Reduce the environmental impact of our portfolio through smart development, efficient operating practices, and innovative decarbonization and resilience strategies that help minimize climate risks and maximize value.
Environmental Goals
- Emissions Targets (1.5° C aligned)
- Scope 1&2: Reduce 63% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
- Scope 3: Reduce 61% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030
- Waste: Maintain a waste diversion rate of 20% across our portfolio
- Water: 10% reduction in whole building water use intensity in both water stressed and non-water stressed areas by 2027 and 2029 respectively
Environmental Initiatives
- Renewable Energy: Our robust solar program includes the installation of rooftop and carport solar arrays that offset common area energy consumption and, in some cases, also offset resident consumption in jurisdictions where allowed.
- Embodied Carbon: As an active developer, embodied carbon is material to our emissions footprint. We are actively implementing strategies to reasonably reduce the impact of construction materials while measuring our success using Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs).
- Physical Climate Risk: We make it a priority to assess and underwrite acquisitions, developments, and existing communities for extreme weather risks to identify potential threats and implement appropriate risk mitigation tactics where appropriate.
- Biodiversity: We believe that mitigating our environmental footprint extends beyond reducing carbon, water and waste. Given the potential impact of our work as a real estate developer, we are working to better understand the biodiversity opportunities and risks as part of our development process.
- Efficiency & Decarbonization: Smart decisions throughout the lifecycle of our communities and systems provide opportunities to minimize our impact on scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
Building Certifications
We see building certification as a tool to support the design and construction of energy-efficient and sustainable communities. The targeted pursuit of LEED certification helps align project team expectations and provides an additional level of quality control that supports our environmental sustainability goals at the asset and portfolio level.
Our Sustainable Development Policy generally requires Gold Level LEED certification of the Gold Level for all Mid-rise and High-rise buildings using the LEED BD+C Multifamily v4 rating system. The policy also outlines design and construction requirements for all new developments which are broken out across categories including Energy Efficiency, Electrification, Embodied Carbon, Renewable Energy, Water Efficiency, Construction Waste, and EV Charging.
As of the end of 2023, we have 69 communities that have earned one or more environmental certifications to date, and an additional 61 communities in development or construction that are pursuing certification, bringing the total number of communities in our portfolio either pursuing or having achieved an environmental certification to 130.
Positively impact our associates, residents, and other external stakeholders by safeguarding their health, safety, and well-being, cultivating an inclusive environment where we all belong and effectively collaborate, innovate, and engage with each other, and supporting our communities through philanthropic giving and volunteerism.
Social Goals
- Inclusion & Diversity Vision
- Achieve a higher than 82% on the Diversity & Inclusion Index on our annual Associate Perspectives Survey.
- Increase underrepresented minorities in leadership to 20% by 2025 and 25% by 2030
- Increase women in leadership** to achieve gender parity by 2025
- Associates: Achieve 90th percentile on associate engagement and satisfaction by 2025
- Residents: Achieve Mid-Lease Net Promoter Score of 33 by 2025
- Community: Increase annual community investment to $2.75M total cash and in-kind by 2025
Strategic Philanthropy
Our Building Strong Communities community investment and engagement program focuses on issues relevant to our business: disaster relief and community preparedness, affordable housing and support for underserved communities. Bringing our associates together to volunteer and give back strengthens our relationships and builds our culture.
- National partnerships:
- American Red Cross: sponsoring the Disaster Responder Program since 2016
- National Urban League: supporting their work to empower communities and change lives since 2021
- Sunrise Association: helping bring joy to children with cancer and their siblings since 2024
- Over 150 charitable partners
- Spirit of Caring Season and Vollapalooza events: our associates volunteered over 13,000 hours of their time in 2024 with our charitable partners
- Associate Relief Fund & Vaction Donation: We support our associates through the Associate Relief Fund, providing financial aid during natural disasters or personal hardships. We also allow associates to donate vacation time to those dealing with medical emergencies
Inclusion & Diversity
As we continue to grow and innovate, it’s important that we recruit, develop and promote associates with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to assure that we attract and retain the best talent. To do this, we strive to create an environment that encourages all voices to be heard, understood and appreciated.
- Mission: Every day, we aim to foster an environment where all associates feel welcome, effectively collaborate, innovate, and engage with each other, and are supported with opportunities to thrive
- Associate Resource Groups: Through our Associate Resource Groups (ARGs), we aim to foster an environment where associates feel safe, valued, and welcome at work and can grow and thrive in their careers. To learn more about each of our seven ARGs, click here.
Prioritize transparency, accountability, and integrity with respect to environmental, social, and related governance matters.
Governance Policies
- Human Rights Statement
We’re committed to the protection and advancement of human rights and ensuring that our operations in all our regions function with integrity. Learn more - Responsible Procurement Principles
AvalonBay vendors and suppliers are expected to maintain, and also hold indirect suppliers accountable to support our Responsible Procurement Principles. Learn more - Sustainable Development Policy
We see building certification as a tool to support the design and construction of energy-efficient and sustainable communities. Learn more - Climate Risk Assessment and Resiliency Policy
A physical climate risk assessment must be completed for all new development pursuits when requesting approval to proceed beyond due diligence and for all new acquisitions. Contact esg@avalonbay.com to request a copy of this policy. - Biodiversity Risk and Opportunities Policy
This policy ensures we’re integrating biodiversity impacts into each of our projects. Learn more - Environmental Management System
Our publicly available Environmental Management System is aligned with ISO 14001 and is designed to guide our environmental sustainability efforts. Learn more
Recent Awards & Recognition
- Green Lease Leaders: Gold Landlord Award 2024
- Forbes: inclusion on inaugural Net Zero Leaders Top 100 list
- Human Rights Campaign: 2023-2024 Euality 100 — Leaders in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion
- Washington Business Journal: Greater Washington's Top 50 Corporate Philanthropy Award
- MSCI: "A" rating
- ISS ESG: Corporate Rating "Prime" Status
- ISS Sustainalytics: Regional and Industry Top Rated Company with a "Negligible Risk" score
