Simon Property Group Public Disclosure Reporting

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Business Challenge:

Simon Properties Group (Simon) wanted to fully quantify and report its GHG emissions for 2003-2008. While significant energy efficiency initiatives had been in place since 2003, Simon wanted to report its full GHG footprint for the first time in the Carbon Disclosure Project’s fifth report (CDP5 in 2007). Since that time, it has also reported to CDP6 and CDP7.

Our Approach:

• Because Simon is the owner of many shopping malls, CCC worked to clearly define boundary conditions in accordance with the GHG Protocol to insure emissions ownership between landlord and tenants was evaluated properly.
• ClearCarbon reviewed GHG data through an extensive quality assurance process.
• With a project schedule of only two months, CCC was able to process all scope 1 and scope 2 emissions data for electricity, on-site fuel, fleet, and scope 3 emissions for employee commuting and business travel.
• ClearCarbon established a location-specific baseline from which to track future emissions and identify mitigation options.
• The GHG inventory was SPG’s first and revealed an absolute reduction in carbon emissions between 2003-2008.
• ClearCarbon delivered a complete methodology document to provide transparency and also to document base year modifications for acquisitions.
• ClearCarbon has continued to calculate Simon’s corporate inventor and help report to the CDP annually.

Value Created:

In 2008 (CDP6), Simon was awarded a designation in the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index, with a score of 88. ClearCarbon inventoried all corporate GHG emissions in a complete, detailed, accurate, and transparent process to create the company’s GHG baseline in a manner that could be easily replicated and updated over the coming years. Using our information management skill sets, ClearCarbon was able to quickly and efficiently extract significant data components at a substantial cost savings over previous years. 

Project Staff

• Craig Strong
• Kyle Tanger