Being a flexible and pro-active landlord is even more important in the context of challenging financial conditions. In 2009, we reduced tenants' operational costs by lowering service charges by an average 6% - but reaching 11% in some cases - in all our centres in Portugal and Spain from 1 January 2009 onwards. The biggest contributor to this was the decrease in service charges made possible by reducing energy costs, cleaning, security and maintenance services and marketing activities. At Parque Principado, we were able to reduce the shopping centre operations budget by 11% in comparison with the previous year and maintain this reduction through 2010. We received positive feedback from tenants, who recognised that the shopping centre had had to make difficult decisions in order to achieve the cost savings needed to help them through the difficult times.

To read more about how we engaged with our tenants, promote tenant satisfaction and encouraged tenants to adopt responsible practices in 2010, see the Tenants chapter of our CR Report 2010.

Since 2008, we have been monitoring the performance of our main suppliers against a range of social, ethical and environmental criteria through our CR Questionnaire. We work with suppliers that do not meet our minimum requirements, and help them to improve their sustainability credentials.

We also collaborate closely with our suppliers on specific issues relating to Safety, Health and Environment through procedures such as the Safe Practice Index and Safety Preventive Observations), our Environmental Management System (EMS) and Environmental Standards for Retail Development.

To read more about how we engaged with our suppliers and how we encourage them to adopt responsible practices in 2010, see the Suppliers chapter of our CR Report 2010.

We encourage staff participation through several programmes promoted by our Innovation Office, which develops and co-ordinates a range of activities to stimulate innovation across the company. These include Explore, a company-wide on-line platform for all employees to present business improvement ideas and suggestions to our senior management team and Challenges, a programme to identify solutions to key challenges which are identified by Sierra's senior management.

We also respond to concerns raised through our Employee Satisfaction Survey. For example, in 2010 we adopted two new policies promoting flexible work arrangements to address the concern about work life balance raised by our employees.

To read more about the measures we implemented in 2010 to promote employee satisfaction and engagement, see the Employees chapter of our CR Report 2010.

We engage with visitors in order to ensure that we provide a tenant mix, facilities and special events that are suited to their needs and interests. We undertake Mall Tracking surveys at our shopping centres every year or two years to help us understand our visitor's profile, their behaviour and requirements and we have a customer feedback system in place, called Customer Contact Management, to help us monitor and respond to visitors' suggestions and complaints.

Recently, we have begun to investigate shopping centre visitors' environmental behaviour and appetite for more environmentally sustainable products and services and we are beginning to offer these experiences to visitors focusing on concepts such as healthy eating.

In 2010, Sonae Sierra applied the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Global Water Tool to all sites in our operational and development portfolios. The Global Water Tool allows companies to map their water use and assess risks relative to their global operations by comparing a company's sites with water and sanitation data on a country and watershed basis. The findings of this analysis will enable us to channel resources to those sites that are most at risk from water scarcity, prioritising these for water efficiency actions and alternative water supply projects where possible.

Since 2007 we have rolled out Community Advisory Panels (CAPs) across our shopping centres and development projects to establish a communication platform with members of the community. CAPs are now in place at 55% of our operational shopping centres and two of our projects under construction. CAPs enable us to understand and respond to suggestions and concerns from community representatives. Examples of actions implemented as a result of the CAP discussions in 2010 included: an event to promote healthy eating at Münster Arkaden in Germany, a "mystery shopper" project at Boavista Shopping in Brazil and cultural workshops at Valecenter in Italy.

To read more about how we engaged with and supported local communities in 2010, see the Communities and Visitors chapter of our CR Report 2010.