Borrowings under our credit facilities are at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. In the past year, inflation and other factors have resulted in an increase in interest rates generally, which has impacted our borrowing costs. If interest rates were to continue to increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness referred to above would increase even if the principal amount borrowed remained the same, and our net income and cash flows will correspondingly decrease. We are also currently party to, and in the future, we may enter into additional, interest rate swaps that involve the exchange of floating for fixed rate interest payments, in order to reduce interest rate volatility. However, we may not maintain interest rate swaps with respect to all of our variable rate indebtedness, and any swaps we enter into may not fully mitigate our interest rate risk.
In addition, our credit facilities reference the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) as the primary benchmark rate for our variable rate indebtedness. SOFR is a relatively new reference rate and with a limited history, and changes in SOFR have, on occasion, been more volatile than changes in other benchmark or market rates. As a result, the amount of interest we may pay on our variable rate indebtedness is difficult to predict.
We have also included sustainability-linked key performance indicators ("KPIs") in our credit facilities and certain of our senior notes, with KPI targets that include improving gender diversity and, in the case of the senior notes, reducing GHG emissions. Failure to achieve such targets could result in an interest rate step up on the debt, which would cause an increase in our debt payment obligations and could negatively impact our reputation.