another remarkable year, both within Australia and globally, as the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 continue to test our resilience. The unpredictable nature of our current environment has become a harsh reality to accept; however, Vicinity continues to adapt well to these ongoing uncertainties and navigate towards a COVID safe future. Through doing this, the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees, customers, tenants, contractors, and the broader community has remained our priority. While we expect this volatility to continue in the short term, we are optimistic about the future and the countless opportunities we have across our portfolio.

Throughout the year, we have continued to bring our purpose of Enriching Community Experiences to life, and through our sustainability strategy, progress our work to create sustainable and resilient destinations and shape better communities.  We have remained open for our communities to access the essential goods and services they need, as well as providing testing clinics and vaccination hubs.

We have also recently entered a three-year partnership with the Australian Red Cross, through which we will deliver our community investment program to alleviate youth unemployment and disengagement within our centres. The broad presence and outstanding reputation the Red Cross have across Australia which will allow us to make a positive difference across our portfolio and continue to build stronger, more resilient communities.

We are tracking well towards our Net Zero by 2030 carbon target*, having reduced our carbon intensity by 5% from FY20 and by continuing to progress our on-site solar program across our wholly-owned retail assets. 

Our industry-leading solar program now includes 30.6 MW of solar installed across our managed portfolio, with seven centres added during the year. We now have 19 assets with solar installed.

In December 2020, we were included in CDP’s prestigious A-List** for the second year in a row, which recognises leading action on climate change. Vicinity was one of only three companies in Australia to achieve this top ranking as part of a small number globally.

Sustainability continues to remain an integral part of our business as we continue to integrate our sustainability objectives into all areas of our operations. On behalf of the board, I would like to extend my thanks to everyone involved for their passion and commitment to continue making Vicinity stronger and more sustainable each year.​

Trevor Gerber                                                                        Chairman

* Across common mall areas of our wholly-owned retail assets.

**CDP is a global not for profit organisation operating in 90 countries. In 2020, there were over 9600 companies analysed with the A-List comprised of only 277 of those.

As the CEO and Managing Director, and Chair of Vicinity’s Sustainability Committee, I am delighted to report to you Vicinity’s Sustainability approach and performance to the end of FY21.

Our highest priority during these challenging times with the evolving COVID-19 situation, is a heightened focus on the health, safety and wellbeing of everyone who works in or visits our centres, our broader team and our communities. As we entered the financial year, non-essential retail across our Victorian centres remained closed for almost 3 months as a result of the ongoing lockdown. Despite these challenges, our centres in other states enjoyed a relatively COVID-normal year as consumer confidence slowly returned to pre pandemic levels. I am very proud of the agile approach taken by our centres teams which is truly inspiring, consistently adapting to the constantly changing environment to ensure our centres remain open in a COVID safe manner, delivering the essential goods and services our customers need.

Our ongoing commitment to climate, creating sustainable precincts and other important Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues is reflected by our exceptional performance across a range of investor sustainability surveys. During FY21, Vicinity was ranked third in the Australian Retail Shopping Centre category in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), recognised in the top 3% of real estate companies globally within the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).

In FY21, we published our inaugural Modern Slavery Statement and enhanced our approach to identifying and addressing Modern Slavery issues in our supply chain. This was complemented by our consistent approach to our Responsible Procurement Action Plan and supply chain due diligence activities. Vicinity also continued to support social enterprises and Indigenous businesses, via procurement agreements which help to provide training, skills and employment opportunities to disadvantaged members in our communities. This will be complimented by our recent partnership with the Australian Red Cross, through supporting youth engagement, youth employment and building stronger, more resilient communities

I am especially proud of our commitment to reconciliation, this year progressing our commitments to the Indigenous community under our Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) which aims to increase respect, equality and opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, businesses and communities. During the year, Vicinity became a member of Supply Nation, which provides access to an extensive list of Indigenous Suppliers across Australia. This allows us to continue to support Indigenous Businesses and provide ongoing benefit towards the communities in which they operate.

In FY21, we continued progressing our program of work to create a high-performance culture at Vicinity. Our employee experience survey results demonstrated that our team members remained focused on delivering results for our retailers and our business despite the disruption 2020 brought. They saw alignment between their role and Vicinity’s purpose, felt empowered to act, knew how to be successful in their role and felt appropriately involved in decisions that affect their jobs.

We have made significant achievements in sustainability this year and I look forward to sharing Vicinity’s ongoing progress as we continue to move forward in our sustainability journey.

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 2021 Annual Report and 2021 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 2021 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 2021 (FY21), or as at 30 June 2021, unless otherwise stated. Our performance is updated annually. The FY21 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