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LED Conversions Driving Savings

Oxford’s Hotels team set their sights on reducing energy consumption through LED retrofits – and the results are impressive.

The InterContinental Hotel, located in downtown Toronto, completed its conversion to 100% LED lighting by January 2019. The five year project started with converting meeting rooms and the lobby, with the back of house area and guest rooms following after. This drove a 20% reduction in electricity and $270,000 in annual cost savings.

Oxford’s Rocky Mountain Resort Hotels - including Chateau Whistler, Chateau Lake Louise, Jasper Park Lodge and the Banff Springs – are on track to be 100% LED by year-end 2019 while receiving over $145,000 in incentives.

Through the projects, over 53,000 bulbs have been installed.

Continual Learning for the Climate

Oxford is committed to doing its part to address climate change.

Setting an ambitious carbon reduction target (30% reduction by 2025, relative to a 2015 base year), is an important first step. Following that up with coordinated and impactful action across our global portfolio is a larger challenge.

That’s why it is so important that we invest in training and development of our people on this important – albeit still relatively new – topic.

Oxford’s corporate energy leaders developed and executed a Target 2025 Workshop in 2018 for a broad range of our office and retail site teams. The focus was on expanding our thinking beyond energy conservation into carbon reduction. The workshops were enthusiastically received and produced the tangible output of a Carbon Reduction Action Plans for each building team.

These workshops continue into 2020 as we double down on achieving our target.

Community Solar Leadership

How do you achieve a triple win through rooftop solar projects?

In collaboration with our partner New Community Solar, Oxford is completing the development of a 163 kW, 10,000 square foot rooftop solar project across two buildings in Washington DC – 1101 New York Ave (office building) and Gallery Place (a mixed use office/retail building).

So how does it work, and who wins?

The project takes advantage of regulation in Washington that allows an entity to generate renewable electricity and allocate (or donate) the benefits of that electricity to others. So the first win is for the 30 low income families in Washington DC that Oxford is donating the electricity to (the utility will reduce the electricity bills of these families to match the amount generated on our rooftop).

The second win is for the environment, as the project will inject 190,000 kW of clean electricity into the grid each year. And the third win is for Oxford – our people are proud to support a cleaner grid and our local communities through this innovative project.

Enabling Low Emissions Transportation

Bloomberg predicts that electric vehicles will be cost competitive with traditional gas vehicles by 2025 and represent >50% of vehicles on the road by 2040.

The shift to electric vehicles introduces a lot of questions for a large real estate portfolio like Oxford. How many of our customers will drive electric vehicles in the future? How critical is it for customers to charge their cars at different types of real estate assets? (eg. office, retail, residential). What can we do to provide an outstanding customer experience? Where else will electric vehicle charging stations be available and what will their approach be?

Oxford currently has over 100 electric vehicle charging stations across our portfolio. We have taken action to provide this customer amenity and they are over 90% utilized on a daily basis. The questions above are the ones we are focused on – to ensure we make smart investments and keep ahead in this challenging space.

The Sun Shines at Yorkdale – Year 1 Update

When the sun shines, the meter rolls at Yorkdale!

In the summer of 2017, Oxford successfully installed 600 electricity generating solar panels on the east expansion rooftop of Yorkdale Shopping Centre – on time and on budget. The rooftop solar panels covered approximately 20,000 square feet – and would produce equivalent to three months of interior and exterior lighting at Yorkdale.

So how are we doing, a little over one year later?

The project has performed admirably – it has generated 110% of modelled performance and offset $45,000 in energy costs at the building. And it has been a very low maintenance endeavor, with only one minor technical issue to date that was quickly fixed by our support team.

This successful project has driven learnings across Oxford and contributed to more ambitious plans – the future is bright for solar at Oxford!

The Year of Yoga

2018 was the year of the downward dog and sun salutations across our global office and retail portfolio.

Our customers told us they were interested in Yoga classes and our teams delivered in spectacular fashion.

Sony Center in Berlin, Germany, introduced outdoor yoga classes on the terrace as its first wellbeing initiative for customers. The yoga series began as a three class trial and quickly became a weekly ritual for our customers. Dix30 Shopping Centre in Quebec held an outdoor yoga event in June with radiant coloured mats and yogis of all ages participating. With more than 400 participants, over $21,000 was raised to support lung cancer patients at a local hospital. And Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto introduced well attended lunchtime yoga classes on their outdoor terrace throughout the summer.

These wildly successful yoga classes allowed customers to connect, get healthy, and relax during their work day. A great win for all involved!

An Outstanding Shared Space

How do you revitalize an underutilized 11,000 square foot space on the lower level of a downtown Boston office building?

You convert it into a leading edge multi-purpose amenity center. The team at 225 Franklin Street had a vision and executed on it to deliver a beautifully designed meeting and event space that includes a bar and catering service area, with formal and informal seating. Customers can book out “The Foundation” for external events and meeting space as an extension to their own suite.

