Sustainability

Renovations offer an opportunity to install energy-efficient fixtures and appliances in our existing portfolio. As an example, we install a variety of low-flow plumbing fixtures to save on water consumption. We also use durable materials such as granite countertops and luxury vinyl plank flooring.  The carpet products we use are manufactured using recyclable bottles as the primary material.  Since 2018, through the installation of flooring made of recycled materials in many of our homes, we saved more than 100 million plastic bottles from landfills.  Laid end-to-end, these bottles would stretch more than 12,000 miles — approximately half the distance around the planet, and almost twice the distance around the moon.

Our ProCare service helps us proactively identify home performance improvement opportunities that can prevent larger issues from occurring later.  Through this program, we proactively engage with each home and each resident multiple times annually, ensuring that we can make any tune-ups needed to maintain the home to our standards. 

Move-In Orientation – We perform a comprehensive multi-point inspection and updates to each home so it’s in top shape for our residents when they move in. We walk through the house with residents and explain its systems, from how to change the air filters to adjusting the thermostat for optimal use.  This is an opportunity to show residents how to run their systems as efficiently as possible.

45-day follow-up– Once our residents are settled in, we return about 45 days later to make sure everything is working just as it should. This allows us an opportunity to fix any issues before they result in bigger problems.  We address any resident concerns, answer questions, and point out actions residents can take to help proactively maintain the home in a resourceful manner. 

6-month checkup– To stay on top ofour homes’ maintenance needs, we schedule a checkup every six months. We focus on catching small issues early to prevent bigger problems later. On each visit, one of our technicians will check the home’s plumbing, appliances, and cooling and heating system, as well as inspect the structure and safety of each home. 

Our Smart Home technology is a service that helps our residents manage access to their homes and save up to 15% on their energy bills. With our Smart Home features, residents can remotely lock and unlock the front door, control the thermostat, and receive notifications about their home – all virtually. In some locations, we offer video doorbell capability, which provides an extra measure of safety and security for our residents. 

Our Smart Home features also allow us to control thermostats in vacant homes, so we can keep the temperature at a more energy-efficient setting and reduce energy consumption in between leases.  If a vendor lowers or raises the temperature while working in a vacant home, the thermostat will reset back to the default schedule every hour to maintain optimum energy efficiency. 

Our long-term target is to have 100% of the homes in our Same Store portfolio equipped with Smart Home capability.  To get there, we are installing Smart Home technology in all newly acquired homes and on all turns of existing homes if the technology is not already in place. 

We recognize that the effects of climate change put some of our markets at risk for natural disasters, including but not limited to: tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and wildfires.  Our internal risk management team works with multiple third-party administrators to increase our bandwidth to respond quickly and efficiently to various natural disasters.  Partnering with multiple vendors allows us to split claims geographically, optimizing how we respond to resident issues and resulting in quicker repairs so that our residents may continue to safely inhabit their home after the disaster. 

As the climate continues to change, and with a portfolio located in a variety of U.S. markets that include coastal areas, we recognize the increased likelihood of acute weather events and other climate-related impacts to our business, operations, and homes.  We take a proactive approach to protect our properties against potential risks related to climate change and business interruptions, and we recognize that we must continue to adapt our policies, objectives, and processes to improve the resiliency of our physical properties and our business. 

When evaluating properties for acquisition, we consider physical risks such as the potential for flooding, wildfires, and other natural disasters.  We further improve the resilience of owned homes by evaluating durability and renovating homes to better equip them to withstand extreme weather when appropriate.  We also carry insurance for all of our properties against natural hazards such as flood, wind, fire, earthquake, and other catastrophic weather events subject to deductibles and co-insurance. 

Invitation Homes also takes a proactive approach to improving the environmental footprint of our portfolio.  We recognize that one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions is the production of materials used in construction projects.  At Invitation Homes, our core business is acquiring existing homes and improving them for our future residents.  Our improvements help reduce the emission of carbon from the use of the homes, as well as water consumption.  Examples of these improvements include: 

• Upon acquisition, we ensure that homes have appropriate insulation and windows. 

• Where possible, we install new, energy-efficient appliances and use energy-efficient materials. 

• We install hard surface materials for flooring and countertops that last longer and are more aesthetically pleasing. 

• We equip our homes with remote programmable Smart Home thermostats that allow our residents to carefully monitor and run their heating and cooling more efficiently. 

• When a home is vacant, our Smart Home technology enables us to monitor and control home temperatures remotely to significantly lower energy usage. 

• We provide an HVAC filter delivery program to help residents improve the efficiency of their heating and air conditioning systems. 

• We install water-saving landscaping designs in arid locations. 

• We educate new residents on how to properly use their homes in an energy-efficient manner. 

We take our responsibility around carbon emissions very seriously and continue to look for ways to lower the level of emissions from our homes. 

Our portfolio resilience efforts are a critical component of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), which includes business continuity, crisis response, and risk management.  Invitation Homes’ Audit Committee of the Board of Directors is responsible for overseeing the company’s ERM strategy and performance.  Invitation Homes’ ESG Task Force also helps coordinate climate-related portfolio resilience efforts.  Our Risk Management team, in collaboration with other Company departments, runs business continuity planning and reports to the Chief Legal Officer and Chief Executive Officer on this matter on a regular basis.  Additionally, our Operations and Rehab, Turn & Maintenance teams are responsible for executing the processes and procedures for disaster preparedness and response, including in cases of extreme weather events, public health crises, and security threats.  Our processes and procedures for such events are documented and reviewed on a regular basis with teams in each of Invitation Homes’ markets.  The Risk Management team is responsible for evaluating insurance-based risks and reports to our Chief Legal Officer.  Invitation Homes appoints top executives as sponsors to promote the development and implementation of our Business Continuity Plans. 

In addition, Invitation Homes is an investor in Fifth Wall’s Climate Technology Fund.  The Climate Technology Fund invests in technologies that address decarbonization across all stages of and asset classes within the global real estate ecosystem, including materials, construction, operations, and revitalization. 

Invitation Homes also believes in the recommendations of the external Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures, and we plan to seek opportunities to implement their recommendations into our reporting in the future.