The real estate leader in the world’s most dynamic cities

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Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) is in a position to help the retail sector achieve more positive outcomes for people and the planet. The commercial real estate developer and operator has considerable reach—more than 70 shopping centres across major destinations in Europe and the United States. Together, they attract 900 million consumer visits per year. This represents a big opportunity to influence positive changes among brands and consumers.

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“We have a major role to play with the cities in which we operate to help in their environmental transition,” says Clément Jeannin, group director of sustainability at URW. That’s the motivation behind URW’s ambitious sustainability roadmap, Better Places—a program it launched in 2016 and updated in 2023.

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As part of this comprehensive evolution, URW realised in 2023 that something was missing: a unified way to support its tenants in their sustainability transitions and track their performances, and to meet consumer expectations for more responsible choices throughout its destinations. That’s where the Sustainable Retail Index (SRI) comes in—an industry-pioneering tool powered by Good On You’s rich brand sustainability data.

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Opportunity: drive the sustainable evolution of retail

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Consumer demand and regulatory pressures

Demand from conscious consumers is clear to URW’s leadership: “European consumers are more and more concerned about their environmental impact,” CEO Jean-Marie Tritant told reporters in Paris as he unveiled the details of URW’s evolved Better Places roadmap in October 2023. And similarly, regulatory pressure is ratcheting up. “[There are] new regulations and restrictions that are not optional,” Jean-Marie said, as reported by the Australian Financial Review. “Instead of waiting to be impacted, we decided to take action now.”

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Supporting brands to make progress

Brands also face mounting pressure to improve their environmental and social impacts. “By understanding the commitment and progress of the retailers in our centres on their sustainable transition route, we will be able to curate the right offer for consumers, and ensure our centres are aligned with consumers’ expectations,” notes Anna Drozdowski-Bonsey, senior sustainability manager.

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Challenge: comparable measurement at scale

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To achieve these aims, URW required comprehensive sustainability intelligence. “We couldn't dig into every brand's value chain,” admits Clément. “And there was no objective, cross-vertical ratings solution on the market.” A new approach was needed. To connect these dots, URW sought a scalable solution from an independent, expert source—enter Good On You.

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Solution: trusted ratings tech and expertise across verticals

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A custom solution to track portfolio performance

URW partnered with Good On You to co-develop the Sustainable Retail Index (SRI) to fill a gap in the retail sector. “Good On You's robust and trusted methodology gave us the right foundation,” says Anna. Comprehensive and scalable, Good On You’s rating system efficiently assesses brands on up to 1,000 data points across key social and environmental issues. The SRI incorporates these brand ratings alongside store-level data collected by outside auditors.

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From fashion to beauty and more verticals to come

The partnership began with Good On You’s long-standing expertise in fashion sustainability ratings while fast-tracking our long-anticipated expansion into new verticals. Good On You's ratings team has developed a new methodology for beauty brands in consultation with supply chain experts, civil society, activists, academics, and other industry experts. This is the next step in expanding the SRI's coverage across multiple verticals, and will soon be followed by expanding Good On You’s brand rating system to other consumer verticals (home, tech, and more).

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Partnership runs deeper than the plug-and-play API

URW now integrates Good On You’s brand ratings API into its system to shape decision-making on optimal retail mix and operations. But Good On You has become much more than a mere data provider, says Clément. He praises the active role Good On You played in developing the SRI, which is emerging as a solution for real estate more broadly. “We're designing something totally new together, and that creates value for the whole industry.” Good On You has been an effective partner in helping URW develop solutions to support not only its own sustainability goals but also the performance of individual brands, too. This includes creating custom sustainability criteria for the Westfield Grand Prix challenge for innovative brands, and providing URW’s tenants with access to Good Measures—the sustainability hub that supports them in improving their Good On You ratings. 

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The results: unmatched insight into URW’s retail portfolio

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Brand ratings delivered in record time

Good On You has garnered a reputation for its depth of independent expertise and its scalable rating system. That’s what helped URW launch the SRI with relative speed: Good On You efficiently rated and provided access to up-to-date ratings on 1,033 fashion brands in only eight weeks. And in the first six months of the partnership, Good On You built a rigorous brand rating system for beauty, with consultation from a wide range of experts across the vertical, and rated a first batch of 100 beauty brands.   

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Comprehensive sustainability intelligence  

URW has unmatched sustainability insights thanks to the scale of brand ratings that the SRI is based on. At launch, the SRI provided URW with independent ratings covering the majority of its fashion tenants, along with benchmarks for its EU shopping centre destinations. It’s on track to reach 70% coverage of all tenants (by revenue) by December 2024. By partnering together on the SRI, URW and Good On You have created a consistent way to track performance and inform decision-making on retail content. And extending Good Measures access to tenants in more verticals has also empowered them to improve their sustainability and transparency. This creates a positive feedback loop. 

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Catalysing change across the real estate ecosystem

One of the best outcomes so far? The conversations that the SRI is starting with like-minded people and organisations across real estate. "We believe other landlords face the same sustainability questions," says Clément. “The more who embrace tools like the SRI, the bigger the positive impact across all retail categories.”

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