German investment group Corestate Capital has outlined a series of ESG policies to reduce natural resource usage, promote gender equality, and improve ethical business practices.

In the company’s first ever ESG report, the real estate investment manager outlined several specific business practices designed to underscore the firm’s commitment to sustainable and ethical operations.

Environmental commitments include plans to reduce CO2 emissions per square metre by 2% annually and by at least 20% by 2025, as well as plans to improve energy efficiency per square metre by 5% annually, and by 30% by 2025. The business will seek to reduce water consumption and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill by 2% each year and by 20% by 2025.

The company’s commitments within the ‘social’ bracket include plans to support a long-term philanthropic initiative each year and to offer employee solidarity days. It will also seek to increase the ratio of female to male employees at management level by 5% annually, ensuring the senior executive team is at least 30% female by 2025.

Its governance commitments included the introduction of a company wide ‘ethics declaration’ which all staff will be required to sign and additional training for the entire business on compliance and governance.

Lars Schnidrig, the company’s chief executive officer, said the business wanted to “set new industry standards” with its ambitious list of targets to show that it was aligned with the demands of its clients.

“This is not an end in itself, but is due to the increasing demands of our stakeholders – above all our customers,” he said.

“Clear ESG criteria have now been implemented in our investment decisions, asset management and product reporting. We have consistently focused on sustainability within the group and qualified ourselves as a reliable partner for our clients in this area as well.”

The company’s full annual ESG report is available here.