For the Environment
Maintaining High-Performance Offices
Sustainability measures implemented across our offices and operations support the business by providing our colleagues with healthy spaces where they can thrive. Our approach to environment, health and safety is built on collaboration with colleagues and business partners. As MetLife grows globally, we have instituted green leasing guidelines for new spaces to align with our high-performance office strategy. We prioritize using sustainable materials in our buildings, providing high levels of indoor air quality and natural light and offering amenities such as bike storage, healthy dining options and sit-stand desks.
To support the health and well-being of our employees, we strive for 40% of our global offices’ square footage being certified to green or healthy building standards by 2030. These standards include LEED, ENERGY STAR®, Fitwel, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) and other sustainable building certification programs.
In addition to MetLife office spaces, properties managed by MetLife Investment Management, LLC and certain of its affiliates (MIM) strive for green and healthy building standards.
We aim to both minimize our consumption of water, plastics, paper and other natural resources and reduce the volume of waste, including e-waste, that is sent to landfills. In the U.S., our dining and catering services do not provide plastic bottles, cutlery or other containers.
We are actively addressing food waste by collaborating with local food pantries and food recovery organizations across seven U.S. cities to donate surplus food from our cafeterias. Eight offices compost food waste generated during food preparation, and three of these sites have introduced employee composting programs to collect food scraps, compostable cutlery and containers. MetLife's Global Event Operations team prioritizes waste reduction through paperless conferences, local sourcing and eco-friendly alternatives.
For more than a decade, MetLife has implemented a robust e-waste program focused on standard corporate assets such as laptops, servers, network equipment, peripherals, monitors and cellphones. Our first priority is to return these assets to their original suppliers. In instances where this is not feasible, we collaborate with specialized suppliers to refurbish, reuse and recycle these items responsibly.
Global Offices Showcase Healthy Workspaces in Action
MetLife is investing in the vitality of our offices, equipping facilities with the type of sustainability and well-being features that epitomize our purpose, and help us attract and retain the best talent.
Our recently renovated LEED–Gold1 certified office in Tampa, Florida boasts several environmental and wellness features, including: electric vehicle charging capacity; energy efficient design such as LED lighting and motion sensors; a food donation program; an outdoor walking trail; quarterly indoor air quality testing; and wellness and reflection rooms.
In 2024, the Nagasaki, Japan facility became the fifth MetLife office to achieve Fitwel certification, which is a collaborative initiative by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the General Service Administration aimed at promoting health and well-being in buildings and communities.
In Jaipur and Noida, India our offices demonstrate the effectiveness of our priority to work with landlords aligned with our purpose. The offices’ rainwater harvesting initiatives that treat and reuse water for flushing and garden watering are examples of environmental programs that contributed to their LEED Platinum and Gold certifications, respectively, for growing proportions of the sites’ footprints. Each location also features e-waste recycling, on-site solar panels and organic waste conversion.
