Sustainability

Atrium is committed to sustainable growth, reflecting our long-term approach to investment and operation and our continued efforts to lead in terms of corporate citizenship in our region. We strive for economic efficiency, social fairness and environmental sustainability in all our endeavours.

Accordingly, Atrium has always employed sustainable principles and procedures as an underlying foundation of its daily activities standing at the core of its strategy. In 2014, management embarked on a mission to formalize these previously largely informal practices with a view to enhance the transparency of its sustainability strategy. To this aim, Atrium undertook a complex assessment of its current sustainable practices in order to identify its material impact areas and value drivers. This enables Atrium to manage its key risks better, to meet investor and tenant demands and, ultimately, to enhance long term asset and business value.

To that end, Atrium has worked closely with the JLL Upstream Sustainability team, one of the world’s leading experts on real estate sustainability. With their help, Atrium has conducted extensive reviews of its baseline, including an evaluation of its current approach and practices as well as of the knowledge and vision of its internal stakeholders, investors, tenants, relevant legislation and industry peers. This systematic methodology has resulted in a comprehensive materiality review identifying the most important material issues for Atrium, which can be grouped into three focus areas - our customers, our assets and our employees.

Reports

Atrium’s first sustainability report, “It matters”, is available for download here:

It matters – Our Customers, Our Assets, Our People

The report is aligned with the EPRA best practices recommendations on Sustainability Reporting, and follows Atrium’s receipt of a Green Star rating from the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) after its first participation in the survey in 2016, and an EPRA Gold award for its financial reporting standards and transparency during the same year.

Policy

Atrium is a leading owner, operator and developer of shopping centres in Central and Eastern Europe. With a significant presence, particularly in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia, Atrium aims to further strengthen and maintain its leadership position in food anchored shopping centres and to become a hallmark of high quality retail.

Sustainability is a fundamental part of achieving this objective as our business activities have a significant impact, both directly and indirectly, on the natural environment and on the communities in which we operate. It is therefore our responsibility to manage the environmental, social, and economic impacts of, and risks facing, our business. By adopting a strategic approach towards sustainability, we are able to maximise opportunities to create value for Atrium’s business, meet the expectations of our stakeholders and support the communities which we serve.

In 2014, we developed our sustainability strategy, which established our vision and our three strategic priority areas.
Our sustainability vision is:
“To be the leader in Central & Eastern Europe by creating value through our customers, our places & our people”
Each of the priority areas has a sustainability objective which supports this main vision. These are:

Our Customers Atrium endeavours to be a company that cares for and engages with its customers
Our Places We aspire to own, operate and develop shopping centres with optimal sustainable performance
Our People Supporting and developing a talented workforce that is proud to work for us

Our approach to managing sustainability risks and opportunities going forward will be framed around our sustainability vision and priority area objectives.

Ultimate accountability for ensuring this policy is implemented lies with the Board of Directors. Responsibility for the governance and implementation of this policy and Atrium’s sustainability targets lies with the Sustainability Committee, which will be supported by our network of Sustainability Champions.

Liad Barzilai

Group CEO

Case Studies

Below are a number of case studies that exemplify some of Atrium’s latest achievements.

Our Customers - Atrium’s collaboration with JLL Poland

In late 2015, the Polish Atrium team has partnered with JLL Poland in order to gain a detailed understanding of its customers, resulting in a research report entitled “Enthusiasts and Frequenters – Generations X and Y in Shopping Centres”. The report provides valuable insight in order for Atrium to engage with its customers. Based on over 2,000 survey respondents aged 25-34 and 45-54 from several cities, the report explores various shopping styles within a centre’s catchment area, recognizing the increasing integration of generations and defining segments based on shopping patterns, e.g. social shoppers, rational shoppers, purpose-driven shoppers, shopaholics, and multi-purpose visitors. This research initiative reflects Atrium’s endeavour to care for and engage with its customers in order to better meet their needs and expectations by gaining relevant insight into their behaviour.

Our Places - Atrium Flora

Acquired in September 2011 in what was the largest real estate transaction in Prague that year, Atrium Flora is one of the prime shopping centres in the Czech capital and remains one of Atrium’s top assets. In 2015, Atrium Flora has received an Excellent BREEAM in-use certification. Located in an afluent residential area with excellent transport links, the asset has a GLA of over 40,000 sqm and is 96% occupied, attracting over 8 million visitors per year. After an extensive analysis process, in December 2015 the property was granted an Excellent In-use certificate from BREEAM, one of the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings. The appraisal methodology provides for seven categories: energy, water, materials, pollution, land use and ecology, health and wellbeing, and management. Atrium Flora has scored a perfect record on both the water and land use and ecology categories, with scores of around 90% for all other categories except energy. The excellent 5-star BREAM In-use ranking, marking a milestone in Atrium’s strategy to own, operate and manage shopping centres with optimal sustainable performance.

Our People - Atrium’s Core Values

In 2015, the Group Executive Team has defined the Atrium Core Values which will be embedded in the organisation and in our personnel within the next years. In the words of our Group HR Director, “I believe it is key that our people, throughout Europe, share the Atrium core values and competencies and feel that they belong to a truly exciting, professional and leading company. A place where they can make a difference, where they can develop themselves and their environment. Employees should, no matter where their office is located, feel and experience that they are part of the Atrium Group, the preferred employer”.

The Atrium Core Values reflect our ambition to attract, support, develop and retain talented staff that is proud to work within the Atrium Group, as defined here: Accountability – take responsibility to drive results and be accountable for these results; Trust – integrity and transparency in all we do; Respect – understand the importance and value of others; Innovation – an entrepreneurial, flexible attitude, combined with speed of response; Unity – work as a team, helping each other deliver a competitive advantage; Motivation – maximise our efforts and have fun along the way.

An HR framework has also been established in order to support Atrium’s long-term ambitions as an employer, driven by the abovementioned Core Values.