BioMed Realty Emphasizes ESG Goals Across Portfolio

Investors and tenants are increasingly demonstrating a preference for sustainable buildings. BioMed Realty’s ESG initiatives at Gateway of Pacific and across its portfolio are intended to set the company apart.

It made strategic energy investments in solar generation, high-efficiency heating & cooling, rainwater harvesting, condensation capture, and EV charging infrastructure.

“Across our portfolio, we’ve taken actions to make our buildings more energy efficient, invest in renewable energy, and help our tenants conduct business more sustainably,” Salil Payappilly, SVP of Development at BioMed Realty, tells GlobeSt.com.

For example, Gateway of Pacific (GOP), located in South San Francisco, is a multi-phase development offering flexible, industry-leading solutions for the life science and technology industries.

GOP’s first four phases are complete, and the campus is expected to grow to 3.2 million square feet.

GOP’s campus sits within one of the world’s largest and most influential biotech clusters, featuring over 200 life science companies, a vast network of venture capital, and the country’s top workforce candidates drawing from highly renowned Universities like UCSF, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University.

For BioMed Realty, more than 5 million square feet of its US operating portfolio is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified as of the start of this year.

Since 2016, BioMed Realty has implemented 189 energy-efficiency projects, including replacing HVAC cooling towers and implementing LED retrofits, saving over 40.8 million kWh of electricity. The company has also implemented transportation programs, saving approximately 286K metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

BioMed Realty – a portfolio company within Blackstone’s Core+ Life Sciences Real Estate strategy – achieved a 5-star rating in the 2023 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), the leading ESG benchmark for real estate and infrastructure investments across the world.

“We value sustainable practices and consider them a key part of our growth strategy,” Payappilly said. “We’ve seen an increase in demand for sustainable infrastructure from tenants and investors, and our leading ESG investments and initiatives continue to set us apart. Our goal is to continue building state-of-the-art properties that deliver leading sustainability features.”

Tremblay said BioMed Realty is committed to partnering with its tenants to advance their ESG goals by promoting health, wellness, innovation, connection, and sustainability through all phases at GOP.

Central to this partnership is its robust data collection process, which allows the company to effectively monitor progress and make informed adjustments to optimize sustainability efforts.

As part of the GRESB Real Estate Assessment, it reports on energy, water, and greenhouse gas data across our operating portfolio. It also monitors all renewable energy generated at GOP as part of our corporate ESG data collection and management framework.

“We regularly engage with tenants at the GOP campus to discuss their energy consumption patterns and use these insights to inform annual operating plans and to identify opportunities to make our buildings more energy efficient,” Payappilly said.