JLL committed Wednesday to net zero emissions from its own buildings by 2030 in the Global Sustainability Report 2020 it released.
JLL officials said the report emphasizes the firm’s commitment to achieving long-term value for stakeholders by focusing its sustainability efforts on delivering resilient buildings, healthy spaces and inclusive places.
JLL, which also set a science-based target to reduce emissions by 2034, said these commitments are milestones to enable the firm to achieve net zero by 2040 across all areas of its operations, including the client sites it manages. The report details JLL’s strategy for meeting these goals.
“Our sustainability report shows great progress on our journey to net zero,” JLL CEO Christian Ulbrich said. “As a core strategic priority, we are embedding and growing sustainability products and services across all our business lines, consistent with JLL’s purpose of shaping the future of real estate for a better world.”
Richard Batten, JLL’s global chief sustainability officer, put it this way:
“2021 is all about the road to net zero, and we have focused our efforts on achieving this. But our sustainability program is not exclusively about carbon,” he said. “As our 2020 report demonstrates, we have made significant progress against our targets and set new ambitious targets, in part responding to the impact of the pandemic, across all of the ESG metrics.”
2020 performance highlights include:
- 295 sustainable building certifications for clients;
- 20,629 metric tons CO2e averted by advising on renewable energy projects;
- 35% of the global workforce are women;
- One of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute, 14th successive year;
- 79 JLL offices with sustainable building certifications;
- 7% reduction in scope 1 and 2 emissions across JLL’s own real estate and fleet, compared with 2018 baseline;
- 77% reduction in emissions from business travel, compared to 2019;
- All-time low for employee accident rates, a 44% Lost Time Injury Rate reduction from 2018;
- $7.7 million and 7,959 days of employee time contributed to community causes.
Looking to the future, JLL is committing to a new set of ambitious targets. One goal includes increasing employee time in the community to 23,500 days by the end of 2023, to mitigate against a reduction in community volunteering time last year due to the pandemic.
