Mirvac’s ESG Evolution
Australian property is one of the world’s most ESG-mature sectors. The country has led the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) global rankings for eleven consecutive years, and the companies within it have built disclosure frameworks, emissions targets and governance structures that are regularly cited internationally as leading examples. Mirvac Group sits as one of those leading examples.
This article looks at what Mirvac has built on ESG over more than a decade, what its FY26 reporting tells us about where it stands today, and where there is still room to go further. We also place it in the context of its Australian property peers, which is important given how strong that field is.
‘This Changes Everything’ – A Strategy That Has Lasted and Kept Raising the Bar
Mirvac’s ESG strategy, known as “This Changes Everything,” was launched in 2014. It is now over a decade old and it is still operating, in its third iteration. That longevity is unusual in corporate ESG, where strategies can be frequently refreshed, rebranded or quietly replaced when the original targets prove difficult to achieve.
What makes the Mirvac story particularly instructive is not just that the strategy has lasted, but how it has evolved. Each refresh has added new commitments, raised existing targets, and in several cases responded to achievements made ahead of schedule by setting harder goals. That pattern of progressive ambition is what distinguishes the strategy from the kind of defensive, comfortable target-setting that may characterise others.
“This Changes Everything” and its long legacy shows internal adoption. When one of our team members studied the strategy at the University of Sydney, it was already being used as an optimal practice case study. What makes a strategy last is not its design but its adoption, and Mirvac’s experience suggests that when ESG is integrated into how a company operates day to day rather than managed as a parallel function, it tends to stick.
Version 1 (2014) – Setting the Environmental Foundation
The first iteration of the strategy set the foundational environmental targets: net positive carbon and water by 2030, zero waste to landfill by 2030, and a commitment to delivering high-performance green buildings. The targets were ambitious for 2014, when mandatory sustainability reporting did not exist and most property companies were still treating environmental performance as a voluntary add-on.
Mirvac achieved many of these goals. They managed the first building in Australia to achieve 6 Star Green Star Performance, 6 Star NABERS Energy and 6 Star NABERS Water ratings simultaneously, without the use of green power. Carbon intensity was reduced by 26% and water intensity by 25% from the 2014 baseline. Construction waste recycling reached 95-96% across the development pipeline. Mirvac also prototyped what it called the world’s first “House with No Bills” which is a catchy name for a residential home designed to run entirely on renewable energy and generate no utility costs for occupants. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index named Mirvac the world’s most sustainable real estate company in 2017.
Version 2 (2018) – Expanding the Social Dimension
The 2018 refresh was an expansion of the strategy’s scope rather than a reset of its direction. Having made strong progress on the environmental targets from Version 1, Mirvac turned significant attention to social impact and social items.
The refresh added a commitment to triple community investment by 2022, which was a target that was met three years early, reflecting how quickly the internal capability and culture had developed around ESG delivery. The $100 million social procurement target was introduced at this stage, directing spending toward social enterprises, Indigenous businesses, B-Corps and charities. Mirvac also implemented its first Reconciliation Action Plan during this period, formalising its commitment to Indigenous engagement across its operations and development activity.
The single most significant milestone of this period came in 2021, when Mirvac became the first property company in Australia to achieve net positive carbon across Scope 1 and 2 emissions. This was achieved a full nine years ahead of its 2030 target for those scopes. Rather than treating this as mission accomplished, Mirvac used the achievement as the foundation for a harder commitment in the next iteration.
Version 3 (2022) – Extending to Scope 3 and the Full Value Chain
Refreshed in 2022, Mirvac extended the net positive carbon commitment to include Scope 3 emissions which for them means the full value chain, encompassing suppliers, construction activity, tenant energy use and all other indirect emissions that Mirvac influences but does not directly control. This is significantly harder than the Scope 1 and 2 target it had already achieved, and reflects a deliberate decision to move into territory where the pathway is less certain and the dependency on third parties is much greater.