Wellbeing amenities, such as men’s and women’s locker rooms, bike storage and even two professional golf simulators were also added to enhance the customer experience.

NYC Wellness Week

Oxford’s 450 Park Ave office building in New York City held their highly anticipated 2nd Annual Wellness Week in October, 2018.

Customers were greeted each morning with freshly brewed organic coffee, fresh fruits and lots of healthy snacks. By midday, customers got to work up a sweat on a fun run to Central Park, yoga classes as well as self-made smoothies via pedal power a la “sweetcycle” in the Plaza. The week of healthy goodies, body care and mindful activities wrapped up with Friday “game-day” where customers got to unwind and enjoy floor scrabble, mini basketball, tennis ball darts and an office favorite, cornhole.

This year also marked the first round of “puppy therapy” which was the clear winner with everyone. We are very happy to announce that multiple adoption requests were submitted and a new little puppy named Murphy was officially adopted by one of the tenants!

Well by Design (& Certified Too)

MNP Tower (Vancouver) was the first new building in Canada to become WELL Core & Shell certified.

Given that we spend 90% of our time indoors (and over half our waking hours in the office), it’s clear that a healthy environment at the office can have substantial health and productivity benefits.

The WELL Standard aligned with our objectives at MNP Tower. Actions taken by our team that were recognized under the standard include: rigorous indoor air quality testing; the installation of MERV 13 and carbon filters throughout the building; secure bicycle storage, shower facilities, and a state-of-the-art fitness facility; access to stairwells to encourage regular use from customers; enhanced natural light levels, and biophilic design.

The certification proved to be a valuable learning experience and is helping to inform our investment and approach to world-class wellbeing amenities for our customers in the future.

Learning About Biophilic Design

There is much to be learned in success and failure.

Our team was intrigued by the concept of biophilic design – basically the concept of incorporating natural elements into the design of indoor environments. There is evidence to suggest that biophilic design can enhance relaxation, increase productivity (in an office environment) and increase sales (in a retail environment).

So our team set out to explore a biophilic design element in two of our Canadian shopping centres. After considerable effort, the team concluded that it is very challenging to introduce world class biophilic design into an existing asset in a manner that is accretive to the value of the asset. It is much easier to include in the original design.

It is difficult to characterize the effort as either a success OR a failure, but it is definitely a key learning that we will apply in future developments.

Reducing Single Use Plastics

A simple solution that reduces plastic water bottles and enhances the customer experience.

That’s what the team at MetroCentre – a two building complex located in Toronto, Canada – achieved by installing refillable water bottle stations within the lobbies of the buildings.

By creating a place for customers to refill their water bottles, the team a strong step forward on sustainability by reducing the amount of plastic water bottles that get sent to landfill. To celebrate the launch of this initiative, the property team distributed complimentary water bottles to customers, spreading awareness about the filling stations and getting them started off on the right foot with a branded MetroCentre refillable bottle of their own.

Taking a Precautionary Approach

How do we dig deeper and explore potential health aspects of the materials we procure and use in our buildings?

That’s the question that a global team of Oxford colleagues interrogated in 2018. The team set a goal of developing a Restricted Materials List, based on the best available research, in order to ‘future proof’ our buildings by getting ahead of an important emerging trend.

So what did they come up with? Here is the list of 5 Restricted Materials that will be piloted across select Oxford development projects in 2019: (1) Formaldehyde, (2) Antimicrobials, (3) Halogenated Flame Retardants, (4) Phthalates, and (5) Highly Fluorinated Chemicals.

Each pilot project team will introduce the list in their procurement process and engage in a dialogue with key partners. At the end of the year, the group will share their experience with the list, including availability of alternatives and impact on performance criteria (eg. cost, design/aesthetic) and refine the list for future use.

Waste Reduction Week Leadership

You get out of it what you put into it.

That’s what the Green Team at Yorkdale proved with their efforts during the 2018 Waste Reduction Week. The team collaborated and came up with creative ideas to profile a different theme every day – from updating their “Waste Reduction & Recycling Program” Guide, to refreshing and circulating their “Put Waste in its Place” Posters to all our Food, Office, and Retailers, to creating a special textiles and e-waste recycling event. The team also took an internal Yorkdale Food Waste Pledge and put up new signage in their food court to encourage customers to use the real dishware and cutlery provided when dining in vs. take out packaging.

Posting their efforts a blog on the Yorkdale website provided an additional boost and profile to the team’s efforts. All in all, a good week for waste awareness and action at Yorkdale!

Lightening our Water Footprint

Our residential teams are paying attention to the details when it comes to water.

The team implemented a broad range of measures over the past several years across ~4400 units in Canada. This included the installation of aerators in taps and the replacement of toilets and showerheads.

