ESG Report

2020
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01

GTC

People are the foundation of the GTC Group: our employees, tenants, and investors.

It is with people and their needs in mind that we operate, not forgetting our shared responsibility for the environment and our immediate surroundings.

02

Environment

Our ambition is to conduct our business in a manner contributing to achieving sustainable development goals.

We act on 10 business development goals:

Since 2015, we have been guided by our policy of developing an environmentally friendly portfolio of properties

We have made a commitment that all our new investments and – if possible – the already delivered investments, will meet the criteria for sustainable construction certificates and ensure the safety and comfort of their users.

84% of all GTC properties now proudly bear an eco-friendly label

In 2020, we developed and implemented a “Green Bond Framework”, which defines the guidelines for issuing green bonds by the companies of our Group. We want to use the funds raised in this way to finance or refinance existing and future projects promoting energy efficiency and the use of alternative energy sources. The first issue of ten-year bonds on the Hungarian market, totaling EUR 110 million, was a great success and was completed on 3 December 2020.

Environment goals:

Goal 6

Clean water and sanitation

  • We implement solutions to reduce water consumption in our buildings.
Goal 7

Affordable and clean energy

  • We implement solutions to increase the energy efficiency of buildings.
Goal 11

Sustainable cities and communities

  • As part of the development processes, we revitalize degraded and post-industrial areas, integrating them again with the urban tissue.
Goal 12

Responsible consumptionand production

  • We use recycled and quickly renewable materials in our buildings.
  • We reduce the amount of waste generated during construction and implement effective waste management systems in our buildings.
Goal 13

Climate action

  • We deliver safe, durable, and environmentally friendly buildings. Since 2015, all new projects delivered by GTC meet the requirements of the LEED or BREEAM certificates.

03

Social

GTC is all about people, team, relationships, and atmosphere.

In all our locations, we employ a total of 180 employees under employment contracts and 29 experts and contractors.

How we act?

1

In the process, we revitalize degraded and post-industrial areas, integrating them again with the urban tissue.

2

We create a people-friendly space to make them feel good; a space which influences, among other things, the efficiency of their work.

3

Every day we care about the safety of our tenants, we try to respond to their needs and educate them about health and sustainable development.

Social goals:

Goal 5

Gender equality

  • The principles of equal treatment in the workplace are set out in the internal documents of the GTC Group, which are widely available to all employees.
  • GTC’s employees and contractors are bound by the anti-mobbing and anti-discrimination policy.
Goal 8

Decent work and economic growth

  • We strive for the green certification of all our projects.
  • We are a responsible employer.
  • We promote local entrepreneurs and regional products (e.g., by organizing fairs and markets).
Goal 9

Industry, innovation and infrastructure

  • We contribute to the development of modern city infrastructure.
  • We undertake initiatives to support the development of the community.
Goal 10

Reduced inequalities

  • We invest in Central and Eastern European countries, including Serbia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia, contributing to the development of local property markets.
Goal 11

Sustainable cities and communities

  • We develop an inclusive and friendly urban space.
  • We make sure that our commercial and office projects are accessible to everyone, including the elderly and the disabled. We remove architectural barriers.
  • We openly present our projects to local communities before we develop them.
Goal 17

Partnerships for the goals

  • We are involved in local and international industry initiatives.
  • We cooperate with local authorities in the implementation of social projects.

04

Governance

Our corporate culture

Our organizational culture is based on principles that we treat as our commitment to employees; however, we also require that everyone adhere to the following values.

The foundation of our corporate culture is formed by:

stability
diversity
responsibility
dialogue
focus on team action
quality
innovation

for 25 years, we have been successfully developing our business based on a quality offering, long-term relationships, and transparency of processes.

Governance goals:

Goal 8

Decent work and economic growth

  • We run our business based on diversity policy through employing an array of employees regarding gender, age, work experience, education, cultural background and ensuring that they are all treated equally in the workplace.
Goal 12

Responsible consumption and production

  • We provide our stakeholders with comprehensive information about GTC’s approach and performance regarding sustainable development. This report is also aimed to serve this purpose.
Goal 13

Climate action

  • We develop GTC’s properties portfolio in line with the principles of sustainable development.
  • We have implemented a strategic document – „Green Bond Framework”, with the guidelines for the issue of green bonds by the companies of our Group.

05

Year 2020

Together, we learned new regulations, faced new restrictions, and responded to the dynamically changing needs of our customers.

Dialog

The year 2020 outlined a new order and the word “dialogue” took on even greater meaning. In this particularly challenging year for all of us, we tried our best to support our tenants to enable them to operate despite the adversities and often to save them from closure.

Covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the lives of all of us in the past year. Our business model has proven resilient in the face of the turmoil caused by the pandemic that hit the economy.

For the first time in the history of our business, two group companies:

Globe Trade Centre S.A. and GTC Real Estate Development Hungary Zrt, received an investment rating of BBB- /with a stable outlook.