Additional commitments under Version 3 include a target of at least $50 million in community belonging investment by 2025, expanded biodiversity commitments including the preservation and replanting of 54 mature native plants from the Highforest project at 55 Pitt Street in Sydney, and the submission of a Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) target aligning Mirvac’s emissions pathway with a 1.5°C trajectory. A new strategic focus on Scope 3 scenario planning was also introduced, helping Mirvac model how different warming trajectories affect its assets and development pipeline.
What Has Been Completed and What Is Ongoing
A useful way to assess the credibility of any long-running sustainability strategy is to look at what has been completed versus what is still in progress.
Achieved or completed: net positive carbon on Scope 1 and 2 (achieved 2021, nine years ahead of target), tripling community investment by 2022 (achieved three years early), 96% construction waste diversion, Australia’s first building with simultaneous 6 Star Green Star, NABERS Energy and NABERS Water ratings, the House with No Bills prototype, and the first Reconciliation Action Plan.
Still in progress toward 2030: net positive carbon on Scope 3 (the hardest target given the complexity of supply chain and tenant emissions), net positive water, zero operational waste to landfill (currently at 64%, which lags the construction figure considerably), and the full $100 million social procurement target (at $15.3 million directed to social enterprises in FY25, progress is steady but the target remains substantial).
The pattern across all three iterations is consistent: Mirvac sets targets that stretch beyond what is comfortable, achieves some of them ahead of schedule, and then raises the bar rather than resting on those achievements. That is a rare quality in corporate ESG.
The FY26 Results
On climate and energy, Mirvac has maintained a 5.3-star National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) average energy rating across its office portfolio which is one of the strongest in the sector. Energy intensity has reduced by 18% since FY19 across the office and retail portfolio. 74% of investment properties carry a third-party verified green certification, and the company has submitted its SBTi target, aligning its emissions pathway with a 1.5°C trajectory.
On waste, 96% of construction waste is being diverted from landfill which is a figure that reflects both the scale of Mirvac’s development activity and the rigour of its waste management processes. Operational waste diversion sits at 64%, which lags the construction figure and is an area where further improvement is being pursued.
On social impact, Mirvac directed $15.3 million of procurement spend to social enterprises in FY25, working toward its $100 million social procurement target. It has completed its sixth Modern Slavery Statement and achieved a 5 Gold Star Independent Construction Industry Rating Tool (iCIRT) rating for the third consecutive year.
On ESG ratings, Mirvac holds an MSCI ESG rating of AAA (the highest category) and a PRI Confidence Building Measures score of 5 stars. ESG factors contribute directly to management’s short-term incentive (STI) outcomes through a 95% ESG scorecard performance result.
The FY26 AASB S2 Report
Mirvac’s FY26 climate-related financial disclosures were prepared in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards Board Standard S2 (AASB S2) Climate-related Disclosures and the Corporations Act 2001. PwC provided limited assurance over select environmental and social data and the climate-related financial disclosures, covering the full 12 months to 30 June 2026.
The decision to obtain limited assurance from the outset is significant. It signals that Mirvac is sufficiently comfortable with its data, processes and internal controls to subject them to external scrutiny from the first year of mandatory reporting. Many companies have approached the assurance requirement cautiously in the early years, limiting scope or focusing assurance narrowly on emissions data. Mirvac’s broader assurance coverage sets a standard for what early adoption of the regime can look like when an organisation has genuinely prepared.
The inclusion of ESG factors in management’s short-term incentive outcomes is another strong feature. Linking remuneration to ESG performance is one of the governance practices that reviewers of early AASB S2 reports found to be inconsistent across the market, present in roughly half of Group 1 reports. Mirvac’s approach on this has been in place for several years, which means the incentive structure is embedded rather than newly introduced to satisfy a disclosure requirement.
One area where the FY26 report, like most early AASB S2 reports in the property sector, remains relatively light is the specific financial quantification of climate risk impacts on assets, revenue and capital allocation. This is genuinely difficult territory. Quantifying how a 2°C or 4°C warming scenario translates into changes in asset valuation, rental income or capital expenditure requires modelling assumptions that are both technically complex and commercially sensitive. Most reporters have approached this with qualitative ranges rather than specific numbers, and Mirvac’s disclosure reflects that market-wide pattern. It is an area to watch as reporting matures and investor expectations around financial quantification become more explicit.
