Majid Al Futtaim, the leading retail and leisure pioneer in the Middle East, has achieved the highest ‘Green Star’ status, for the second year in a row from the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), for implementing international best practices in sustainability throughout the company’s real estate portfolio.

In 2015, Majid Al Futtaim increased its performance to 67 per cent, having achieved 56 per cent in 2013, while outperforming the global average performance rate by 12 per cent, said the company in a statement.

It also achieved a score of 100 per cent for management of sustainability practices and 95 per cent for the understanding of risks and opportunities to the Majid Al Futtaim business.

The announcement comes during Dubai Chamber Sustainability Week 2015 and provides a timely reminder of the role the private sector can play in helping Dubai become one of the world’s most sustainable cities by 2020, it stated.

Alain Bejjani, the CEO of Majid Al Futtaim – Holding, said: "Sustainability is at the foundation of our business strategy. By embedding it in our business we operate as an organisation that focuses not only on profitability, but on making a positive social impact on the lives of those whom we serve."

"Our Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark rating allows us and our stakeholders to better understand our performance in comparison to our peers and we hope that in applying international best practices, our commitment to sustainability will encourage other organisations to follow suit," he noted.

The Benchmark survey measures the sustainability performance of real estate portfolios globally. In 2015, it compared 688 companies on a range of measures from energy reduction performance, building certifications, stakeholder engagement to quality of sustainability policies, new constructions and major renovations.

With sustainability at the core of Majid Al Futtaim’s business, it has set ambitious goals for 2018 to deliver results across three key areas - developing and managing high-performance assets that support prosperous communities and, in doing so, delivering pioneering standards across its business.

Ibrahim Al Zu’bi, the head of sustainability, Majid Al Futtaim - Properties, said: "We are focused on sustainable development in real estate through the implementation of international best practice across our portfolio. Obtaining a GRESB Green Star has become more challenging each year as companies now see the value of addressing their sustainability performance and are becoming more efficient and better at managing sustainability."

"Therefore for Majid Al Futtaim to continue being a sustainability leader in the region, we must further embed sustainability into our business processes and focus on key areas of improvement," he added.

Majid Al Futtaim had recently announced its 2014 sustainability results which reported that 73 per cent of its goals were achieved. Among its achievements, the company committed Dh7.3 million ($1.9 million) to community investment, seven of its assets were awarded with green building certification and its construction sites were fatality free during 2014.

Furthermore, Majid Al Futtaim’s ‘Green Star’ rating system was implemented, setting a sustainability design criteria for shop fit-outs in its malls, which is now also a mandatory requirement of all lease renewals.-TradeArabia News Service