Responsible Property Management

Improving the performance of existing buildings is one of the most difficult sustainability challenge we face. The effective management of our existing assets therefore remains the bedrock of our RPI strategy.

RPM Programme and Tools
The RPM Programme remains core to our overall RPI strategy, thus we do not simply apply best practice management techniques to a handful of flagship properties, but our RPM programme covers all properties under management. The knowledge gained by our PMs at our individual properties feedbacks in the work we conduct in the other core areas of RP.

Minimum management requirements
Our Property Management Requirements set out minimum requirements and best practices for how we expect our properties to be managed. They provide our Property Managers (PMs) with a simple check list of actions they need to follow, with progress being monitored at quarterly meetings, with assistance from our sustainability advisor, Upstream Sustainability Services. RPI-specific requirements linked to financial performance bonuses are included in our contracts with PMs.

We have written a new version of our Property Manager Requirements – version 3. These have been updated with new targets and a renewed focus on implementing best practice across the portfolio.

Click here to download our PMs Requirements.

Supporting tools
To assist our PMs with this evolving programme of work, we continue to provide a suite of tools to monitor and report on progress. We have tools to measure energy, water, waste, travel and community engagement throughout the year, and on an annual basis and we use Upstream’s Operational Performance Benchmarking service to compare our performance against the industry.

The sustainability improvements identified through this comprehensive programme are analysed by our PMs, and, if appropriate, are included in our asset management strategies, for implementation. This allows us to deliver real sustainability improvements and cost savings across our portfolio.

Each of the tools that we use in the RPM Programme eventually informs investment decisions firstly by having actions logged as Sustainability Improvement Requirements (SIRs). We currently have a database of over 400 SIRs (see here).We are in the process of developing a Cost Benefit Analysis tool to assess which of these improvement can generate real investment returns and operational savings. These SIRs are evaluated and analysed based on relevance and payback. Those chosen are then transferred to the Property Management Strategies (PMSs) and the Strategic Property Plans (SPPs) for individual properties. This provides our Investment Managers with relevant sustainability information which, when combined with traditional financial metrics, gives a more complete picture of a property’s performance, and allows for more robust and informed decision making.

Centres of Excellence
Achieving our goals faster and more efficiently
Building on past good work we have developed our RPI Centres of Excellence programme by increasing the range of activities covered and enhancing the visibility of our existing centres. We have also identified new Centres.
One of the fundamental principles we adopt with all of our work on RPI is the continual sharing of best practice. Our RPI Centres of Excellence act as exemplars for our Property Managers to disseminate this knowledge across our portfolio.

This approach has proven very successful and has shown that through active learning and capacity building we are able to achieve our goals faster and more efficiently, and thereby can have a more immediate impact on our assets, the environment and the communities in which we invest.
Building on our first year experience we have enhanced the visibility of our existing Centres of Excellence by more widely disseminating their best practices and identifying newcomers who have demonstrated best practice in areas of security, occupier engagement and waste recycling.
We have used this information, as well as details of new acquisitions to update our Interactive Map, a tool which allows our PM’s to easily identify good practice from across our portfolio.

Hermes RPI awards 15th Anniversary
We have a long tradition of rewarding our Property Managers for their outstanding work in implementing and developing our RPI programme and in 2008 we celebrated our 15th Annual RPI Awards.

Initially focused on risk and safety, our programme and awards have evolved over the past 15 years in line with the growing sustainability agenda: from energy and waste efficiency, community engagement, water efficiency, climate change and extreme weather events, to green technologies.
Covering the areas of risk and safety, environment and community, every year we reward the best initiative, best property and best property manager in the retail and commercial sectors across our portfolio.

Changes to the RPM programme
One of our management targets for 2008 was to undertake a comprehensive review of the Responsible Property Management (RPM) Programme. We achieved this by analysing both the continued relevance of the tools and methodologies that we use within the RPM Programme, as well the structure of the RPM Programme as a whole within overall RPI Strategy.

Following our review of the RPM Programme, we have decided to remove the Corporate Workbook from our suite of mandatory tools. This tool was used to evaluate PMs on their policies, procedures and strategic management approach to RPI. We now feel that our PMs have sufficient procedures in place, and don’t need continuous monitoring. Our focus now is on making improvements at our properties.

Programme Coverage
Our RPM programme covers all properties under our direct management. The degree of implementation does differ according to our level of control at each property. All properties are subject to our rigorous risk and safety programme, but we cannot, for example collect utilities and waste data for FRI properties as these are not managed or bought by our Property Managers (PMs). However, at all properties where we have management control, whether this is through permanent on-site staff or through regular visits by a surveyor, we ensure that, where applicable, all elements of our RPM programme are adopted in full.

At the end of 2007 we gave clear instructions to our PMs that all directly managed properties should be managed under the principles of our RPM programme. However, because of disposals across the portfolio, the number of properties that we have been able to record data for the entire calendar year has declined for the first time from 75 in 2007 to 71 in 2008.