How Mirvac Compares to Its Property Peers
The Australian property sector as a whole is in strong shape on ESG. The sector has led the GRESB global real estate rankings for eleven years, and the Australian market regularly produces examples that are showcased on a worldwide scale.
Dexus and three of its funds maintained 5-Star GRESB ratings in FY26, with five funds ranking in the top five in Australia for their respective categories. Dexus has also maintained net zero emissions across Scope 1 and 2 through its climate transition action plan. Stockland was previously ranked first globally among listed companies in its GRESB category, and GPT, Charter Hall and Goodman Group all produce detailed and well-regarded sustainability reporting.
Within this strong field, Mirvac’s FY26 report sits comfortably in the top three of what has been released in the sector to date. The combination of a decade-long integrated strategy across three progressive iterations, assurance coverage from the first year of mandatory reporting, remuneration linkage, an MSCI AAA rating and consistently strong NABERS performance makes for a disclosure that is genuinely substantive rather than compliance-driven.
Our View
What Mirvac demonstrates is what ESG integration looks like when it has had time to mature. The three iterations of “This Changes Everything” tell that story clearly. Version 1 set ambitious environmental targets and met several of them early. Version 2 expanded into social impact and met the community investment target three years ahead of schedule. Version 3 extended the net positive carbon ambition to Scope 3, the harder, messier, less controllable part of the emissions picture, rather than declaring victory on Scopes 1 and 2 alone.
That pattern of progressive ambition is what distinguishes Mirvac from the many organisations that set a sustainability target, report against it annually, and resist stretching further when it looks achievable. The 2021 Scope 1 and 2 net positive carbon milestone, reached nine years ahead of target, could have been presented as mission accomplished. Instead it became the launchpad for the Scope 3 commitment.
We have been particularly impressed to see Mirvac obtain limited assurance over its AASB S2 disclosures from the outset. That decision signals confidence in the data and the process behind it, and sets a standard for how committed organisations can approach the assurance requirement. The inclusion of ESG performance in management’s short-term incentive outcomes reinforces the same message: outcomes follow when accountability is built into compensation structures.
The area where more progress would be welcome is the financial quantification of climate risk. We understand why it is difficult as the numbers involve estimates, and disclosing a specific figure about climate-related asset risk is a signal to the market that management teams are understandably cautious about. But as AASB S2 reporting matures and investor expectations become more specific, the gap between qualitative scenario analysis and quantified financial impact will narrow. Mirvac’s strong foundation, and its track record of progressive ambition, puts it in a good position to lead that next step as well.
Sources
- Mirvac Group, FY26 Annual Report, approved 19 August 2026, mirvac.com
- Mirvac Group, FY26 ESG Analyst Toolkit, mirvac.com/sustainability/our-performance
- Mirvac Group, Our Legacy — This Changes Everything, mirvac.com/about/our-legacy
- Mirvac Group, Net Positive Carbon by 2030: An Update on Mirvac’s Approach, June 2025, mirvac.com
- Mirvac Group, 1H26 Results Presentation, 18 February 2026, mirvac.com
- Mirvac Group, This Changes Everything Strategy refresh, 2022, mirvac.com/sustainability/our-strategy/overview
- PwC Australia, FY26 ESG Analyst Toolkit Assurance Opinion, mirvac.com/sustainability/our-performance
- GRESB, Real Estate Results 2025, gresb.com
- AIM2Flourish, This Changes Everything — Mirvac, aim2flourish.com
- The Fifth Estate, Now Everybody Cares: Mirvac Raises the Bar Again, September 2025, thefifthestate.com.au
- BTR News Australia, Mirvac Set to Extend Sustainability Strategy, October 2023, btrnews.au
- Dexus Group, 1H26 Results Announcement, 18 February 2026, dexus.com
- Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Corporate Net-Zero Standard, sciencebasedtargets.org
Anabranch ESG Advisory provides independent advice on ESG strategy, climate disclosure, and sustainability reporting. The information in this article is general in nature and does not constitute legal or financial advice.
