Goodman Group's Science-based Target

Goodman is the largest industrial property group listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and one of the largest publicly listed specialist fund managers of industrial property and business spaces globally.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is integral to Goodman’s long-term business strategy and its 2030 Sustainability Strategy, designed to enable Goodman’s business to align with its purpose of making space for greatness, while helping it transition to a resilient, responsible and low-carbon company.

Committing to a Science-based Target is tangible climate action, as it provides a clearly defined pathway for companies to decarbonise in line with science, and in 2022 Goodman committed to setting a Science-based Target (SBT) for their total real estate investments portfolio — a complex and ambitious challenge for any large multinational.

Goodman partnered with Anthesis (formerly Ndevr Environmental’s) technical experts to help them navigate the process. With little precedence for this industry and a strict and immovable deadline to validate and present this target to the Board, they had a challenge ahead.

Without specific sector-based guidance, the team based the methodology on the SBT general criteria and conducted research and analysis on what had been done globally, to create a best practice methodology for Goodman’s real estate portfolios. Furthermore, the work was undertaken in close liaison with the Science-based Target initiative (SBTi) to address any inconsistencies in alignment and also navigate a complex decision tree to understand how to account for unique details such as ‘sold property assets’, into the future.

Underpinned by Goodman’s deep commitment to climate action and Anthesis’ technical expertise, the company successfully verified its SBT in 2022. The target aligns with the 1.5°C pathway, and the Paris Agreement to limit global warming. It is also one of the first SBTs to go into a sustainability-linked bond.

Achieving validation of such a large and sophisticated global Greenhouse Gas Account, in less than 12 months and without precedence was a significant undertaking. Relying on significant technical expertise, skilled interpretation, thorough research and external resources, the Anthesis team in partnership with Goodman, was able to adeptly navigate its way to a successful result.

Further reading on Goodman’s 2030 Sustainability Strategy: Goodman.