Overview
Empire State Realty Trust believes that sound corporate governance is at the heart of any successful company, and integration of effective governance initiatives strengthens both our company and our sustainability program.
Board and Management Oversight
As Sustainability is a critical part of our business strategy, our entire Board has responsibility for Sustainability oversight. Recognizing the significance, attention and focus that Sustainability strategy requires, our Board has delegated specific Sustainability responsibilities to each of its committees as specified in the committee charters.
Our comprehensive, all-department approach to Sustainability is supported by the employee-led Sustainability Committee, led by our SVP, Director of Energy, Sustainability and Sustainability, and executed by the property management teams across our portfolio. The Sustainability Committee meets quarterly, and the standing members include our include our Chairman and CEO, President, CFO, Director of Leasing, property construction and operations executives and members of the legal, marketing and investor relations teams. The committee’s agenda has evolved over time to reflect our company’s proactive leadership and commitment to results.
Risk Management
A key part of ESRT‘s business and Sustainability decision-making is to maintain an effective risk oversight process to enable the Board to monitor, evaluate and take action with respect to the company’s most important short-term, medium-term and long-term business risks. Our senior management team is responsible for the day-to-day management of enterprise risks and manages the company’s Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) program. As part of the ERM program and committee oversight responsibilities under the committee charters, management provides regular updates to the Board and relevant committees.
Disclosure Frameworks & Industry Alignment
Transparency is a key component of ESRT’s governance and accountability procedures, as it informs our stakeholders of our actions and their results. We utilize internationally recognized disclosure frameworks – which include GRESB, GRI, TCFD, UN Global Compact, and SASB – as a part of our strategy to ensure full transparency and accurate reporting.
Board Diversity
The Board seeks diverse composition in terms of race, gender, age, and experience. We have added four new independent directors since 2017, three of whom are diverse in gender, race, and/or ethnicity. The Board codified in our Corporate Governance Guidelines that it would seek to include highly qualified candidates with a diversity of race, ethnicity, and gender in each Board nominee candidate pool. The Board evaluates the effectiveness of its director diversity efforts through its annual self-evaluation process and on an ongoing basis through its director candidate search processes led by the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
Business Conduct & Ethics
Our Board has adopted a Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which applies to our directors, officers, and employees and is reviewed and overseen by our Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. We train our employees on the Code and provide additional compliance training annually.