The project was piloted first in a suite, then a floor then a building. After it was a proven success, it was rolled out across our portfolio. Total water consumption was reduced by over 30% with a payback of less than 5 years. The project also translated into gas savings, as less hot water was used as a result of the new showerheads and aerators.

And it’s important to note, the water savings did not occur at the expense of resident comfort - total service calls were actually reduced after the installation of low flow toilets.

A win-win-win for our customers, the environment and Oxford!

Leading the Way in Waste

Want to improve your waste diversion rate without spending a lot of operating costs?

Our waste stars at Centennial Place in Calgary have proven that they have what it takes, achieving a 94% diversion rate in 2019. And they are not shy about sharing their insights with their colleagues.

So what’s their secret? It took a lot of trial and error, but here are some of their tips: (1) Identify areas where you can save or create revenue. (2) Gather your data and target low hanging fruit (3) Engage in more active management – and even additional sorting – of your waste streams (4) Engage your customers with a scorecard and active challenges – make them active partners in your success. (5) Ensure you have the right bins in the right areas for your customers, and (6) Review your marketing often (it is surprising how quickly it can become out of date).

And last but not least, is the team’s passion and commitment – great leadership from a great team!

Safe Places

Oxford is committed to developing an inclusive and respectful culture – at our workplace and buildings we manage. And we are proud of the actions we are taking to bring this commitment to life.

In 2018, Peel Regional Police launched their “Safe Place” Program and Square One Shopping Centre registered in the program as part of their continued commitment to inclusivity in the workplace and to demonstrate support to the LGBTQ+ community. A Safe Place sticker is placed prominently on the front window to notify members of the LGBTQ+ community that this business is committed to providing safety to the victim by allowing them to enter their business, provide them with shelter and by assisting the victim in contacting police to report hate-motivated crimes and incidents.

Yorkdale Shopping Centre (Toronto) and Kingsway Mall (Edmonton) opened their first gender-neutral washrooms, allowing shoppers, whether they identify as male or female, to use the same washroom. The new washroom provides an inclusive option for anyone, including transgender people, people of diverse gender identities and those who may require accompaniment of some kind.

Berlin’s Red Piano

The Sony Center Berlin launched the first public piano in Berlin.

The team came up with the idea on day when brainstorming how to create a greater sense of community in the large mixed use developments public space.

With its bright red colour, the piano was placed prominently in the forum under the iconic roof throughout the summer of 2018. What happened next exceeded the team’s wildest expectations. The piano attracted locals and tourists young and old, under the attention of nationwide media to play and share the joy.

It’s a great example of a simple action going a long way, and of Oxford’s commitment to connect people to exceptional places.

Spreading Happiness

Our teams love to make our customers happy every day.

So when there is an actual day – called the International Day of Happiness – they go all out!

Our office, retail, residential and industrial teams have engaged in the International Day of Happiness since its inception in 2013. In 2018, the theme of “Share Happiness” was embraced by our teams as they aimed to ‘surprise and delight our customers.

The range of activities that were implemented across our portfolio was impressive – our customers received free coffee, breakfasts, happy face cookies, chocolate, lunches and flowers. That’s a lot of free, and a lot of happiness. Pets were even taken care of across some of our residential buildings with treats for them as well.

Overall, it’s a great win for our customers, and also for our highly engaged teams!

Opportunities out of Compassion

How do you make Halloween a little easier for children with autism?

Our team at Southcentre Mall in Calgary had an idea and ran with it, based on a conversation with a customer. The team learned that sometimes decorations, sounds, and the other children around them can be barriers on Halloween and very challenging for children with sensory difficulties like autism.

“A Special Time for Halloween” was born and children with special needs were treated to a unique Halloween event on a Sunday when the mall was closed. It’s the only event in the city of its kind where parents of children can sign up and bring their child to have fun and collect some treats in a calm, safe and secure environment.

The event build on a similar event around Christmas that the team has been running since 2013 in collaboration with Autism Calgary.

What a great way to ensure that the mall is a welcoming place for everyone to enjoy.

Still a lot of Buzz

Since 2017, Oxford Properties has participated in urban beekeeping programs across Canada.

Our hives continued to grow in 2018 and are now at our office, retail and industrial properties in Toronto, Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Montreal, Brossard, Calgary and Vancouver.

Over the past two years, the bees have become part of a broader interest of our staff and customers. Our Property teams have taken an interest in providing the hives with ideal conditions, including adding extra pollinator-friendly planters, becoming educated in urban beekeeping and hosting workshops for our customers to also learn more. The addition of the bees has provided an opportunity to further engage with our customers and strike a dialogue about the declining bee population.

In total, we were able to produce over 350 kilograms of honey through our successful hives. Since we started, we have had the pleasure of sharing jars of our Oxford Skyline Honey to customers throughout the year.