2025 Highwoods Corporate Resiliency Report | ESG, Sustainability & Real Estate Performance - Flipbook - Page 5
Challenge, highlighting our portfolio-wide energy intensity
reductions over the last decade.
• Strengthened Resilience: In response to evolving market
risks, we continued to strengthen our resiliency strategy
through our Resilience Assessment process and made
strategic investments to protect critical infrastructure against
physical climate risk at assets in Tampa and Orlando.
Our ongoing commitment to portfolio resiliency and
sustainability earned us industry recognition:
• We achieved a GRESB Green Star rating for the sixth
consecutive year.
• We earned recognition from industry leading
frameworks, including:
– Sustainalytics: Ranked as “Low ESG Risk Profile”
– ISS: Earned the highest ISS Governance Quality Score
of 1 and earned an ESG Prime Badge.
• We achieved LEED and Fitwel certifications for all new,
wholly owned developments.
• We achieved ENERGY STAR certifications for almost twothirds of our square footage, which accounts for over
70% of our annual revenue.
We believe that the well-being of our teammates, customers
and communities is the foundation of our success. Our
“Heart of Highwoods” program remains central to our
people strategy. We are focused on expanding the health
and well-being services, advancing diversity and inclusion
and deepening connections with our communities. To
ensure our customers truly thrive, our Customer Experience
Team has continued to elevate the Highwoods Customer
Journey initiative, creating more collaborative and rewarding
environments for every professional in our buildings.
We also took decisive action to strengthen our culture
of connection:
• Onboarding Ambassador Program: Launched in 2025,
this program supports new teammates during their first two
months at Highwoods and helps create an immediate sense
of connection within the company.
• REALM Mentorship Program: We welcomed our third class
of 24 participants continuing our investment in professional
development through peer-driven mentoring.
• Cigna’s Gold Level Healthy Workforce Designation: We
received Cigna’s Gold Level Healthy Workforce Designation
for the third year in a row, improving our recognition from
Silver in 2022 and underscoring our sustained commitment
to teammate well-being.
• Community Engagement: We supported over 55 non-profit
organizations through our Heart of Highwoods initiative and
provided additional volunteer time off for our teammates.
• #BetterTogether Initiative: We continued to enhance the
customer experience by organizing collaborative customer
events across our markets.
The success of Highwoods is a direct reflection of the dedication
of our team. Our ongoing commitment to our core values,
strategic vision and resiliency strategy enabled us to successfully
deliver a transformative year and position our organization for
future sustained growth.
Ted Klinck
President and Chief Executive Officer
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