Building Toward a Better Future: Highlights from Grubb’s 2022 ESG Report

By Colin Walker, Sustainability Manager

We’re pleased to announce the release of the 2022 Grubb Properties ESG Report, documenting our progress on environmental, social, and governance issues.

The report dives deep into principles central to Grubb Properties’ business, even before they became popular with investors. Grubb Properties was founded 60 years ago as a home builder. In addition, the company provided market-rate financing to homebuyers, many of whom had been locked out of traditional mortgages through often-discriminatory practices. That sense of equity and honesty has driven our company’s development since then, and our annual ESG report outlines how those principles influence every aspect of our organization.

Among the highlights from this year’s report:

• Grubb Properties’ GRESB scores improved over 2021 for our standing investments and development assets. In addition, our development score beat both our peer group average and the global average GRESB scores. This is despite the fact that based on Gross Asset Value, we are 68% smaller than our Standing Investment peers and 48% smaller than our Development peers.
• We continue to make progress on our goal that all our new development projects, whether multifamily or commercial, will pursue a green certification. To date, 77% of our commercial or multifamily properties have either earned a green certification or are in the process of being certified. In addition, 97% of our multifamily properties, totaling 7,507 units of essential housing, have earned a green certification or are pending certification.

• Our new CYKEL Apartments community won Sustain Charlotte’s Inspiring Building Project award. Scheduled to open in 2024, CYKEL is a 104-unit multifamily development in Charlotte’s Seversville neighborhood zones designed without parking. CYKEL will encourage and enable a car-free lifestyle through a biking-forward design that includes a ground-floor cycle center. Half of the units will meet affordability standards for residents earning below 80% of area median income, achieved through savings realized by not building parking, not through public subsidy. 
• In 2022, Grubb Properties joined the Lotus Campaign, an innovative program designed to end homelessness. Lotus serves as a bridge between for-profit landlords and developers, social service agencies, and people experiencing homelessness. Based on an initiative started in 2018 by Grubb and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, Lotus Campaign has helped 372 people find housing since 2018, including 282 who bought a home, leased another apartment, or renewed their existing lease after completing the program.
• Grubb Properties’ employees continue to respond to our focus on essential housing and addressing the nation’s housing crisis. In our 2022 Employee Engagement Survey, we asked employees to rate several statements from 1: Strongly Disagree to 4: Strongly Agree. The statement “I am proud to work for this organization” received a rating of 3.70/4, while the statement “Senior management’s behavior is consistent with our mission, vision & values” received a rating of 3.49/4.
   

The full report, outlining how ESG factors influence our corporate, investment, and property operations, is available  here at ESG Report 2022.