Irvine, California-based real estate investment trust Sabra Health Care REIT Inc. continued to make progress toward achieving its e-initiative roadmap goals last year, it noted in its fourth annual sustainability report, released on Monday for fiscal 2023.
The company’s roadmap, launched in 2021, has six pillars: measure, identify, launch, innovate, validate and replicate.
“At Sabra, we are focused on truly aligning our business strategy with our sustainability efforts. These efforts are important to our stakeholders not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because they’re a critical part of creating long-term value,” Rick Matros, CEO, president and chairman of the board, and Dr. Lynn Katzman, chair of the board’s corporate responsibility and governance committee, said in a press release issued Monday in conjunction with the sustainability report. Katzman is founder and CEO of Bloomfield, New Jersey-based Juniper Communities.
One particularly notable incident this year occurred at Sabra-owned Gardens at Wakefield in Raleigh, North Carolina, a Holidays by Atria independent living community that recently underwent an extensive HVAC and water heating upgrade project as part of a multi-million-dollar refresh, according to the report.
“Sabra’s goal was to find the most compatible solution that would benefit residents and caregivers while increasing efficiency and reducing emissions,” the company said.
To achieve this goal, the REIT replaced the residential units’ existing gas water heaters with modern tankless and HVAC inverter systems, “a solution that reduces environmental impact and promotes cost savings while providing a more comfortable environment for senior living community residents and their caregivers,” the report states.
Overall, Sabra has expanded utility data collection to 100% of its managed portfolio, including year-over-year impacts from e-initiatives and greenhouse gas emissions verification, according to the REIT.
“During 2023-2024, we have taken steps to expand our environmental data collection and management processes to include benchmarking tools such as Energy Star Portfolio Manager and other third-party services that we believe will help us continually analyze and improve our energy use,” the company said.
Sabra said energy efficiency efforts continue to progress at both its managed and triple-net leased properties.
According to the REIT, “Programs such as Green Links apply our e-initiative roadmap to benefit and support NNN tenants, including by exchanging and evaluating energy, water and other data, and then funding environmentally beneficial improvements where appropriate.”
According to Sabra, the Green Link program applies the REIT’s e-initiative roadmap by funding environmentally beneficial improvements for tenants after exchanging and evaluating energy, water and other data. Sabra established the initial $5 million Green Link fund in September 2022 with the hope that the initiative will “benefit our tenants, and ultimately the company, as they assess physical and transition-related climate risks and the resilience of their assets to such risks,” the company previously said.
Other highlights for 2023, according to the report, include:
- The company instilled e-initiative awareness and approach among all Sabra asset management team members, emphasizing energy efficiency and adaptive reuse initiatives in the portfolio.
- The REIT has assembled a team of internal and external resources to support healthcare technology solutions to promote a safer, healthier environment for employees and residents and improve outcomes and the resident/patient experience.
- Sabra maintained its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, including offering a collaborative culture and workplace, and competitive compensation and benefits.
“The success we have achieved is a testament to our team’s shared sense of purpose and the strong relationships we have cultivated with tenants, operators, shareholders, the community and the industry,” Matros and Katzman said.
Read the full sustainability report here.
