CyrusOne’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts and successes continue to garner attention.

Nareit, an advocate for REIT-based real estate investment with policymakers and the global investment community, recently included CyrusOne among 32 case studies in its 2022 REIT Industry ESG Report. The case studies in the fourth annual report exemplify REIT leadership and ESG innovation from a variety of sectors and detail the REIT and publicly traded real estate industry’s ESG performance, according to Nareit.

“It is increasingly clear to REIT boards, REIT management, REIT shareholders and REIT stakeholders alike that a real estate enterprise’s total success over time comes about by advancing environmental stewardship, practicing social responsibility, and implementing good governance, among other important corporate pursuits,” said Steven A. Wechsler, Nareit president and CEO. “Notably, Nareit member companies took significant and tangible steps forward to address and advance their ESG practices over the past year.”

The report lauded CyrusOne’s creation of standardized training and risk management processes for alignment across its global operations focused on six core areas: leadership and worker participation; planning; support; operation; performance evaluation; and improvement.

Nareit cited CyrusOne’s Customer Safety Handbook, which clearly defines the expectations and requirements for operating within our facilities. It also sets acceptable practices in several areas, such as working near and around electrical wires and proper use of large equipment. Nareit said the handbook “has assisted in building trust and facilitating communication with its customers.”

Nareit noted CyrusOne provides employees with the necessary tools and trainings to reduce potential risks and hazards. It called out how we hired an additional member to our Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) team, which enabled us to ramp up employee training and programs. Specifically, Nareit praised our safe driving training program for the sales department, a golf cart operating safety program and footwear safety program.

The case study also noted our recently created Near Miss Reporting Process and Job Hazard Analysis Program, which created a website for employees to report risky situations before they cause harm. The COVID-19 pandemic magnified the program’s importance since corporate team members were on-site less often, which reduced the number of in-person safety checks.

CyrusOne also launched a Global Construction Safety Program, where we partner with third-party auditors to inspect active construction sites for compliance against health and safety requirements. In 2021, our networking summit for general contractors and their safety teams shared best practices and supported each other’s efforts to learn and grow their own processes.

The impact of these safety efforts was impressive – in 2020, we achieved a TRIR (total recordable incident rate) that was 88% below the industry average and a DART rate (days away, restricted, or transferred) of 0 where the industry average is 1.4 per 100 employees. This has helped CyrusOne garner high productivity and employee morale, low injury rates, low worker’s compensation costs and low average cost-of-injury for team members.

“Our Health and Safety programs truly give our employees the skills and knowledge needed to proactively prevent harm and deliver on our safety commitments,” said Kyle Myers, CyrusOne head of Global Environmental, Health, Safety & Sustainability.

For more on our ESG mission, read our 2022 Sustainability Report.

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