About This Report

Oxford is the real estate arm of OMERS. With over 2,000 employees, Oxford is divided into three geographic regions: Canada, the US and Europe.

Oxford’s annual Sustainability Report provides information related to the environmental, social and governance aspects of the organization and outlines how the organization engages with its stakeholders. Since 2011, Oxford has been externally reporting on its qualitative and quantitative sustainability performance. The period covered by this report is January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016, except where otherwise noted for Oxford and its operational control assets in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. The report provides an overview of our framework, priorities and select initiatives for 2016. This report was prepared in accordance with the Core option under the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 framework , as well as with the GRI Construction and Real Estate Sector Supplement (CRESS). This report was not externally assured.

We focus on the sustainability issues that matter most to our customers, employees, shareholders and co-owners.

We conducted a formal materiality analysis in 2016 to identify, prioritize, validate and review the evolving environmental, social and governance issues for Oxford. This process involved best practice research, competitive analysis, internal and external stakeholder surveys, stakeholder consultations and internal sustainability discussions, all of which led to the collection of our material topics.

In 2016 we engaged with a range of internal and external stakeholders in a sustainability strategy session. In this session we discussed a variety of key issues, commitments and targets.

The findings drive our sustainability strategy and initiatives, and the information we provide in this report. Report contents are aligned to material topics as identified by key stakeholders.

Performance is reported from 2011 to 2016 for environmental indicators.

Oxford follows an Operational Control approach for its environmental performance indicator reporting boundary. Operational Control for Oxford means buildings for which we manage and control daily operating practices and receive utility bills. This includes buildings in our office, retail and residential portfolios in Canada. Performance data for our office portfolio is for whole buildings (base building, customer space and common space). Performance data for our retail portfolio is for whole buildings or common areas only, depending on the asset.

Performance data for our residential portfolio is for whole buildings, and includes estimated data for any unavailable directly metered customer space. Buildings are included in the energy, water and waste indicators once they have been under Oxford's operational control for a full calendar year.

Buildings in our industrial and hotels portfolios, as well as our standing assets outside of Canada, are not included in environmental performance indicator data, consistent with our Operational Control approach above.

Performance is for the periods noted for economic, social, labour and product responsibility indicators.

The boundary for our economic, social, labour and product responsibility indicators includes all corporate functions and buildings that Oxford owns and/or manages in Canada. Employees responsible for managing our industrial and hotels portfolio (excluding Fairmont, ICH and Hyatt staff) are included in applicable indicators.

Select operational controlled US office assets have been included in the data set since 2015. Hotel assets have been included in detailed data disclosure in 2016. There are no material effects from restatements referenced in this report. There have been no changes to the Scope and Aspect boundaries in 2016.

The contact point for questions regarding this report or its contents is:
Darryl Neate, Director, Sustainability, at sustainableintelligence@oxfordproperties.com