Nareit announces award winners
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The 15th annual Nareit Leader in the Light Awards recognize REIT achievement in sustainability in 2020, and this year, Nareit (National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts) is proud to include eight property-sector awards, one innovation award and one individual leadership award. The 2020 Leader in the Light Awards are based, in part, on the results of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark Annual Survey, as well as judged responses to supplemental questions.
The REIT property sectors recognized this year include data centers, diversified, health care, industrial, office, residential, retail and, for the first time, self-storage. The property-sector award winners are Digital Realty for data centers; Vornado Realty Trust for diversified; Ventas and Healthpeak Properties for health care; Prologis for industrial; Kilroy Realty Corp. for office; AvalonBay Communities for residential; Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield for retail; and Extra Space Storage for self-storage.
The Most Innovative award was presented to Kilroy Realty Corp. Sara Neff, Kilroy’s senior vice president for sustainability, was presented with the Leadership Personified award.
“Since 2005, Nareit has presented its Leader in the Light Awards, and during that time, environmentally sustainable and socially conscious business practices have become increasingly important factors among investors,” said Steven A. Wechsler, president and CEO of Nareit. “Looking at the world through an ESG (environmental, social and governance) lens has proved to be a demonstrably good business practice.”
The 2020 Leader in the Light Awards were determined by an interdisciplinary panel of judges.
“We are proud to recognize our members that demonstrate leadership in the REIT and the publicly traded commercial real estate industry with their vision, innovation and strategy in addressing ESG issues,” said Fulya Kocak, senior vice president of ESG issues for Nareit. “We are appreciative of the judges for their time and commitment to evaluating the sustainability practices of the REITs in consideration for these awards.”
The winners of the Leader in the Light Awards will be recognized during a special virtual celebration at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time on Jan. 15.